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The Next Generation on the London-Brighton 2024

Nov 26 2024

As a 23-year-old, I had my first experience of participating in the London to Brighton Veteran Car Run in 2024. I completed this run in a 1903 De Dion Bouton Type N, Amelie, with my mate Iain (also, 23 years old).
We first got the car in the March of 2024, and in April I was confident enough to drive this car through Oxfordshire during the ‘Creepy crawly’ run, with Iain. This was a big challenge for the both of us, with our only previous experience in the car being a few runs down the road for a coffee. We were caught off guard many times with the steep gradient of the hills and on many occasions, Iain had to get off the car and give the car a push with me still on it. If I remember correctly, this wasn’t his favourite part of the day. We were helped throughout the day by many people who were all friendly enough to help us to get the car started when she cut out on the hills. This run helped us to understand what she was capable of, as well as what she struggled with, such as the high gradients and she also produced a lot of steam when she got overheated in traffic.
With this experience of a 60-mile run in the car, we were well prepared for London to Brighton in November. However, we had to get thee first, which posed its own issues. We decided to tow the car down 240 miles to the Hotel in London, followed by a further 60 miles down to Brighton during Thursdays rush hour traffic. This wouldn’t be difficult for anyone with previous towing experience; however, I had only done 90-miles before this, so to say I was nervous about this would be underselling it. 
Luckily, I managed to deal with the tight roads, bad drivers, bikes cutting me off, and the constant traffic throughout the built-up areas of London and Brighton, with no incidents. Once we had arrived in Brighton and parked up the cars alongside the pier, it was time for a well-earned pint, or several. 
On the Friday, we ventured to Bonhams, where my bank happily got away without any payments, even after getting far too friendly with the free champagne. Afterwards, me and Iain joined some friends we had made in the April, for a streak, and obviously more beverages. Later on, I awoke in the hotel lobby, with no memory of getting there, I blame the champagne.
The Saturday came around and we walked over to Pall Mall, where me and Iain were overwhelmed by the cars on display, from the new cars such as the Huayra and Koenigsegg, through to James Bonds DB5 and Genevieve. 
Later we met up with everyone at the RAC Building, where I was a bit smarter with my champagne. We took a photo on the stairs with all the 35-year-old and younger, and I couldn’t believe how many there was. We stood at the top on the second section of stairs, not even sure if we would fit in the photo. We later had the honour of meeting Edd China, what a nice guy, he spoke to us about what he was driving and seemed genuinely interested in what we had to say and later offered to take a photo with us. 
The big day then arrived, as we awoke at 4:30am, nervous about the day ahead and if the car would make it. After breakfast, we took the car to Hyde Park, and instantly went the wrong way, not a great start, as it wouldn’t be the first mistake made. We turned around and headed for the start, where we parked up in Sector 6 and walked to the start line just in time to watch the ripping up of the red flag and the bikes and penny farthings setting off. At 7am we saw the first of the cars to go, and we headed back with our nervous getting worse every step we took. 
As we stood by the car, a marshal came by telling us to start the car and get on ready for our sector to leave. We waited as long as we could before we started Amelie, as we knew every second was another moment she wouldn’t overheat. Finally, we set off at 7:30am, with me doing the first leg of the journey. The traffic waiting to go over the Westminster Bridge was where Amelie first started to overheat, and steam started to raise up from underneath the car. 
We passed over the bridge and followed other cars in front of us with no issue, until we took the wrong turning on a roundabout and after that we decided that we should probably pay more attention to the signs. Other than that, our only issues which we had were the overheating at the traffic lights and the lack of power on some hills. 
The lack of power on some of the hills, meant that one of us had to get off to lighten the load and encourage the car up the hill. As I was driving the first stint of the run, Iain jumped off, releasing some weight off the car and gave her a helping push up some hills. 
We arrived at the Crawley stop off, which we only stopped off at for an hour, but the number of cars there, was a sight. After we had filled ourselves up, changed the oil, and topped up the water, we set off again. I drove this stint until we found a petrol station, good job I did as well, because of the traffic on the hills, which wouldn’t have been something Iain wanted to do, having him been inexperienced with the car and driving it on open roads. 
