Once upon a time the highland cruise scene was lacking something.... a scene! So 2 young very good looking guys with modified cars set about sorting out the problem.

12th September 2005

We set about building the site and learning the web coding necessary to make it all work properly before unveiling the forum with a Small but successful cruise in Fort William with Redline Magazine.



With the forum online and gaining members rapidly by the minute we suddenly had a hard lesson in web hosting when we managed to crash an entire web hosting company and took about 50 US based businesses with it. At this point we had over 160 members and were told 'if we switched it back on our files would be permanantly deleted' so it was a non goer!

1 week Later

We managed to sort out new web hosting and were able to re host our forum! to go with this we were on the case about building the website to go with it... unfotuantely people had to re register from scratch.

after a month of hassle free web building we decided it was time for another event... especially as we were almost ready to launch our new website alongside the forum.

19th November

'Remember remember the 19th November'



Inverness will. HC2 happened in Wickes car park in Inverness with 1 of the biggest turn outs for a cruise in the highlands things were looking good. While things were going on at the cruise, a good friend and also web builder was uploading our new site. Feeling rather smug that while everyone was enjoying the cruise our new site was being made live we thought people would go home and then discover the other half of the Highland Cruise website fresh to look at.... Not quite. Our new site had a major glitch in it which took everything off line for a day or so, but went back up fixed and working fine, so a slight false start from trying to be smart.

With HC now live and kicking at full belt on our new servers we thought we were sorted out!!

Around Christmas time 2005 HC was booming, with over 360 members and frequently over 100,000 hits daily we couldnt be more happier!

...and then the big bang took place...

There was a problem on our new server, with a bit of a miscommunication error our files were wiped.... as was the back up files.... bugger. all gone.



With a few sleepless nights and constant talks with our host owners it was definate it was gone for good, we both were on the verge of giving up the idea of reviving the Highland Cruise scene.

2nd week of january

Email Recieved: 'Your account has now been re activated and ready to use' Well once bitten, twice shy... sod it 3rd time lucky!! 4 solid days 2 of which involved no sleep Highland Cruise was alive... ALIVE I SAY!!

not fully functioning but it was back, with this idea in mind of starting a fresh, time was taken to make sure all the right updates were installed, all the features people asked for were built in, and it was done correctly.

within a week of solid programming once it was all online Highland Cruise looked like it used to, functioned a lot better than it used to and word was spreading of its resurrection quickly!! Seems we werent the only ones who wanted it to succeed.

within the 1st week of being back online over 100 users were back on site recruiting thier friends, and thier friends friends quicker than you can say 'Holy crap a jamaican on a bike, maaaaaaaaan' Users came flooding back, as did the information that was on the site, from loosing everything twice in succession we took note and started doing full backups of everything regularly.





With everything running smoothly time flew by and the show season started. Kicking off the 2006 show season Fast and Modified went to Bathgate for Street n strip. Since HC had aquired a few show cars in its recent months a few folk were talked into going down to the show. DJ Tiny's kitted slammed saxo and Nismo's Decked street racer styled Almera GTI headed to the show with 1 thing in mind.... to promote HC and show folks that it was back! With the cars parked up, the banner out and plenty of tom foolery to attract attention people certainly noticed Highland Cruise! To top off our 1st show appearence e walked away from the show with 'Best Club Stand' and a trophy for our efforts - Thanks to the guys for takin the cars down - that result was mor than we expected but 1 to be chuffed about



After our success in edinburgh and handing out a mass of stickers the word was definately on the street and new names started popping up fast! with the advertising theory ell under waywe decided it was time to capitalise on it and have some events.

Donny 2006

Being the biggest modified car show in the UK and the official start to the show season in the UK we attended Doncaster for the donny weekender. After an 11 hour drive in convoy with a fair few of HC's members new and old. We put on a display from the highlands ofsome stunning cars including Gordies Wide arched Dimma 106 fresh from the bodyshop, Paul's awesome Twin turbo Supra, We had, power , style and plenty of ice to put on show. All we can say about donny is 'jeeesus what a show!'
Even with 2 days solid we didnt get to see everything on display and were blown away by the oefforts of other people, definately got Ross and Sy thinking how to bring that to the highlands...
The Donny Party
Since we were a long way from home,we decided to let folk know about it and partied heavily into the night while all the other show goers got some kip.... Complete withthe 'No camp fires' sign we ended up with a bonfire made of crates, a mass of booze, 2 ICE'D saxos providing tunes our party certainly caused a stir and also attracted the 'Dirty Sanchez' Boys from MTV who joined our party!

A rther hungover sunday meant a long day with a long drive home but with a memorable weekend. With all the things that were seen notes were taken home and Ross and Sy got planning...



HC3 was organised alongside putting ourselves forward for the Fast Car X Rated league table...

6th May.... Cruising Day



After a lot of organisation with Fast Car, talks with Autoave and preying to the weatherman X Rated with Fast car could not have gone better! with our recent purchase of the HC Gazebo set up outside the shop. a Full PA system with Sy and DJ Tiny on the decks, the sun shined down upon the 15 highly modified cars that were put forward to represent HC against the Rest ofthe UK. with a large turnout of people and cars, a really good atmosphere and not forgetting 4 stunning HC Models the day was a total success with the fast car guys happy with the day.

Now when yu have that many modded motors in 1 place.... it'd be a shame not to abuse it so we all decided to have a slow convoy through the centre of inverness which caused a bit of a stir - think it got noticed tho!

