More than 380 pioneering veteran cars dating back to very the dawn of motoring enjoyed unseasonably mild conditions to take part in this year’s Bonhams London to Brighton Veteran Car Run.
As tradition dictates, the 119th Anniversary Run set out from Hyde Park at day break and headed 60-miles south through a misty London and onto a sunny Sussex seafront. For only the third time in more than half a century, this year’s route took the intrepid participants – all driving pioneering cars from the pre-1905 era – past Buckingham Palace and down The Mall before heading past Big Ben and over Westminster Bridge. The capital’s early morning mist added to the period Victorian atmosphere.
The first few cars began to arrive on Maderia Drive shortly after 10am – the 1903 Berliet driven by John Bentley just pipping the 1904 Fiat of Dutchman Jan Bruijn to the honour of being first past the finishing post.
Among the others turning back the clock were Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason, renowned Formula 1 team principal Ross Brawn and multiple Le Mans winner Jochen Mass. They were joined en route to Brighton by three classic coaches driven by BBC Radio broadcasters Chris Evans, Alex Jones and Ken Bruce raising nearly £350,000 for BBC Children in Need thanks to the generosity of their 40 passengers.
Before the start Evans, Jones and Bruce were joined by Natalie Lowe from Strictly Come Dancing and Robert Brooks, Chairman of Bonhams, for the ceremonial tearing up of the red flag. The symbolic ritual harks back to the original Emancipation Run, held on 14 November 1896, which marked the milestone Locomotives on the Highway Act and raised the speed limit for ‘light locomotives’ from 4 to 14mph abolishing the need for a man walking ahead of the cars waving a red flag.
In total 342 of the starters managed to complete journey from Hyde Park to the Sussex coast before the 4.30pm deadline, thus receiving a coveted finisher medal.