Car enthusiasts ready to turn back the clock

The Royal Automobile Club is hosting the world’s oldest motoring event, the annual London to Brighton Veteran Car Run, next month when, 116 years since it was first run, the event will feature a maximum of 550 pre-1905 vehicles making their way from Hyde Park in London to Madeira Drive, Brighton.

The event on November 4 is part of a weekend celebration of motoring that includes the RAC Future Car Challenge, for low energy use vehicles, and the Regent Street Motor Show which celebrates motoring in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries.

This year there have been no fewer than 36 entries from Yorkshire including 1902 and 1904 Renaults entered by Cliff Jowsey, from near Whitby, and by Daniel and Toby Ward from Ripon, a 1903 Sunbeam entered by John Bentley, of Harrogate, 1902 and 1904 Wolseleys entered by Daniel Black, of Keighley, and Tim Snowden, of Harrogate.

John Vause, of Harrogate, has entered his vehicle, a 1904 Pope-Hartford rear-entrance car. It has two seats and an engine giving just 10 horsepower. The car, which was bought in the USA in 2005, completed its first London to Brighton Veteran Car Run in 2006 and has finished four times out of four. Mr Vause, however, will be making his debut.

Regular competitor, Rosie Battye, from Batley, is one of the few women to have entered the event – although many women will be passengers.

Her vehicle is a 1902 Panhard et Levassor Tonneau. It is the only one of its kind still in existence.