Autocar will support the Royal Automobile Club as it hosts the world-famous Emancipation Run, planned to take place this year on Sunday 7 November.
The London to Brighton Emancipation Run will celebrate 125 years since the original run between the two cities took place, commemorating the passing of the Locomotive on the Highway Act into British law.
On Saturday 14 November 1896, the law increased the speed limit from 4mph to 14mph, effectively ending centuries of horse-drawn transport and allowing motorised vehicles ‘the freedom of the road.’
Hundreds of pre-1905 three and four-wheeled vehicles are expected to gather for the event, as they follow a similar route from the capital city to the Sussex coast.
“As the world’s oldest car magazine, and having celebrated our 125th anniversary last November, it is fitting that Autocar joins forces with the London-Brighton run to recognise this era-defining moment in British motoring history,” said Mark Tisshaw, Autocar's editor. “As a weekly magazine and latterly also as a website, we’ve been there to report on all of the most seminal moments of automotive news and we feel proud to be right at the heart of the London-Brighton celebrations.”
Autocar, founded one year before the original Emancipation Run took place, acclaimed the significant law change back in 1896 with a special ‘red-letter-day’ issue printed entirely in red ink.
“What could be more appropriate than the world’s longest running motoring event teaming up with the world’s oldest car magazine?” said Ben Cussons, Chairman of the Royal Automobile Club. “The London to Brighton Run and Autocar have enviable and intertwined pedigrees dating right back to the dawn of motoring in the UK. Now, together, we will be celebrating the very special significance that the legendary Emancipation Run has to both our heritages,” Cussons said.
Highlights of Autocar’s previous reportage of the run can be seen online.
It comes as Autocar prepares to launch a digital archive of the 126-year old magazine. Every issue printed since the magazine was founded in 1895 has been digitised and will be made accessible via a dedicated online archive later this year.
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