VETERAN CAR GUIDE
CELEBRATING A MULTITUDE OF MARQUES
Every year we welcome around 400 cars representing nearly 100 different marques to the Run. For 2025, we have a gathering of vehicles whose origins span the globe.
Albion Two ex-employees of Arrol-Johnston, Norman Fulton and Thomas Murray, founded Albion in Glasgow, in 1899. The first vehicle, a dogcart, appeared in 1900, powered by a flat-twin 8hp engine, and equipped with a‘ Patent Combination Clutch’ gearbox. It had solid tyres, which continued to be a feature after many other manufacturers had abandoned the practice. The company produced twin cylinder vehicles of increasingly large capacity, and in 1903, it launched a 3115cc, 16hp vertical twin-engine powered vehicle. Commercial vehicles became the mainstay after 1918.
Alldays The company was formed in 1898 from two longestablished Birmingham engineering firms that dated back to 1720 and 1650 respectively. Success in the manufacture of good quality bicycles led to the limited production of a motorised quadricycle, almost certainly a re-badged version from a French supplier, and then the‘ Traveller’, a lightly built, De Dion Bouton-powered, unsprung, two-seater appeared. The first motor car, with a 7hp engine and shaft driven, available as a two or four-seater, was manufactured in 1903 and 1904.
Argyll An Argyll-branded motor car, inspired by the early De Dion Bouton-engined Renault, was made in 1899, a year before the Hozier Engineering Company was formed in Glasgow to make it. The 1901 Argyll used a 5hp MMC engine, and it had distinctive horizontal radiators linked by vertical tubes. For 1902, engines by MMC or Simms were offered, and before the year was out, 10hp and 12hp twin-cylinder and 16hp four-cylinder engines were listed. In 1904, a range of front-radiator, Aster-engined vehicles was introduced, including one of 4849cc capacity. The company was known for its magnificent factory and office accommodation that cost £ 220,000 to build in 1906.
Arrol-Johnston George Johnston played a prominent role in the early days of motor vehicle development in Scotland and was building his own prototypes before the end of 1895. Sir William Arrol provided the financial backing to launch a company whose first vehicle was a six-seater dogcart, powered by a 10hp, twin-cylinder opposedpiston engine, mounted beneath the floor. The chain drive, high-wheeled, solid tyre, horse carriage type of
44 The London to Brighton Veteran Car Run