The story
London to Brighton Veteran Car Run in London/Brighton
The world's longest-running motoring event, held each November between London and Brighton since a re-enactment of the original 1896 Emancipation Run began in 1927. Restricted to vehicles built before 1905, it is the largest annual gathering of veteran cars anywhere, tracing back to the abolition of Britain's red flag speed restrictions.
The London to Brighton Veteran Car Run traces to 14 November 1896, when the Motor Car Club, led by Harry John Lawson, staged what it called the Emancipation Run to celebrate the passage of the Locomotives on Highways Act, legislation that had just abolished the requirement for a person to walk sixty yards ahead of a motor vehicle waving a red flag, a restriction imposed by the earlier Red Flag Act of 1865, and raised the speed limit for light motor vehicles from four to fourteen miles per hour.