London to Brighton Veteran Car Run 2026 results: a grey, dry day and the first cars in by 10.20am

Table of Contents

• First, the hoard
• What Sunday was like
• How many made it
• Saturday on Pall Mall
• Did any of the hoard cars take part?
• What is next
• Where the figures come from

Last week I asked two questions. Would the Somerset Hoard, seven early cars untouched since 1939, beat its estimates at Bonhams on the Friday? And what would happen on the Sunday when more than 400 cars built before 1905 left Hyde Park for the seaside, 130 years after the Emancipation Run that started it all? I have an answer to both.

First, the hoard

Yes, it beat them, though not all of it did. All seven cars sold, for £258,533 against a combined guide of £215,000 to £290,000. The c.1902 Progress made £63,250 and the c.1903 Baker Electric £55,200, both well past their top estimates. The c.1904 Swift, the other car I had my eye on, made £43,700, which is inside its guide and no more. The Rover, the Humber and the Belsize went cheaply. The sale's big lots, a 1901 Panhard et Levassor at £460,000 and the 1904 Rochet-Schneider at £425,500, did what Bonhams hoped.

The whole sale is in the auction results report I published on Sunday, along with every other UK auction this year, so I will not go through it again. The short version: the veteran world still pays for a past it can check.

What Sunday was like

The red flag was torn up at 6.45am and the first cars left Hyde Park at 6.53am, as planned. London was misty. The Met Office station at Heathrow reported mist from six until about a quarter to ten, with visibility down to 2.8km at seven, and an overcast sky for the rest of the day. It was about 8°C at the start and only crept past 10°C late in the afternoon. No rain fell at all.

Brighton was colder. Shoreham had 5.9°C at six with a northerly of 15mph, which on Madeira Drive in November is the sort of thing you feel in your teeth. It warmed to 11.5°C by mid-afternoon, and apart from a trace of drizzle in the hour before ten, 0.2mm of it, the day stayed dry. The Argus called the skies grey. A couple from Seaford who go every year told the paper that a few years back it was freezing and pouring, and that this year, "Today is perfect." For a veteran car run, dry and grey is about as good as it gets.

The first two cars reached Madeira Drive at about 10.20am, according to Sussex News, and the RAC has named the one in front. It was a 1903 Lacoste et Battmann, a single-cylinder French car driven by Wolfgang Kraemer from Germany, and the RAC says it made the trip in just over three hours. Last year's first finisher took just under four. The RAC will remind you that it is not a race and that nobody is meant to average more than 20mph. The route is 60 miles, so just over three hours is just under 20mph, which is cutting it about as fine as you can.

Pink Floyd's drummer Nick Mason drove his 1901 Panhard et Levassor to Brighton, The Argus reports, and the Mayor of Brighton and Hove, Councillor Theresa Fowler, was on the seafront to welcome the crews in. Alan Titchmarsh, who had spent Saturday judging on Pall Mall, was behind a wheel too, the RAC says. Drivers at the finish told The Argus the run had gone smoothly and that they were glad of a dry road. Further north, the Sussex Express had a photographer in Crawley before half past ten, and in the afternoon the Run's own Facebook page posted a video of the field going through Cuckfield, set to Django Reinhardt, which is the right music for it.

How many made it

Of the 396 vehicles flagged away from Hyde Park, 349 reached Madeira Drive before the 4.30pm cut-off, the RAC says. That leaves 47 that did not. Last year 340 of 384 made it, so the share is almost exactly the same, about 88 in every 100. Kind weather helps cars built before 1905, but it will not stop a few of them rolling to a halt on a verge somewhere between Hyde Park and the Downs. The RAC does not say which 47 they were, and I have found no report of a serious incident. If you read that more than 400 finished, that was the size of the entry. Fewer than 400 started.

One of last year's 44 was Andy Green, who has driven faster than anyone else on Earth. The boiler of his 1904 Stanley steam car gave out in Brixton, a few miles in. This year he was among the last to finish, and told the RAC that simply making Brighton was "definitely a success story". There cannot be many people who have done 763mph and been delighted to manage 60 miles in a day. Duncan Wiltshire, the RAC's chairman, got there too, in the Club's 1901 Mors wearing the number plate RAC 1.

