This year’s Bonhams London to Brighton Veteran Car Run (6 November) will celebrate the 130th birthday of the world’s oldest car – or at least the date it was first patented by inventor Karl Benz.
The Benz Patent Motorwagen was a two-seater, three-wheeled automobile powered by a single cylinder four-stroke engine. Despite a bumpy start (it crashed into a wall on its inaugural run), later iterations became the world’s first commercially available automobile.
Six examples of that earliest model took part in last year’s London to Brighton, with organisers hoping to see veteran cars from manufacturers such as Adler, Bergmann, Daimler, Lutzmann, Mercedes and Open tackling the 60-mile run from London’s Hyde Park to Brighton in 2016.
The run will also celebrate the 120th anniversary of the first Emancipation Run, which was held in November 1896 and marked the passing into law of the Locomotive on the Highway Act. The speed limit was raised from 4mph to a dizzying 14mph, while the need for vehicles to be preceded by someone bearing a red flag was abolished.
“Karl Benz and his wife Bertha, who, in 1888, undertook the first long distance journey by car, were far-sighted automobile pioneers… but even they would be amazing by the role the car plays in 21st century life,” said Tom Purves, chairman of the Royal Automobile Club. “It is highly fitting that the 2016 Bonhams London to Brighton Veteran Car Run should honour Benz, his contemporaries and his country’s role in the history of the motor car.”
