2018 London to Brighton Veteran Car Run

London to Brighton Veteran Car Run

The London to Brighton veteran car run is the longest-running motoring event in the world. The first run was in 1896, and it has taken place most years since its initial revival in 1927. To qualify, the cars must have been built before 1905. It is also the world’s largest gathering of veteran cars – 443 started in 2005, 484 in 2009, compared to 37 starters in 1927, 51 starters in 1930 and 131 in 1938.

The veteran car run isn’t just a gentle saunter to the south coast – there’s also a competitive element to it. That’s right, there’s a 13-mile regularity time trial between Crawley High Street and Burgess Hill, requiring drivers to keep as close as possible to a prescribed average speed. And of course, all those who make it to the Brighton finish by the 4:30 pm curfew will also receive a medal.

RAC Brighton to London Future Car Challenge

It was a jacket and tie job today for the media launch of the London to Brighton veteran car run, held at the Royal Automobile Club in London’s Pall Mall. I guess this accounts for why so many of my fellow hacks failed to turn up. The London to Brighton Old Car Run, still affectionately known in some quarters as the ‘old crocks race’, has become a very saleable global brand, cleverly exploited by the Royal Automobile Club and turned into a rambling three-day money-spinner that includes; a major bonham’s auction, the closure of the Regent Street, and the much-vaunted RAC future car challenge. Of course, once all the razzamatazz is out of the way, some five hundred intrepid be-goggled drivers, along with their long-suffering wives and girlfriends, will get on with the real business of the day, rising at dawn on a Sunday morning and setting off into the November fog, hoping to complete the fifty-odd mile journey between hyde park and marine drive in Brighton in their pre-1905 automobiles.