THE BRIGHTON RUN: From the archives of Bob Montgomery, motoring historian.
Next Sunday sees the 108th Brighton Run, the motoring event viewed by more spectators along its route than any other. It's estimated that over one million turn out each year to see the cars travel over the 52-mile route.
This remarkable event goes back to the dawn of motoring, to 1896 when the law was changed. The "light locomotive", as the car was legally described, could now go at speeds up to 14 mph (local authorities had the power to reduce this to 12 mph, which most did) and no longer had to be preceded by a man walking with a red warning flag.
To celebrate this newfound freedom, the Motor Club ran the Emancipation Run from London to Brighton. The club continued Emancipation Runs up until 1902 but they didn't go to Brighton. It was revived in 1927 and has been held over the original 1896 route to Brighton every year since, except the second World War years and 1947.
In 1896 it's calculated that Britain had no more than 75 cars - and Ireland had three. Some 58 "autocarists" entered for the Run on the day that the Act was repealed, November 14th, but only 33 turned up for the start.
Why the club picked Brighton is uncertain, but this was a popular cycle run from London.
Car number 1 in the first Run was the twin-cylinder Panhard et Levassor which had been successful in the famous 1895 Paris to Bordeaux race. Several entries came from the Continent and two, the Duryea brothers, from the US.
Most cars were powered by the internal combustion engine, but there were two steamers and seven electric cars. Three of the fast Leon Bollée three-wheelers were also entered, one driven by motor historian HO Duncan, whose writings would leave such an important record of this era.
Duncan informs us that the three Leon Bollée tri-cars ran into problems caused by the Run taking place on the day the new Act came into force. The London authorities would not allow tri-cars on their roads just two days before the event, so they had to be towed by horse from Victoria to their headquarters.
Duncan, who drove one of the tri-cars in the event recorded: "I felt the full force of the scathing humour of the London street urchin and cabbie" and "as soon as the hour of midnight struck not a few enterprising owners had their vehicles upon the streets, and in the small hours a few cars made trial runs."
The Run began at the Metropole Hotel, after a grand breakfast laid on by the Motor Club. Lord Winchelsea made a rousing speech to all present and then ceremonially tore up a red flag.
Outside, enormous crowds had gathered and some cars found it difficult to get through to the start. Huge crowds were a feature all the way along the route to Brighton. As a result many cars overheated in the first four miles as they were forced to travel slowly by the crowds. This had a detrimental effect on the number of eventual finishers.
A lunch stop was arranged at the White Hart Hotel in Reigate but several cars elected to run non-stop. A little girl named Mary Dyer ran out into the road in front of one of the Duryeas and was knocked over. A following cyclist then fell over her but this, luckily considering the enormous and unruly crowds, was the only serious incident.
Confusion reigned over which vehicle arrived first at Brighton. It's generally believed that the first to finish were two of the quick Leon Bollée tri-cars but the leading Duryea was probably the first motor carriage to arrive. For many, the tri-cars were not proper cars, having just three wheels - a real motor carriage had to have four wheels! A total of 13 vehicles were officially declared finishers while a further seven arrived later that night.
There appear to have been no Irish drivers in that first Brighton Run, but the redoubtable RJ Mecredy was one of the many cyclists who followed the Run on a bicycle, easily keeping up with all but the fastest vehicles. He recalled "being absolutely left standing by a Duryea car . . . it made a prodigious noise, and when it was about to overtake us we had a wild idea that it would certainly run us down."
One who was to travel in the Run on a Daimler was TW Murphy, later motoring correspondent of The Irish Times, but he was delayed by the crowds and missed the start, travelling instead to Brighton on the train.