Le premier 'London-to-Brighton veteran car run' en novembre 1927 (pour véhicules de plus de trente ans)

The London to Brighton Veteran Car Run is the world's longest-running motoring event, held on a course between London () and

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

(), England. To qualify, participating cars must have been built before 1905. It is also the world's largest gathering of veteran cars. The first edition, "The Emancipation Run" in 1896, celebrated the recently passed Locomotives on Highways Act 1896, which liberalised motor vehicle laws in the United Kingdom. The run has taken place most years since its initial revival in 1927. It currently takes place on the first Sunday in November, starting at sunrise, about 7:00 AM, in Hyde Park, London, and mostly following the old A23 road to the finish at Brighton – a distance of . There are two official stops along the way:

Crawley Crawley () is a large town and borough in West Sussex, England. It is south of London, north of Brighton and Hove, and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Crawley covers an area of and had a population of 106,597 at the time of th ...

(for coffee) and Preston Park (in a suburb of Brighton). Preston Park is the official finishing point; the cars then proceed to Madeira Drive on the seafront, also the venue for Brighton's other big motoring event, the

Brighton Speed Trials The Brighton Speed Trials, in full The Brighton National Speed Trials, is commonly held to be the oldest running motor race. The first race was held 19–22 July 1905 after Sir Harry Preston persuaded Brighton town council to tarmac the surface ...

. The event is organised on behalf of the Royal Automobile Club, who emphasise that the event is not a race – they do not even publish the order in which cars finish, and participants are not permitted to exceed an average speed of . Any that finish (many do not) before 4:30 PM are awarded a medal. There are a few other events preceding the Veteran Car Run, such as the Motoring Forum, the Veteran Car Run Sale, a motor show, and a participant reception.

History

1896 Emancipation Run

The first run took place on 14 November 1896, a wet Saturday, Organised by Harry John Lawson, it was named "The Emancipation Run" as a celebration of the recently passed Locomotives on Highways Act 1896, which had replaced the restrictive

Locomotive Acts The Locomotive Acts (or Red Flag Acts) were a series of Acts of Parliament in the United Kingdom regulating the use of mechanically propelled vehicles on British public highways during the latter part of the 19th century. The first three, the Lo ...

of 1861, 1865 and 1878 and increased the speed limit to . Since 1878 the speed limit had been in the country and in the town and an escort had been required to walk ahead of the vehicle. The run was also the first meet of the Motor Car Club, of which Lawson was president. The event started with a breakfast at the

Charing Cross Hotel Charing Cross railway station (also known as London Charing Cross) is a central London railway terminus between the Strand and Hungerford Bridge in the City of Westminster. It is the terminus of the South Eastern Main Line to Dover via As ...

, which included the symbolic tearing in two by Lord Winchelsea of a red flag. It is sometimes claimed that the Emancipation Run celebrated the abandoning of the requirement for the escort to carry such a flag. However, the red flag requirement (from the 1865 act) had long since been removed by the 1878 act. The competitors gathered outside the Metropole Hotel (now theCorinthia Hotel London), with the cars accompanied by a "flying escort" – estimated by one witness as "probably 10,000" – of pedal cyclists, recreational cycling having become popular with the English in the final decades of the 19th century. A total of 33 motorists set off from London for the coast and 17 arrived in Brighton. The first of the cars set off from London at 10:30 am and the first arrival in Brighton, by a Duryea Motor Wagon, beating the next closest Brighton arrivals by more than an hour. Two Duryea cars participated in the run, marking the first appearance of American motor vehicles in Europe.

Subsequent runs

During the next few years, Commemoration Run took place between

Whitehall Place Whitehall is a road and area in the City of Westminster, Central London. The road forms the first part of the A3212 road from Trafalgar Square to Chelsea. It is the main thoroughfare running south from Trafalgar Square towards Parliament Squar ...

and Sheen House Club covering the distance of about . The London to Brighton run was not staged again until 1927. Since then it has run annually, except from the onset of the Second World War up to 1947 owing to petrol rationing, and in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With all this considered, it is the world's longest running motoring event. Since 1930, the event has been controlled by the Royal Automobile Club (RAC).

