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Unseasonably mild conditions and a new route made the 2018 Bonhams London to Brighton Veteran Car Run on 4 November a successful edition of the world’s longest-running motoring event.
Nearly 400 competitors were up for the pre-dawn start near Hyde Park Corner, with an impressively large number of spectators waving them away on, for the first time, two routes out of central London.
This change was introduced to reduce congestion, with half the field taking the usual course over Westminster Bridge, and the other half going over Lambeth Bridge towards Clapham. The routes merged near Croydon to resume the traditional journey to Brighton.
The oldest car, and the first away, was a two-cylinder, 2.5HP 1893 Peugeot driven by Alessandro Rossi di Schio of Turin’s Museo Nazionale dell’automobile in Italy.
With 117 marques taking part – all built before 1905 – there was no shortage of variety. And in addition to the array of single-, twin- and four-cylinder internal combustion engined cars, steam and electric power were well represented, such as Duncan Pittaway’s 1896 Salvesen steamer and a 1902 Columbia Electric built in Hartford, Connecticut. Nor was the Columbia the only Victorian-era vehicle to have come all the way from the USA, with some 20 other entrants making the journey, while more came from Argentina, Hong Kong, Australia and South Africa.
After 60 miles, the first car to arrive in Brighton was the 1902 Oldsmobile of Andres Melkus from Austria, reaching the seafront finish on Madeira Drive at 10.23am. Just 10% of competitors failed to finish before the 4.30pm deadline.
Red Bull F1 team principal Christian Horner was an enthusiastic participant in Irvine Laidlaw’s 1904 Panhard et Levassor: “The car ran seamlessly. It’s such a great event – I’ll definitely be back.”