CityMotoring
Fox dreams about a trip to Brighton
Ever since seeing the classic 1953 film, Genevieve, I have dreamt of a ride to Brighton as part of the Veteran Car Run. Preferably with Larry Adler playing his harmonica in the background.
Ronnie Fox, Past Master,
Motoring Correspondent
The Veteran Car Run is the world’s most enduring and important motoring celebration. The annual event attracts entrants from all over the globe. Only vehicles manufactured before 1905 are eligible. There is no shortage of entrants. This year over 500 automobiles were entered by the owners of these veteran vehicles keen to tackle the 60 mile run from Hyde Park in central London to Brighton on the Sussex coast. It is remarkable that the owners of these valuable cars prefer to demonstrate the capabilities of their valuable and fragile cars on the open road rather than preserving them safely under cover the whole year round.
This year 508 vehicles were listed in the programme, of which it seems 59 did not start and a further 77 did not finish. So the success rate was 73 per cent.
The Royal Automobile Club’s Veteran Car Run takes place on the first Sunday of every November and commemorates the Emancipation Run of 14 November 1896 which celebrated the passing into law of the Locomotives on the Highway Act. That Act raised the speed limit for ‘light locomotives’ from 4 mph to 14 mph and abolished the requirement for these vehicles to be preceded by a man on foot. Originally the man on foot had to carry a red flag but that requirement was actually abolished as long ago as 1878. However, the Locomotive Act was still widely known as the ‘Red Flag Act’ and a red flag was symbolically destroyed by Lord Winchilsea at the start of the Emancipation Run, just as it is today immediately before the start of the Run.
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The first formal re-enactment of the 1896 Run was staged in 1927 and organised by the motoring editor of the Daily Sketch. The Run has taken place every November thereafter, with the exception of the war years and 1947 when petrol rationing was in force. From 1930 to the present day the Run has been owned and professionally organised by the Royal Automobile Club.
Your faithful motoring correspondent and Ali Hussein (our trusty photographer and researcher) were up early on the morning of Sunday, 4 November to see off the cars. It was cold and very wet. We were particularly keen to see Genevieve herself, the Mors and the Simms cars owned by the Royal Automobile Club (carrying some of my fellow Board members) and the 1902 Peugeot recently acquired by my good friend, Chris van Essen. Amongst those taking part were Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason, Coronation Street actor Tony Hirst, and British racing driver Sir Stirling Moss.
The route runs from the start line in Hyde Park and goes down the A23, through Redhill in Surrey, to finish on Madeira Drive on the Brighton seafront. Chris reports that despite torrential rain virtually all the way from departure at 07:24 to arrival at 12.30 with just a couple of breaks, his little Peugeot performed beautifully with four on board, didn’t stall, didn’t need to stop at the side of the road for anything, and got up all the hills without any dismounting, pushing or other assistance.
In common with nearly all the vehicles in the Run, the 1902 Peugeot offers no weather protection to driver or passengers. Regardless of whether the sun shines (as it did in the film) or it pours with rain (as this year), everybody who participates in the Veteran Car Run always has a good time.
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