349 of 396 cars finish 2026 London to Brighton Veteran Car Run

A grey, dry morning for 396 veterans

The RM Sotheby's London to Brighton Veteran Car Run was held on Sunday 1 November 2026, and 396 cars left Hyde Park for the 60 mile run to the Sussex coast. By the time the 4.30pm dusk curfew fell, 349 of them had reached Madeira Drive in Brighton to collect a finisher's medal, according to the event report on classiccarclubs.uk. London stayed misty until about 9.45am with temperatures near 8 degrees Celsius, Brighton was colder at the start, around 6 degrees, and there was a trace of drizzle, just 0.2mm, before 10am. No significant rain fell through the rest of the day.

The Run always sends its oldest cars off first, from 6.53am, so that slower veterans get the whole day to cover the distance. This was the 2026 edition's marker of 130 years since the 1896 Emancipation Run, the event that the Run itself commemorates every year, according to the official RM Sotheby's London to Brighton Veteran Car Run press material on veterancarrun.com.

First home in just over three hours

The first car to reach Brighton was a 1903 Lacoste et Battmann, driven by Wolfgang Kraemer of Germany, which arrived at about 10.20am, just over three hours after setting off, reports classiccarclubs.uk. Sportscardigest.com's report on the day adds that the field included entrants from Europe, Asia, Australia and North America, with 21 crews travelling from the United States alone. Among the entrants named in that report were Pink Floyd's Nick Mason, television presenter Alan Titchmarsh, and former land speed record holder Andy Green, who drove a 1904 Stanley steam car. Green's Stanley finished among the last cars in, after the same car suffered a boiler failure on a previous run, according to classiccarclubs.uk.

The oldest car on the road

The oldest vehicle in the 2026 field was an 1894 Benz, car number 36, driven by Luca Chiusole and Hermann Layher, classiccarclubs.uk reports. Under the Run's rules every car on the road must have been built before 1 January 1905, which is what gives the event its name among enthusiasts as the pre-1905 run, the oldest motoring event in the world held on its original route.

What it means from India

No Indian crew or car was reported among the 396 starters this year. For Indian owners and clubs, the Run remains mainly a spectacle to follow online, through the official veterancarrun.com press pages and reports such as these, rather than an event most can enter without a FIVA-eligible pre-1905 car already based in Britain. The next running is expected in November 2027, per sportscardigest.com's report, giving Indian vintage car clubs a full year to plan a visit if any member does hold a qualifying veteran.

Sources

• 2026 London to Brighton Veteran Car Run: 349 Historic Cars Complete 60-Mile Journey
• London to Brighton Veteran Car Run 2026 results: a grey, dry day and the first cars in by 10.20am
• Motoring freedoms celebrated on 2026 RM Sotheby's London to Brighton Veteran Car Run