As dawn breaks this Sunday, November 6, London’s Hyde Park will be full of the sights, sounds and smells of the past, as everyone gets ready for the sunrise start of the annual Bonhams London-to-Brighton Veteran Car Run supported by Hiscox. From 6 a.m., more than 400 veteran cars — every single one built before 1905 — their drivers and their passengers (many in period costume) will be lining up to chug their way to Brighton. Within an hour they will begin setting off one-by-one for the coast.
Some of the nameplates represented — Renault, Peugeot, Daimler, Mercedes and Benz — will be familiar, but there should be plenty of long-forgotten marques there, too, names like Mors, De Dion Bouton, Colliot, Purtian and Milwaukee. The Run is the largest free-to-view motoring event in the world, with hundreds of thousands regularly lining the route to cheer on the intrepid teams. This year’s event marks the 130th anniversary of the world’s first automobile, the 1886 Benz Patent Motorwagen, giving the Run a German theme.
From Hyde Park, the veteran machines will head down Constitution Hill, past Buckingham Palace and onto The Mall, before turning right onto Horse Guards Road and then left onto Birdcage Walk toward Westminster Bridge. From there, they pass Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament — where, 120 years ago, the Locomotives on the Highway Act was passed. This raised the speed limit for “light locomotives” from 4 mph to 14 mph and abolished the need for the vehicles to be preceded by a man carrying a red flag. The passing of the Act was celebrated by the first “Emancipation Run” when 30 cars travelled from London to Brighton. It was held on November 14, 1896, the very day the Act came into effect.
Leaving London via the A23 through Lambeth, Norbury, Croydon and Redhill, the cars will head toward Crawley and the official halfway halt at Honda Gatwick, where they can be fettled and the intrepid motorists refreshed at the Harrods Stop. From Crawley the cars head over the Downs toward the finish at Brighton’s Madeira Drive, where the first cars are expected to arrive just after 10 a.m., continuing until the event officially closes at 4:30 p.m.
“Being part of this wonderful cavalcade these 400-plus veteran cars driving en masse from the capital to the coast is an incredibly special privilege,” said Peter Read, Chairman of the Royal Automobile Club’s Motoring Committee. “If you encounter us on these veterans on the road, though, please treat them with respect and remember that none of them has the braking efficiency of a modern car…”
The Run is just one element of the Royal Automobile Club’s London Motor Week — a seven-day celebration of motoring, that includes an art exhibition, motoring lectures, a motoring forum and a motoring book awards evening. The penultimate event in the week is the free-to-view Regent Street Motor Show, this Saturday, November 5, which turns London’s premier shopping street into a motoring showcase that spotlights veterans and moderns alike. For more details of the event please visit www.veterancarrun.com
