400 Veteran Cars Set Off from Hyde Park for London to Brighton Run

The London to Brighton Veteran Car Run, the oldest surviving motoring event in the world, took place on Sunday 1 November 2026. More than 400 cars built before 1905 — including open-topped Daimlers, Benzes, Darracqs, Peugeots, and Napiers — gathered in the Hyde Park paddock from 6 am, with the procession beginning to depart from 7 am, taking nearly two hours for all vehicles to set off. The cars travel southward through London via the A3 or A23, passing through Brixton, Balham, Streatham, Tooting, Mitcham, Croydon, Purley, and Coulsdon before continuing on to the Sussex coast. The first vehicles were expected to arrive in Brighton from around 10 am, with the paddock closing at 4:30 pm. The run commemorates the 1896 Emancipation Run, which celebrated the Locomotives on Highways Act — a law that raised the speed limit from 4 mph to 14 mph and abolished the requirement for a person to walk ahead of motor vehicles waving a red flag. The event stopped after 1903 but was revived in 1927 and has run most years since. Spectators along the route can expect waves, smiles, and plenty of beeps from drivers braving the open-topped carriages on what is often a cold and wet November morning.