The 2026 RM Sotheby’s London to Brighton Veteran Car Run left Hyde Park at 6.53am on Sunday 1 November and finished on Madeira Drive, with 396 vehicles flagged away and 349 completing the 60 mile journey, according to the Run’s own report.
The first car to reach the Brighton seafront was a 1903 Lacoste et Battmann driven by German entrant Wolfgang Kraemer, in just over three hours.
The Run in numbers
Close to 400 pre-1905 vehicles gathered in Hyde Park in mild weather, and the cars set off in age order with the oldest at the front. Most finished well before the 4.30pm deadline, and finishers received a medal and a hot toddy from The Macallan.
The start in Hyde Park
Marcus Breitschwerdt, CEO and Head of Mercedes-Benz Heritage, and Duncan Wiltshire, chairman of the Royal Automobile Club, tore up the symbolic red flag. Wiltshire then flagged away a group of pre-1905 motor and pedal cycles, including penny-farthings, bound for Brighton.
An example of Carl Benz’s Patent-Motorwagen was displayed at the start to mark its 140th birthday. The first batch of horseless carriages left at 6.53am.
First to the sea, last to finish
Andy Green was among the last to finish, in a 1904 Stanley steam car. He had failed to finish the previous year, when the boiler failed in Brixton. Green said it is the only motoring event he knows of where thousands and thousands of people turn out.
Wiltshire drove the RAC’s 1901 Mors, which carries the registration RAC 1, and completed the Run. He described it as an exemplary Run and “one of the very best I can remember”.
The 60 mile route
The route passed Hyde Park Corner, Wellington Arch, Constitution Hill, Buckingham Palace, Admiralty Arch, Whitehall, Parliament Square and Westminster Bridge. South of the Thames it split in two to ease congestion: one half went down the A23 through Kennington, Brixton and Streatham Common, the other crossed Lambeth Bridge and went through Vauxhall, Clapham Common and Tooting.
The two routes rejoined on the A236 north of Croydon, then crossed the South Downs to Madeira Drive on the Brighton seafront. The organisers’ spectator guide lists an official paddock at the Brighton finish, open from just before 10am until 4.30pm.
Who took part
Entries came from overseas as well as the UK, including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy and Switzerland, with 21 from the United States. More than 100 marques were represented, and about 350 volunteer marshals helped run the day, according to Wiltshire.
The world’s oldest surviving Rolls-Royce, a 1904 Type A 10hp in its original Primrose yellow, took part a day after being named Best in Show at the St James’s Concours. Nick Mason, Alan Titchmarsh and Andy Green OBE were among the drivers, and some cars ran on sustainable e-fuels supplied by partner SUSTAIN.
Why the Run is held
The Run commemorates the Emancipation Run of November 1896, held after the Locomotives on Highways Act raised the speed limit for light locomotives from 4 to 14mph and ended the need for a man to walk ahead waving a red flag. 2026 marks 130 years since that run. The RAC has organised the modern Run since 1930.
The next RM Sotheby’s London to Brighton Veteran Car Run is on Sunday 7 November 2027.
Separately, we reported on a veteran vehicle that hit a parked car on Ditchling Road on the day of the Run. Our report on the Ditchling Road crash has the photos and what Sussex Police told us.
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