The RAC's release does not go car by car, so for the cars I most wanted to see I have only part of the story. Terry Bramall's 1904 Rolls-Royce, number 361 and the oldest Rolls-Royce known to survive, did start, in its original primrose yellow. The RAC does not say whether it reached Brighton. Nobody has yet said how the others got on either: the 1894 Benz of Luca Chiusole and Hermann Layher, number 36 and the oldest car in the field; Charlie Brooks's two 1895 Peugeots, numbers 1 and 2; Megan Casey, 27, with a 1903 Humberette at number 178; the British Motor Museum's six cars; and the 1899 Benz van from Mercedes-Benz Heritage.

Saturday on Pall Mall

The day before had different weather altogether. The St James's Motoring Spectacle got a cloudless sky, and the RAC put the crowd on Pall Mall at close to 15,000, with more than 160 vehicles on show. More than 100 of Sunday's pre-1905 cars were in the St James's Concours, up from the 80-odd promised when I wrote the preview.

The concours went to the Rolls-Royce. Terry Bramall's 1904 10hp took the overall award, and the head judge, Philip Oldman, called its three-year restoration meticulous. Alan Titchmarsh, judging alongside Edd China, said the quality and variety of the veteran cars was better than ever, which judges say every year, though this time it was a strong field. The other awards went to Robin Heringa of the Netherlands for a 1904 Soc. Man. d'Armes (Overseas), Andrew Rhind-Tutt for a 1900 De Dion-Bouton (Historic), Michael Rogers for a 1904 Siddeley (Motoring Attire, the best-dressed prize), Malcolm Ginns for a 1902 Panhard et Levassor (Chairman's Award) and Dee Searle for an 1899 Benz (Feature Award). Dee Searle's Benz was number 23 on Sunday, so it had a long weekend.

Around them stood the Williams FW48 for the centenary of the first British Grand Prix at Brooklands, which we wrote about in the summer, the earliest surviving Golf GTI, and a Miura for 60 years of the mid-engined supercar.

Did any of the hoard cars take part?

No, and they were never going to. The hoard was sold on Friday evening, the Run's entry list closed months ago, and none of the seven has turned a wheel since 1939. There is one 1903 Baker Electric on the entry list, number 161, but it belongs to Michael Brechmann and has nothing to do with Somerset. There is no Progress and no Swift on the list at all. Whoever bought the hoard cars has a winter of careful work ahead, and the earliest any of them could sensibly line up in Hyde Park is November 2027, with a dating certificate from the Veteran Car Club in hand.

What is next

Now the veteran calendar goes quiet. Bonhams' Golden Age sale, the one fixture that puts a room full of pre-1905 cars under the hammer, is done for the year. The next big gathering of them is Rétromobile at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles, from 3 to 7 February 2027, with the auctions that come with it. Nearer home, the Veteran Car Club has a winter programme for anyone who wants to sit in a warm room and talk about crank handles.

The Run itself is back on the first Sunday of November 2027, which is the 7th. If you watched from a village street this year you will know why I keep saying it is the best way to spend a November morning. If you did not, set an alarm.

Where the figures come from

Entry numbers and the size of the field are from the RAC's 2026 entry list and its press release of 23 October 2026, which also gives the start times. Starters and finishers, the first car in, Alan Titchmarsh, Andy Green, Duncan Wiltshire and the Rolls-Royce at the start are from the RAC's results release of 1 November 2026. The time of the first arrivals is from Sussex News, 4.50pm on 1 November 2026. Nick Mason, the Mayor and the finish-line quotes are from The Argus, 1 November 2026, and the Crawley pictures from the Sussex Express, 1 November 2026. Pall Mall figures and awards are from the RAC's press release of 31 October 2026, and last year's starters and finishers from its results release of 2 November 2025. Weather is from the Met Office observations for Heathrow and Shoreham on 1 November 2026, via Ogimet. Hoard prices are Bonhams' figures as reported in our auction report. Rétromobile dates are from the show's own site.