Wanted to watch this for years, so finally this year I dragged myself out of bed at 6am on a cold, wet Sunday morning, and stood on Westminster Bridge for a couple of hours to see them all drive past. Sorry if some are out of focus, I cannot camera good.

My favourite is the guy with the fedora and mustache, sitting alone in his open top car, grimly determined to press on all the way to Brighton, without any passengers to offer moral support. I hope that guy is having a great day today.

EDIT: didn't expect this to be so popular. Here's a dump of all 300 unedited pics I took. Most are junk but there are a few good ones: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/01sp8efgyarrnoj1wn6ta/DSC02136.zip?rlkey=20gh11r7q1hmfrxq50t4drw19&st=wlb57jw9&dl=0

by BigDumbGreenMong

46 comments

  1. Cracking pics and what an absolutely fantastic event. Would love to join in one year.

  2. I have always loved this event. Used to go and watch them in Crawley High Street where they have a pit stop. Must have been pretty miserable for them yesterday.

  5. Saw some of these guys going up past Stockwell and Clapham South stations yesterday morning.

    The weather was awful and I felt bad that they chose a day so windy and rainy lol

  7. Why are they insane enough to have this race in November instead of July when there’s an actual chance for sunshine?

  8. Brilliant pics – my favourite is 6th from the end – the bloke with a bowler hat and (presumably?) partner. With no modern reference points in the foreground it it could plausibly be from an earlier time… until you spot the mass of glass skyscrapers looming behind.

  9. These are brilliant! Thanks so much for sharing.

    Brought back memories of Mary Poppins 🥰 would be honoured to drive or be driven in one of those, rain or shine!

  15. Wow, some amazing pics of amazing cars. Makes me wish I’d been there, despite the rain.

  17. Wow! Just typed the reg ‘AM 1530’ into the Gov vehicle enquiry service and it comes up as a 1909 Sunbeam.

  18. did you ever watch the film, The Great Race? You’d love that.

  20. Thanks! It’s such a unique experience. You should definitely give it a go next year.

  22. Anyone else have “…bang bang Chitty Chitty Bang Bang…” In their head?

  23. Why does it feel like I’m looking at the same people but in different moods

  25. u/BigDumbGreenMong

    Any chance you could send a higher res photo of the last car?

  27. This is really cool. Probably the best thing I’ll see on Reddit today. One of them must be an import as it has the steering wheel on the left.

  28. No Chitty Chitty Bang Bang!! Great pics though, shame about the weathe

  29. I saw them going through Brixton in the pouring rain. I was too late to get a photo. These are great

  30. Nice!

    They could be doing that in July tho, just saying…

  31. These are fantastic, you really captured the spirit of the event. That determination in the rain is what makes it so special to watch. I can’t imagine how cold and wet that must have been for the drivers.

  33. The best thing about Car runs is that you don’t have to do it.. especially in miserable weather just saying.

  35. I always find out about things the day after 😆

    I live only a 15/20 minutes walk from here.

    I’ve missed epic Viking boats and all sorts of things… and it’s literally up the road from me.

  36. I’m so sad they don’t come past my house any more. It used to be a great morning with the kids cheering them on, and usually some were breaking down by then and pulling into the nearby petrol station to do some repairs, which was fascinating to watch and then we could look up the results and see if they got to Brighton.

    They pretty much all did, often with other cars stopping to help out and share parts.

  37. Dammit I never know about these until after the fact. Thanks for the pics

  40. This looks like an absolute lark and really enjoyable. Glad you snapped the pics OP I didn’t even know it was a thing and will now be looking out for it yearly.

  41. I mean… fair play, I would have just checked the weather and said nah, not this year.

  43. Europe has such beautiful architecture I’m so jealous as an American.

  44. Anybody else expecting to see Montgomery Burns? Great pics by the way.

  45. Thank you so much for sharing these photos! My mum used to do the London to Brighton run in the 1969s in her Standard Avon Special.
    She’ll love seeing your photos.

  46. They much belch out some right pollutants!
    I hope they paid the ULEZ

    /s

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