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All contents © copyright 2001-2003 Wilf James. All rights reserved. |
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| Known as 'The Brighton Run' veteran automobiles gather every year at London's Hyde Park on the first Sunday of November to make the run down to Brighton's Marine Parade. A 7.00am early start. |
| Saturday 14 November 1896 was a red-letter day in the history of British motoring: the Emancipation Run' from London to Brighton celebrated the passing into law of the Locomotives on the Highway Act, which raised the speed limit for 'light locomotives' from 4 miles per hour to 14 mph and abolished the requirement to be preceded by a man on foot. |
| The need for the man on foot to carry a red flag had actually been abolished in 1878, but the Locomotive Act was still widely known as the 'Red Flag Act' and a red flag was symbolically destroyed by Lord Winchilsea at the start of the 1896 Run. |
| The 1896 event was a demonstration that the automobile had come to stay. The organisers' instructions stated: "Owners and drivers should remember that motor cars are on trial in England and that any rashness or carelessness might injure the industry in this country." Only 14 of the 33 starters reached Brighton, although it was hinted that one car was taken by train and covered with mud before crossing the finishing line! |
| More interest than usual was aroused in 1971, when Her Majesty the Queen entered (but alas did not drive) a 70-year-old Daimler once driven by her father, King George VI, and originally owned by her great grandfather King Edward VII. It was he who, in 1907, commanded that the Automobile Club of Great Britain & Ireland should be known as the Royal Automobile Club. |
| The Brighton Run now ranks as one of Britain's biggest motoring spectacles, with crowds exceeding one million lining the route each year. |
| H H Prince Michael of Kent, President of the Royal Automobile Club, is a regular participant. He has driven a variety of vehicles, including a 1900 Daimler, a 1903 De Dion Bouton, an 1899 Wolseley, a 1903 De Dietrich, a 1904 Mercedes and a 1903 Napier Racing car. |
| H H Prince Michael of Kent, President of the Royal Automobile Club arriving at the finishing line on Brighton's Marine Parade in a1903 Napier Racing car. |