Participants

De Dion-Bouton Veteran Car on London to Brighton Run 2005

Many racing drivers and celebrities have taken part in the event, including Richard Shuttleworth (1928–1934; 1936–1938), S. C. H. "Sammy" Davis, Sir

Malcolm Campbell Major Sir Malcolm Campbell (11 March 1885 – 31 December 1948) was a British racing motorist and motoring journalist. He gained the world speed record on land and on water at various times, using vehicles called ''Blue Bird'', including a 1 ...

, Prince Bira, George Eyston,

Richard Seaman Richard John Beattie Seaman (4 February 1913 – 25 June 1939) was a British Grand Prix racing driver. He drove for the Mercedes-Benz team from 1937 to 1939 in the Mercedes-Benz W125 and W154 cars, winning the 1938 German Grand Prix. He died o ...

, Kaye Don, George Formby,

Phil Hill Philip Toll Hill Jr. (April 20, 1927 – August 28, 2008) was an American automobile racing driver. He was one of two American drivers to win the Formula One World Drivers' Championship, and the only one who was born in the United States ( ...

Stirling Moss Sir Stirling Craufurd Moss (17 September 1929 – 12 April 2020) was a British Formula One racing driver. An inductee into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame, he won 212 of the 529 races he entered across several categories of comp ...

Jochen Mass Jochen Richard Mass (born 30 September 1946) is a German former racing driver. Life and career Born in Dorfen, Bavaria 50 km (31 mi) from Munich, Mass participated in 114 Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on 14 Jul ...

Nigel Mansell Nigel Ernest James Mansell, (; born 8 August 1953) is a British retired racing driver who won both the Formula One World Championship (1992) and the CART Indy Car World Series ( 1993). Mansell was the reigning F1 champion when he moved over ...

and Damon Hill The 72nd anniversary run took place in 1968 and was joined by celebrity participants Prince Rainier and

Princess Grace Grace Patricia Kelly (November 12, 1929 – September 14, 1982) was an American actress who, after starring in several significant films in the early to mid-1950s, became Princess of Monaco by marrying Prince Rainier III in April 1956. Kelly ...

of Monaco, in a 1903 De Dion-Bouton. That year Stirling Moss also participated, driving a 1903 four-cylinder

Mercedes Mercedes may refer to: People * Mercedes (name), a Spanish feminine name, including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or last name Automobile-related * Mercedes (marque), the pre-1926 brand name of German automobile m ...

. Some participants dress up in a late

Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literature ...

or Edwardian style of clothing. In 1971 Queen Elizabeth II was a passenger in a 1900 Daimler. A regular participant is Prince Michael of Kent.

RAC Brighton to London Future Car Challenge

In 2010 the RAC launched the Brighton to London Future Car Challenge, following the same route as the veteran car run, but starting in Brighton and finishing at

Regent Street Regent Street is a major shopping street in the West End of London. It is named after George, the Prince Regent (later George IV) and was laid out under the direction of the architect John Nash and James Burton. It runs from Waterloo Place ...

, London – and taking place on the day prior to the veteran run. The event is intended to showcase low energy impact vehicles of various technologies – Electric, Hybrid and Low-Emission ICE (internal combustion engine). Participants compete to minimise energy consumption using "road legal" vehicles in "real world" conditions. The results of the inaugural 2010 event showed that the electric vehicles used the least energy ( on average, or petrol equivalent), compared to the hybrid vehicles ( average, petrol equivalent) and the largely diesel powered internal combustion engine vehicles ( average, petrol equivalent).

1896 results

The event was not organised as a race, but the general classification of the fastest finishers was:

In popular culture

*The 1953 comedy film '' Genevieve'' is set during one of these runs. *An episode of '' ChuckleVision'', "Wheels of Misfortune", first aired on 15 January 1997, is set during one of these runs.

Notes

References

External links

Official websiteLBVCR 2010 InformationCuckfield Companion's page about LBVCRSponsor Renault Sport's page about LBVCR1950s cine film
''(no sound)''
London to Brighton Veteran Car Run (LBVCR) flickr.com groupFuture Car Challenge websiteLBVCR Press Release relating to Historic Electric VehiclesA US version of the car run, from New London to New Brighton.
{{DEFAULTSORT:London To Brighton Veteran Car Run Brighton and Hove

Automotive events Recurring events established in 1896