Cowland’s school of hard Knox
SalvageHunters:ClassicCars star trains on 1903 veteran before this year’s London to Brighton run
Specialist insurer Hagerty has asked Paul Cowland of TV’s Salvage Hunters: Classic Cars to drive the 1903 Knox ‘Knoxmobile’ it owns in the London to Brighton Veteran Car Run on 7 November. Tiller-steered, the 2.6-litre single-cylinder Knoxmobile was somewhat out of Paul’s comfort zone, so the firm laid on a training session at Bicester Heritage, Oxfordshire.
Paul said: ‘I’ve never driven anything of that era before – I had no idea of how hard or easy it would be or how familiar the driving experience is to us classic car owners. It’s surprisingly difficult to start but easy enough to drive once learned. I would like to own something like that, but they’re expensive and take so much specialist knowledge to keep them going – everything has to be fabricated.’
Seasoned racing driver, James Woods, who instructed Paul at Bicester Heritage, has tackled the Veteran Car Run five times. He said: ‘Woodie’s going to drive on the way down, I’ll do the social and have a bit of fun. I’m going along as a newbie to learn the ropes.
It’s on the bucket list of the things you want to do as a classic car enthusiast; had [the motoring pioneers] not done what they did 125 years ago, we wouldn’t get to do what we do now.’
The safety risks posed by the Veteran Car Run – the event suffered accidents in 2017 and 2019 – didn’t concern Paul. He said: ‘It doesn’t worry me. I’m with one of the best drivers in the world so I’m in the safest possible hands. The Knox is a simple but brilliantly put together car, it’s got good legs.’
] Veteran Car Run preview, p12