RM Sotheby’s London to Brighton Veteran Car Run 2021 | Page 46

FEATURE
Crowds pack Reigate as The Emncipation Run passes through the town centre in 1896 .
the lunch halt at Reigate , one passenger excitedly commented : “ For the first time we felt the exhilaration of travelling at 25 miles an hour in a motor car !”
When the cars entered Reigate through the old 1823 Tunnel Road they were greeted by a banner declaring “ Reigate welcomes Progress ”. Most drivers chose to stop for lunch , though two French Bollée tricars kept on going , anxious to be first into Brighton .
During the afternoon , torrential rain turned the surface of the Brighton Road to liquid mud .
A Léon Bollée tricar swerved to avoid a frightened horse and hit the bank , hurling its passenger , who was wearing a white cotton suit – not the smartest choice on such a foul day – into a muddy ditch . He emerged with half his suit covered in mud , the other half still pristine white ...
The driver of a Panhard-Levassor struggled on in the downpour until the light began to fail and he had to buy candles for his lamps . Ten miles from Brighton one of his driving chains broke . He borrowed a horse to tow the car to the nearest village and spent the night at the local inn .
Then there was a van on the run packed with tools for emergency use whose crew found when it broke down that the one item it wasn ’ t carrying was the exact thing needed to mend it !
Some , like a passenger on a racing Panhard- Levassor , enjoyed a better afternoon ’ s run , and revelled in the descent of the notorious Handcross Hill : “ To rush through the air at the speed of a torpedoboat destroyer ... was a novel and thrilling experience ... We had accomplished this rapid descent of 200 feet in a few seconds of breathless suspense ... We did it magnificently , without a swerve !”
By 4:30pm Lawson ’ s Panhard-Levassor and three other cars entered by his British Motor Syndicate had arrived at Preston Park to meet the Mayor of Brighton , who rode into the town aboard Lawson ’ s car . The first four arrivals were followed soon after by a Duryea , one of two examples of America ’ s first production car taking part . The two Léon Bollée tricars and a New Beeston motor cycle had also arrived in Brighton , and four more came through in the next hour . By late evening , twenty cars had arrived in Brighton , including those that had taken the easy way down by rail , and were all on show in a local stableyard , still mud-splashed .
Following the run , a parade of cars was held along the seafront , watched by a crowd of thousands , while some cars “ ran independently ” about the town .
Most of the cars drove back to London on the Tuesday , the fastest of them averaging a breakneck 16mph . “ The whole journey was accomplished without mishap ,” reported an impressed journalist , “ the only alarming incident being the bolting of a horse attached to a butcher ’ s cart .” -
Motoring had changed out of all recognition by the mid-1920s , when correspondence in The Autocar queried what was the oldest car still in running order . Intrigued , in 1927 , the Daily Sketch newspaper decided to find out how many cars over 21 years old were still running and organised a run from London to Brighton in November to celebrate the 31st anniversary of Emancipation Day .
The paper was amazed to get 51 entries , of which 44 started and 37 finished . The run proved so popular that it became an annual event for pre-1905 motor cars , organised since 1930 by the Royal Automobile Club and only interrupted by world war , petrol rationing and Covid . And , with hundreds of veteran cars now taking part in the Brighton Run every year , that 1920s question “ How long does a motor car last ?” has yet to be answered ...
46 The London to Brighton Veteran Car Run