Ladies’ Automobile Club to be celebrated on the 2024 RM Sotheby’s London to Brighton Veteran Car Run

From before dawn on Sunday, 3 November, London’s Hyde Park will be full of the sights, sounds and smells of the dawn of motoring, as 400 intrepid drivers ready themselves and their pioneering machines for the annual RM Sotheby’s London to Brighton Veteran Car Run. Then as the sun rises at 7:00am all the participants will set off on the historic 60-mile journey to the Sussex coast.

That start follows the symbolic tearing-up of the red flag. This year the long-established ritual – which kick-started motoring freedom in the Victorian era – will pay tribute to the 120^th anniversary of the Ladies’ Automobile Club, with some of the 50 partaking female drivers performing the ceremonial honours.

The Royal Automobile Club, organiser of the revered Veteran Car Run since 1930, was a great supporter of the Ladies’ Automobile Club which was founded at the start of the 20^th century by a number of prominent society women with a shared interest in motoring.

These pioneering women organised their first driving event 120 years ago in 1904. More than 50 vehicles gathered at the Athenaeum Club on Waterloo Place before driving via Pall Mall, The Mall and Buckingham Palace to the Ranelagh Club in Barn Elms for afternoon tea.

By the 1920s more women were being admitted to more motoring clubs and The Ladies’ Automobile Club was eventually absorbed into the Royal Automobile Club. By then, however, it had made a significant impression in recognising women as motorists in their own right for the first time. That important achievement is being lauded on this year’s very special Veteran Car Run.

Another major milestone being honoured in 2024 is the 125^th anniversary of Fiat. Marking the occasion one of the greatest racers from the early days of motorsport – the mighty Fiat 130HP – will be one of this year’s star attractions on the road to Brighton.

The big, red, chain-driven leviathan is making its first ever appearance in the UK following a meticulous three-year restoration at the world-famous Museo Nazionale dell’Automobile in Turin. Powered by a monstrous 16.2-litre four-cylinder engine, it will be the most powerful machine ever to have participated in the event.

Originally created as one of three team ‘Corsa’ race cars in 1904, the FIAT 130HP reached its zenith in 1907 when its ace driver Felice Nazzaro won all three of Europe’s most prestigious road races. First he won the fabled Targa Florio in Sicily; then the Kaiserpries set on the tortuous 73-mile Taunus mountain track in Germany. And finally, most importantly, the French Grand Prix in Dieppe, where FIAT caused a seismic sensation by defeating the hitherto dominant French on their home soil.

While the Fiat will be on pole position among the early starters, as has become a custom in recent years, a small group of veteran bicycles – including eye-catching ‘penny-farthings’ – and motorcycles will be first away.

Behind them the evocative field of three- and four-wheelers will all head south through Wellington Arch. The majority of the pre-1905 pioneers are petrol-driven but include a few powered by steam, and even some very early electric vehicles!

Moreover, with an eye on the future, increasing numbers of the veterans are running on sustainable fuels. Indeed, all four of the veterans entered by the Royal Automobile Club will be running on just such a drop-in fuel provided by SUSTAIN.

Some of the 100+ makes represented such as Chevrolet, Ford, Peugeot, Mercedes and Renault – also celebrating its 125^th birthday in 2024 – will be familiar to today’s motorists. But there are plenty of long forgotten marques too: Mors, Berliet, De Dion Bouton, Napier, Lambert and Gladiator to name but a few.

The oldest car lining up in Hyde Park – and thus one of the first to leave – is a plucky single-cylinder Benz dating back to 1894. It is entered by Hermann Layher from Germany and is one of more than 70 of this year’s entries hailing from overseas to be part of this world-famous occasion. Some come from as far afield as Australia, Hong Kong and the United States.

From Hyde Park, the traditional starting point since 1936, the veterans head down Constitution Hill, passing Buckingham Palace and on to The Mall – roads used 120 years ago by those on The Ladies’ Automobile Club’s inaugural event – before the route splits. Some make their way under Admiralty Arch and into Trafalgar Square, then turn right on to Whitehall, skirting The Cenotaph, towards Parliament Square. Others proceed to Parliament Square via Horse Guards Road.

Once the two routes have merged, the veterans pass Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament – where 128 years ago the Locomotives on the Highway Act was passed. This raised the speed limit for ‘light locomotives’ from 4mph to 14mph and abolished the need for the vehicles to be preceded by a man carrying a red flag.

The issuing of the Act was celebrated by the first ‘Emancipation Run’ when 30 cars travelled from London to Brighton. It was held on 14 November 1896, the very day the Act came into operation, and it is that original capital-to-coast escapade that the Run honours to this very day.

Once across Westminster Bridge, the route splits into two with half taking the traditional A23 direction via Kennington, Brixton and Streatham. The other half travels along Albert Embankment before heading across Clapham Common and on through Tooting and Mitcham.

The two routes merge once again on the A236 north of Croydon with all cars reunited as they head south through Surrey and towards Crawley for the official halfway halt at The Hawth Theatre.

Although there’s no public access to the CARS-supported Pit Stop at The Hawth, there will be ample opportunity for spectators in Crawley to get close to the veterans along the town’s Boulevard.

Once refreshed, the crews and cars will then head over the scenic South Downs towards the finishing line on Brighton’s Madeira Drive. The first vehicles are expected to arrive shortly after 10.00am and their occupants will receive a hard-earned hot toddy courtesy of Aberfeldy single malt whisky. To be sure of a coveted finishers’ medal, participants need to make it to the seafront before the 4.30pm dusk curfew.

There are no special prizes for those reaching Brighton first because the Run is not a race.