The world's oldest motoring event, the Veteran Car Run sends cars built before 1905 from Hyde Park to Brighton on Sunday 1 November 2026.
The London to Brighton Veteran Car Run, the oldest motoring event in the world, leaves Hyde Park at first light on Sunday 1 November 2026. Every car in it was built before 1905.
Harry John Lawson organised the first run on a wet Saturday, 14 November 1896, to celebrate a new law. The Locomotives on Highways Act had exempted light motor vehicles from the restrictions that governed traction engines.
The day was called the Emancipation Run, and it opened with a breakfast at the Charing Cross Hotel, where Lord Winchelsea tore a red flag in two. The red flag rule had been repealed 18 years earlier, but the name stuck and so did the journey.
The age rule makes this the largest gathering of veteran cars anywhere. Tiller steering, chain drive and hand pumps for fuel pressure are the norm, and a good number of cars do not reach Brighton.
The cars set off in a continuous stream rather than as a race, with no prize for arriving first. Anyone can watch, free, from anywhere on the route as the field passes at 20 miles an hour, reaching Madeira Drive across the day.