Sporting Bears - Grand Day Out To Brighton

7 November 1999

When I first spoke to Joe Rayner about 2 months ago to get details of this event, it seemed like a good idea to get up at the crack of dawn in order to make the breakfast and meet by 8am. However, when Sunday finally dawned (I use the term loosely!), my enthusiasm was not so great.

Anyway the V8 started first time and seemed keen to get under way. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky when we set off, which turned out to be a big problem. Our journey to the start near Redhill took us east along the M40) and then south east along the M25 - yes straight into the low, bright rising sun! Having been dazzled for over 40 miles, it was with some relief that we arrived at The Sportsman at Mogador. We parked up with the array of very impressive machinery and went in for our much appreciated breakfast. I must say the pub did us proud - I was a bit apprehensive in view of the horror stories of last year’s start point!

On time at 9.15 we all assembled in the car park to be flagged away at minute intervals. We were soon underway following the excellent instructions and, before long, we were joining up with part of the London to Brighton Veteran Route. It was quite amazing to see some of the entrants motoring  along the A23 - keeping up with the 1999 Euroboxes. It seems that quite a few of the veterans were steam driven as those following were enveloped in a white cloud!

The route was paced about right, criss-crossing the Veteran Run. The V8 likes to stretch its legs occasionally - so it was good to turn off the main run and let it off the lead. We made good time to the coffee stop at The Fountain Inn, where we enjoyed a welcome cuppa and spent a leisurely half hour watching the entrants go by. Some of the costumes were quite amazing - wonderful hats and clothes in keeping with the age of the vehicles. There were also a lot of hats, scarves, gloves and blankets as very few of the runners actually had a roof or a heater!

We re-joined the run and were following a 1901 Albion with the rear passenger sifting facing us. We passed some comment about not wanting to go over a bump too fast in that position, when, while going down an incline the car suddenly veered to the left, bumped over the edge of the road and ended up nose first in the hedge, throwing the front seat passenger out on the way. We stopped and ran back to help. Fortunately no-one was hurt - just very shaken, and the rear seat passenger had stayed put. It seems that the steering linkage had snapped and the driver had been unable to stop in time.

A group of us got the car out of the hedge and collected up as much  debris as we could.  There is going to be a lot of hard work needed to put the car back to its former condition, as the front panel and mudguards were damaged, and these were made of wood.  Unfortunately, the beautiful brass lamp on the front also suffered in the impact and I think could be difficult to replace.  I flagged down a passing policeman (there is sometimes one around when you need one!) and left him to sort out the recovery.

A little subdued by our experience we continued on the route, deciding to head for Brighton for our picnic. We found our secure parking at Brighton College and unpacked our food on an adjacent bench, much to the amusement of passing students.