On 14th November 1896, the law requiring to wave a red flag in front of motor vehicles was abolished in the United Kingdom. At the same time, the speed limit was raised from… 4 to 14 MPH ! The happy eccentric pioneers drivers these funny motor cars decided to celebrate it by organising a trip between London and Brighton. Symbolically, a red rag was torn at the start of the run’s first edition, and the tradition continues to this day !
A symbol of freedom
To celebrate the law change, a journey was organised on Saturday 14th November 1896. It took place between the Metropole Hotel in London and its equivalent in Brighton, 60 miles away. 58 vehicles took part but just 13 or 14 made it to the finish line… it seems that one competitor cheated and used the train to get there, smearing his vehicle with mud just before the finish! The « Run » enjoyed some success until 1903 and then it was dropped till1927. Back then, some enthusiasts got things going again, getting back to the 1896 first edition roots. Since then, the race has been held every year, except between 1940 and 1945, in 1947 (fuel rationing) and… in 2020 because of the pandemic.
Many of the competitors come from all over Europe and the United States. More than a hundred brands take part : some disappeared a long time ago, while others are still very much alive like Ford, Renault or Cadillac. The start is at 7 a.m. sharp in Hyde Park, near Buckingham Palace. This year, the red rag was symbolically torn up by Ross Brawn, one of the great names in F1, and Ben Cussons, President of the RAC.
The nice weather was a bonus for the 341 drivers and their passengers, as well as the 27 motorcyclists and cyclists, all trying to reach Brighton and its palm trees before 4.30pm and get a commemorative medal! The first car there was a 1903 MMC that did it in less than… 3 hours, followed by 300 other competitors. Forty participants had to give up, unfortunately. However, this is not too bad, considering how old these vehicles are.
The Geneviève movie’s70th anniversary
2023 is also the seventieth anniversary of the « Geneviève » movie that was released in 1953. It depicts the rivalry between two friends taking part in the London Brighton and their crazy bet : who will be the first of the two to get back to London ? In the film, Geneviève is a 1901 Darracq racing against a Spycker. Both cars still exist, along with many others that took part. They are in the Louwman Museum collection, in The Hague, Netherlands. On that special occasion, they were the first two cars to take to the road this year. The cars start according to their age, giving the older and slower ones more time to get to Brighton. The oldest car this year was an 1892 Peugeot vis-à-vis from the Turin Automobile Museum. It is believed to be the first car ever driven in Italy !
Diversity…
The London Brighton Run is a unique opportunity to see cars unfortunately consigned to the museum on the road again… while realizing how quickly the motor car evolved between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th. The cars of 1903-4 were already quite close to the ones from the 20s and 30s. At the time, the car industry was still in its infancy and experimenting with different engines, transmission and steering. A cow’s-tail, a steering wheel or a boat-style tiller were still common while there were petrol, coal-fired steam or even… electric engines !
These were heroic times : there were no tops or windscreens, let alone heating. Even a short journey was an adventure. You had to plan ahead, get dressed up and protect yourself to cover 20 km in all weathers. Which brings us back to today’s reality: different technical solutions are competing ahead today and it’s impossible to determine which one will prevail in the future. Exactly like it was at the beginning of the last century. For the record, several competitors were even using e-fuels.
The Run celebrates the joy and freedom of driving and highlights the dedication of enthusiasts who keep these venerable ancestors in working order. The weather and the large crowds lining up all along the route add to the good-natured atmosphere, a living testimony of a bygone era… (Text: Dimitri Urbain- Photos: Dimitri Urbain, RAC)