After a quick bit of dinner courtesy of the ever famous Burger king we had already arranged a Cruise in Inverness at inshes retail park. We were hopeful for about half the car park as its pretty large so we were a bit shocked to find we had filled the entire car park!! Ding dang fooking dooo 1 of the largest cruises the highlands has had!
Fast Car left the cruise late into the night really happy with the day and nights proceedings. Following from this the press were also on the phone. within 4 months - HC had gone from nothing, toan award winning, multi magazine featured website which was gaining pace rapidly.
With the Ball well and truely rolling another event was hot on the cards with Ross n Sy already deep into the planning stages



HC4 with Fast And Modified

Forres was all set with lots of planning, mass of advertising to be massive.. slight problem - the cops didnt like it


with Forres entire selection of car parks closed and the best part of 300 modified rises about the place it was evident people were expecting a big night, backed up by hefty police presence. With a bit of quick thinking and phonecalls, the cruise was rescheduled to Elgin and the convoy was set.
After loosing a load of folk thru the unfortunate relocation, Elgin turned out to be an ok night altho a slight flop. The next event will be better thought through



Fast and Modified Show

Biggest scottish show in the calendar! We pulled out all the stops here to make an impression, with the benchmark set by Ednburgh Cruise we were confident we could do just as good. The money was spent, the efforts of everyone were called upon to produce a 13 car stand which had 2 cover cars, and 4 magazine featured cars amng the line up. The Gazebo was set up with a Full PA for some DJ Action through the day. With the sweltering heat of the day, we could se for ourselves we hada good chance of being on top with the other displays looking god but we felt we had justthat bit more... This was confirmed at the prizegiving with a large trophy for 'Best Clubstand 2006' Ross and Sy were delighted!!! Allyear this was the 1 they aimed for to make the impression to te scottish scene and now we had made it! We were on top of what we started out to do



With the 2006 season now basiaclly over - winter kicked in and the usual slump in the scene happened where everyone puts thier cars away to bed for the year and people go out on the piss instead. Ross and Sy decided to try and improve Highland cruise over the winter months so it was ready for 2007.

with a new forum update with more features in it than before things started well - emails were flying in with people hearing about highland cruise and wanting them at  thier shows which we kindly took upon as well as organising our own events. Within the first few months something in the scene didnt seem right... it wasnt as alive as it was the year before... had cruising had its day?

Ross and Sy went on regardless and organised thier 1st cruise of the year - it went well but not many highly modified cars - something was definately up here. The search began high and low to find cars for shows and after stopping cars in the street and speaking to folk when 1 was found... Finally highland cruise had the look it neded to go ahead and show scotland what the highlands has to offer.

4th June 2007

Elgin show and shine - 2006 Highland Cruise had a large part in this show, 2007 saw highland cruise have the largest display and also provided the venue's entertainment with Symondo, DJ Tiny and DJ Dan at the decks

With 19 cars on display it was no doubt a statistical sucess for highland cruise, being the month before the main event - Fast and Modified we used it as a trial run to finalise our cars and ideas - it was here we realised something definately wasnt right.

A negative response was shown to the Elgin show and shine, which was dissapointing dispite the effort that went into it, So we closed the book and looked towards 2 more larger shows.

 Loudon Castle Cars and Rides 2007

With a bit of hope after last years Bathgate show where we won - we had a 10 car stand and some hope to possibly win here too, An aweome sunny day, everyone was on time and suprisingly didnt actually get lost! With the select few that went finally a bit of cheer arose as everyone enjoyed thier day out and got sunburn, we were regarded as 1 of the main clubs but unfortunately no prizes. with this reported back home, people wished they had gone and mde it a better turn out for highland cruise - there was hope yet!

Fast and Modified Show 2007

The main event of the year for us. 15 Cars all primed ready to go on display, on time and yet again a lovely sunny day to do it! It was that time when Ross and Sy had decided this was it, the last 1 after months of aggervation. With this in mind 1 of our Regulars - Trotters had baked us a HC Cake which was enjoyed by the users at the show. Everyone gave it thier all - we had 4 DJ's, 4 Models, 15 Gleaming Modified cars, plus another highland cruise car in the top 50 with Dons Immaculate Saxo and the sunshine in our favour to help our cause. It just wanst enough as the home team took victory again.

With all this reported - more trouble kicked off as folk starting to point th finger at why things were going wrong, Ross n Sy's bow out was dented by this and cut short

highland cruise was then closed... for good.

With the site closed it was put up for sale with some initial interest but unfortunately no buyers. Months went by, the scene had died. Ross went off to concentrate on his career, Sy concentrated on his Music and it wasnt missed... so we thought. 3 Months down the line everybody i spoke to kep saying to 'bring it back' and 'it'd be different'  then 1 day Sy had enough of the nagging.

The Return

Sy bought Ross's share of the site and took on the mammoth task of bringing it back to life. After 2 weeks of removing parts of the site that wasnt needed, making new graphics, new website, adding content and generally updating the lot it was ready just before Christmas. 1600 people got the Christmas present they had been hinting for - Highland Cruise was Alive!

With the initial response to be positive and no trouble more items were developed into the site to make it not only a community but a place where everything you need thats related to the roads and cars we spend so much of our hard earned cash on.

2008

With the dawn of 2008 Highland cruise is now geared up and ready for the year, hopefully a good 1. Highland Cruise has decided to try and go for all once again and from the word go its focus has been to bring the scene back to the highlands like it once was. so far so good...

The Legend Lives on