Sunday 1 November, free to watch. First cars cross the line on Madeira Drive just before 10am, the paddock shuts at 4.30pm, and no unaccredited vehicle gets down there at all.
The RM Sotheby’s London to Brighton Veteran Car Run finishes on Madeira Drive on Sunday 1 November 2026. Watching it is free, the first cars appear just before 10am, and the finish paddock closes at 4.30pm. The one rule that trips people up every year: if your vehicle is not on the run, you are not getting onto Madeira Drive. Come on foot.
Every time and figure below comes from the Royal Automobile Club’s own event pages and the council’s own 2026 events programme, checked on 4 September 2026.
The times that matter in Brighton
| What | When | Where |
|---|---|---|
| First cars leave Hyde Park | from sunrise, about 6.56am | Serpentine Road, London |
| Last car leaves London | about 8.30am | Hyde Park |
| Official finish opens | 10.00am | Madeira Drive |
| Slower cars still arriving | through the day | Madeira Drive |
| Finish paddock closes | 4.30pm | Madeira Drive |
The organisers list the Brighton finish as 1 November 2026, 10:00 to 16:30, Madeira Drive, with cars beginning to arrive from 10am “with the slower vehicles arriving as late as 4.30pm”. So there is no single moment to turn up for. Mid-morning gets you the fast steam and petrol cars; the middle of the day is the busiest; late afternoon gets you the ones that have had a hard time of it, which is often the better watch.
Where to stand
There are two official paddocks on the whole 60-mile route, and one of them is ours: Hyde Park at the start and Madeira Drive at the finish, both barriered so you can see the vehicles at close quarters. Madeira Drive is the strip of seafront road below the Marine Parade cliff, east of the Palace Pier, running towards Black Rock.
The council’s programme books the run onto Madeira Drive and Black Rock with 1,200 participants, with the build starting on 29 October and derig on 2 November. That is a three-day occupation of the road, not a one-day one, so the seafront is affected either side of the Sunday.
Good free vantage points, in rough order of how early you need to be there:
- Madeira Drive itself, behind the barriers. Busiest near the finish gantry at the western end.
- The Madeira Terrace walkway and Marine Parade above it, looking down on the cars as they come in. You get the whole line rather than one car at a time.
- The seafront approach further west, near the Aquarium roundabout, where the cars come off Grand Junction Road and turn in.
Access, parking and getting there
The organisers put it bluntly: cars and bikes not associated with the run and without valid identification will not be allowed access to Madeira Drive, and supporters are told to arrive on foot.
That means the sensible plan is train or bus to the centre and walk down. Brighton station is about 20 minutes’ walk from the finish. If you must drive, park well back from the seafront and expect the streets nearest Madeira Drive to be busy from mid-morning; the resident zones stay in force on a Sunday in most of central Brighton, so read our Brighton parking guide before you pick a street.
No temporary traffic order for 1 November had been published as of 4 September. The council’s register of current traffic regulation orders carries nothing for the run, and orders only appear there once sealed. Worth knowing from last year’s programme: the council noted no road closure on the build day, so the closure is the event day itself rather than the whole build period. Check the roadworks and travel page in the last week of October for the sealed order.
What you are actually looking at
The run is the descendant of the Emancipation Run of 1896, held to celebrate the Locomotives on Highways Act, which raised the speed limit for light locomotives from 4mph to 14mph and abolished the requirement for a man to walk ahead of the vehicle waving a red flag. The Royal Automobile Club has run it since 1930 and calls it the world’s longest-running motoring event.
The entry rule is strict and it is why the field looks the way it does: every vehicle must have been built before 1905. Expect petrol, steam and electric cars, plus early motorcycles and penny farthings. Hyde Park has been the start since 1936.
It is not a race. There are no published finishing positions. Anyone who reaches Madeira Drive by 4.30pm gets a finisher’s medal, and that is the whole competition. In 2023 the organisers reported nearly 350 starters and 328 finishers, 301 of them motor vehicles and 27 motorcycles or cyclists, which tells you how much of the field breaks down on the way. The 2026 entry list is published on the organisers’ site and was still growing when we checked.
Practical notes
- It is free. There is no ticket for spectating at either paddock.
- It is cold. Early November on an exposed seafront, standing still for two hours. Dress for it.
- Toilets and food are available from the Madeira Drive restaurants and kiosks, per the organisers.
- Photography is easiest from the terrace above, because you are not shooting through barriers or heads.
- The run is the last item in a week of Royal Automobile Club events, from 28 October onwards. All of the rest are in London, so Brighton gets the Sunday and nothing else.
Nothing about the Brighton finish is still TBC. The date, the times and the location are all confirmed by the organisers and by the council’s own booking. The only outstanding item is the sealed traffic order, expected in the second half of October.
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