More than 350 veteran cars set off from Hyde Park this weekend for the 2024 edition of the hallowed London to Brighton Veteran Car Run. 128 years on from the original Emancipation Run in 1896, this wonderful spectacle remains the longest-running motoring event on the calendar.
The 2024 event also marked the 120th anniversary of the Ladies’ Automobile Club, so the red flag was ripped – a symbolic traditionmarking the start to the event that dates back to the original run, when the Highways act abolished the need for a man with a red flag to walk ahead of a motor vehicle – by Joy Tacon and Queenie Louwman, both members of the Veteran Car Run Steering Group which supported many of the 50 or so female drivers on this year’s special celebration.
At the head of the pack was a set of 25 pre-1905 motor and pedal cycles, including the brave penny-farthing riders. These were of course followed at 7am on the dot by the first of the pre-1905 ‘horseless carriages’ flagged away by Duncan Wiltshire, Chairman of the Royal Automobile Club, and Councilor Robert Rigby, the Lord Mayor of Westminster.
The route passed through Wellington Arch, down Constitution Hill, past Buckingham Palace, Admiralty Arch and Whitehall, into Parliament Square and over Westminster Bridge, after which the route split into two in order to avoid traffic congestion in south London. Half followed the traditional A23 route via Kennington, Brixton and Streatham Common; the other half journeyed across Lambeth Bridge and then through Vauxhall, Clapham Common and Tooting. The two routes then merged on the A236 just north of Croydon. Then onto the South Downs and eventually the Madeira Drive seafront.
As always, vehicles were running in age order, giving the earlier cars the most time to reach Brighton. Leading the way this year was a single-cylinder 1894 Benz entered by Hermann Layher with a Velo body and propulsion from a single-cylinder, 1.5hp engine.
The early starters included the ever-popular Salvesen Steam Car and the legendary c1904 Fiat 130HP. The run attracted huge crowds along its entire route as usual, cheering and supporting the typically international participants. In total, more than 100 different marques were represented, ranging from Adler, Albion and Argyll to Waverley, Winton and Wolseley. A few, like Cadillac, Ford, Renault, Vauxhall and Mercedes-Benz, are still in business today, but most are long-defunct. One of the latter, De Dion Bouton, nonetheless boasted the biggest posse, with more than 50 entrants.
Maximising the dry weather, most of the starters completed the hallowed journey to Brighton well before the 4.30pm deadline, and so claimed a coveted finishers’ medal. Of the 369 starters, 325 made it to Madeira Drive in good time.
The first car to reach the Sussex seafront was the 1899 Panhard et Levassor of Shane Houilhan, the former factory team racing car completing the journey in just over three hours.
The RM Sotheby’s Veteran Car Run provided a fitting climax to the Royal Automobile Club’s busy London Motor Week, during which the Club presented a large array of functions and events. The penultimate one was the new free-to-view St James’s Motoring Spectacle staged on Pall Mall, making the perfect curtain-raiser to today’s grand finale.