Once we had tackled the traffic and the hills, it was time for Iain to drive, so I pulled over to fill up with petrol, it was only £8, by far the cheapest thing I bought that weekend. We checked the water levels, and then it was time for Iain to take over driving. He’d practiced driving her the week before, but not on open roads, but he managed to pick it up quite quick, and his confidence grew every mile. Which came in useful, when we found more hills. 
Iain made jumping off the car look easy, with him having plenty of practice on this run, the Creepy Crawly and whilst we have driven for a coffee over the last couple of months. However, now we had changed over, it was my turn. I went to jump off the car, full of confidence, I jumped with both feet and rolled over the pavement, and even though I was fine, I did have to run to the top of the hill in boots, whilst everyone watched, rather embarrassing, and very tiring. 
Luckily Iain had waited at the top of the hill, so I didn’t have to run the last 20 miles. A spectator thought that Iain had stopped for him to take a photo, which added to my embarrassment. Iain later explained to me that at first, he thought he may have run over me, but didn’t feel me under the wheel. This was Iain’s first stint driving Amelie on his own, and this boosted his confidence even more. You could tell he was more confident as when he started, he was scared and cowered his head into his neck and was hardly blinking as he focused hard, but after this his head had popped out again and he was looking far more comfortable. 
There were no issues from here on. That was until we got to Clayton Hill.  
When we arrived at Clayton Hill and noticed how steep it was, Iain decided to give me the wheel and he managed to work in tandem with the engine to push the car halfway up Clayton Hill, before three marshals eventually helped, however, the car wasn’t for moving. As Amelie was overheating quite bad, steam was everywhere, the engine was revving too high and Iain was getting a lungful of petrol fumes and steam, we turned her off. We should have done that earlier, but we hadn’t realised that we could be towed up the hill. The marshal called down for a tow and once they’d arrived, they joked that they’d been watching Iain push us up from the bottom and was impressed how far he’d gotten. 
They towed us to the top of the hill, and then they were on their way. However, it wasn’t enough tie for Iain to get his breathe back, so he told me to drive until he was recovered. That was the last of the driving that I did on the run, and as we changed back over, Iain seemed happy to drive us all the way into Brighton, which I rather enjoyed, being chauffeured I mean. 
I remember joining the A23 into Brighton me and Iain saying out loud, almost simultaneously, “we’re on the motorway”. We were completely off guard having remembered driving on that stretch of road on the Thursday evening. After all the towns and villages, we had passed through, I’d assumed that we would have been far too slow for the motorway, and I was relieved seeing the slow lane had been conned off for us. 
Iain drove us through into Brighton, we were finally on the last stretch, then another hill showed up. Luckily, I’m a quick study and as I jumped off, I didn’t fall this time. I pushed the car up and Iain drove it passed the lights, where we at unable to see if the light had changed. Luckily there was another veteran car runner sat at the lights who kindly told us when it changed to green. We then drove down the hill and around the corner, as other cars who had already finished passed us having already finished and were now headed home. 
As we went over the roundabout and onto the pier, it had just gone 2pm. Ahead doing their pot run interview was my parents in their 1902 De Dion Bouton. They had set off from Crawley after us but had gone passed as we filled up with fuel. All in all, I was happy with the time we managed to do our run in, around 6 and a half hours with a break and many overheating traffic stops and hills to climb. We were both happy to finish. 
We enjoyed the hot toddy and caught up with others who had also got in and shared our stories with one another. Around 5pm, we had packed the cars away and it was time to tow the cars back home. It had been a long day already, having awoke at 4:30am, but there was other 7 hour of driving in store for us. As the journey went on, I became more tired and Iain became ill from his battle against Clayton Hill, but we eventually made it home at 12pm, I think next time, I’ll stop the extra night as recommended to us by our friends earlier on in Brighton. 
To sum up, we only needed to get towed once, Iain got a chest infection, and I was almost run over. All in all, a great weekend, and I would definitely do it again. 
 

Words by Harry Fellows