The London to Brighton Veteran Car Run is one of motoring’s great experiences. Jonathan Crouch tries it at the wheel of a very unique Vauxhall….

I’ve driven quite a few cars in the course of a life in motoring journalism. Most of them are versatile, efficient modern machines like the latest spec Vauxhall Zafira Tourer my family recently used to travel from London to Brighton. Just occasionally though, I get the chance to try something very different. Something like the vehicle the Zafira was supporting on that trip to Brighton – a Vauxhall produced 112 years before it.

The journey in question was the 2016 Bonhams London to Brighton Veteran Car Run, an event Vauxhall had kindly invited me to participate in at the wheel of one of the oldest cars in their Heritage Collection, the Vauxhall 6HP.

The 6HP hails from an era where the journey to this Sussex seaside town would have been something

of a family charabanc trip, the kind of jaunt that today, something like the Zafira Tourer is perfect for. On this occasion though the MPV's role was one of support for the old timer throughout its slow but sure progress south.

Almost everyone who lives in the South East of England is familiar with the London to Brighton Veteran Car Run. It has, after all, taken place every November since 1927, with the exception of the war years and 1947 when petrol was rationed. Originally the event’s purpose was to commemorate the Emancipation Run of 14th November 1896 which celebrated the ‘Locomotives of the Highway’ Act. This piece of legislation raised the speed limit for ‘light locomotives’ from 4 to 14mph and abolished the need for these vehicles to be proceeded by a man on foot waving a red flag.

Over the decades that followed, the first Sunday in November became synonymous with a glorious cavalcade of early motoring nostalgia. I grew up along the route, my house positioned in Horley on the A23 just before the halfway point at Crawley. I’ve lost count of the number of years I watched the vintage cars chug past as I stood shivering by the side of the road wondering when to go back in for breakfast. To have the chance to actually take part then, felt extra special, particularly given the provenance of the car I was going to be fortunate enough to drive.

“The ‘6HP’ was one of the very last Vauxhall models to be actually built in Vauxhall in London, on the banks of the Thames…”

The ‘6HP’ was one of the very last Vauxhall models to be actually built in Vauxhall in London, on the banks of the Thames. Shortly after this car took to the road for the first time, that original factory was closed and production transferred to the site in Luton where some of the brand’s vehicles are still made today. The car I used for the run was one of the last surviving models of its kind, powered by a one cylinder engine developing, as the name suggests, six braked horsepower.

That doesn’t sound very much and prior to trying the car for the first time, I braced myself for a driving experience of the sort promised by a mobility carriage or a milk float. Actually, it feels nothing like as slow as that, especially around corners, which you lurch through alarmingly until you learn to establish some sort of control over the whole vintage experience. That isn’t easy. For a start you don’t get a steering wheel – only a barge-like tiller, the motions of which the car responds to in only a rather approximate fashion. The ‘6HP’ has but two gears, both of them only for forward motion: if you want to reverse, it’s necessary to get out and push. That’s something also occasionally necessary when tackling really steep hills – the kind of incline you have to deal with when crossing the South Downs on the final stretch into Brighton for example.

From only ever having watched the run from one fixed place, I had no idea of the excitement it creates along its complete route. There’s something about a vintage car that makes almost everyone smile, and there’s something about this event that makes everyone want to participate. As we drove south, it seemed like anyone along the route with any sort of classic car had brought it out for a slice of the limelight, and if you’re a participant on the run, you wave until your arms ache.

In the end, we made it to Brighton in about seven hours, the journey interrupted only by an enforced stop to fix a faulty ignition wire just after the halfway point. When we finally crossed the finish line on Brighton seafront, there was a sense of real achievement. I could never have imagined that taking such a long time to complete such a short distance could have been so enjoyable.

On the way back home in the Zafira, with the kids surfing the wifi and the Intelilink navigation system gently guiding us, there was time to consider just how far motoring has come in a century or so, and reflect on the fact that there’s something to be said for the way they did it in the early days. A time when every journey really was a vintage experience.