The Veteran Car Run to Brighton

It is quite incredible how much support the annual November pilgrimage from Hyde Park to Brighton continues to have, as veteran cars celebrate the original Emancipation Day journey of 1898, first re-enacted in 1927. It is for pre-1905 cars only, which must be one of the lasting attractions, now of World-wide participation, for otherwise why should well over 600 people rise with the miserable November dawn, to travel to a watering place better seen in the comfort of summer? This year’s Run, RAC / VCC organised, had 300 entries, plus 49 reserves! Only Police control prevented them all from going to the seaside on November 6th.

Over the years the social — and me, too — side has developed, of course. Thus, stars of stage and screen get seats or even drive, Gloria Hunniford for instance was on the RAC’s entry of a 1902 Beaufort, a car actually belonging to Mrs Lightfoot, and the Sears family took their nine-months-old great-grandson on the 1903 Clement-Talbot they have owned since 1936, for part of the distance. However, motoring enthusiasts also do the Run, like Reg Miles on an 1899 Benz bought new by his family, through whose hands it has been handed down along the years, although not used regularly after the 1914/18 war. It was in the “Genevieve” TV comedy, but more to the point has done every one of the re-enactment runs, only failing to get to the finish on five of them. Another well-used “Brighton” car is John Welch’s 1901 Decauville, that has now seen 32 of them, while John Dennis was driving again the 1902 Dennis built by his grandfather.

It was nice to see in the entry list such well-known names as John Bolster and his 1903 Panhard-Levasor, no doubt intent on his customary Kent-Sussex-Kent one-day outing, Nash on his late father’s 1900 Peugeot, Lord Montagu on a de Dion Bouton, the Coventry Museum’s 1899 Crowden, Alex Park on the 1899 Wolseley, Pilmore-Bedford in his Lanchester, the Shuttleworth Collection’s 1902 Peugeot, the VCC’s Wolseley of that year, the venerable NMM 1903 Dainder, Lord Strathcarron in the snug of his little Gordon-Richard coupe, Miss Hutton-Scott carrying on a long tradition with the family Lanchester, the astonishing Crier from the Nottingh. Industrial Museum, the AA’s 1904 Renault motor-carriage, Anne Shoosmith on a Mors and M. Tidy driving a D’Armes, among so many it is impossible to include. De Dios, predominated, with a total entry of 62, ty. Turner-Miesse and a couple of Whitngs steamed adjacently, and Vauxhall Motors ran a 1904 example of their own make. The statistics could be unending, all the cars of intense interest to students of automotive history and giving enjoyment to the vas, crowds to line the Brighton route. Many ladies were among the entrants. Daimler-Benz, too, think it worth bringing a number of the cars from their impeccable Museum in Stuttgart for the Run. Last year I went down with von Pies and drove the 1902 Benz. This year they ran an earlier Benz and the 1904 Mercedes that took part in 1982.

In the Mercedes Sixty with which Roger Collins has been first into Brighton, and which this year was conducted by young Amanda and Sally Collings, the latter only recently through her driving-test, is a very fast veteran and can be regarded as the forerunner of the sports car, by 1904 Mercedes were also making admirable touring cars, like the 28/32 hp Mercedes-Simplex they ran last year and on which I did this year’s Run. With the backing of the D-B mechanics, almost as if this was a Grand Prix, there was no reason to expect other than an easy trip to the sea, although it was impossible not to expel the thought of how much nicer would have been the journey on an afternoon in high summer than on a November morning…