(whimsical music) - I am Bruce van Sloan.

I'm the president of the Antique Car Run.

It's a lot of work, believe it or not.

So this commemorates the London to Brighton run and that was done to celebrate the removal of restrictions on speed of the cars in England.

So prior to the revocation of the red flag law they had all kinds of restrictions.

You had eight miles an hour, you had to have somebody walking in front of you waving a red flag.

And it was obviously put a lot of damper on the people who wanted to drive their cars around.

So when they got enough power to change that law, there was a celebration and they so they drove from London to Brighton, which was 65 miles.

And so to honor of that, we do the New London to New Brighton.

(whimsical music) We worked on this run pretty much for an entire year.

On this year's run, I'll be driving my 1907 Model S Ford and that's the green one behind me there.

And that's a very nice car and a nice car to drive.

It's very reliable and simple car to drive.

The Model A Ford came out in 1903.

That was the first car that Ford sold and they came out with a Model B and Model C, they came up with a Model F, K, N, R, and S and that's the Model S that I drive.

And then they came up with the famous Model T. So a lot of people think that the Model T was the first Ford car that was ever made and that's not true.

It was the Model A in 1903.

(whimsical music) I was inspired, a very dear friend of mine, and I would sit and watch in New Brighton we'd see all of these antique cars come in.

And I was into cars, but I was into sports cars, and I'd see all of these crazy cars that would come in.

One cylinder, two cylinder, and there's smoke billowing out and steam cars.

And it was, people would be grit in their oil covered faces.

And it was, they were determined.

I've gotta have that.

I've gotta do that.

And some of them coming in at a blistering 12 miles an hour limping in with one, it's just crazy.

So it's, "I gotta do that."

(whimsical music) So the London to Brighton starts in downtown London and so you've gotta fight London traffic all the way out.

And the antique cars are very, very challenging.

They're temperamental.

So all that stop and go traffic is really, really hard to drive in.

So yes, this is a bit easier, but it does get more challenging as we get into the city, as well, when we start driving with modern cars.

(whimsical music) We have pre-tours and we use them for shakedown.

For instance, this year we've had a number of cars that have experienced some problems.

And so the goal is to shake these things out, find the problems, identify 'em, fix 'em, hopefully.

And get them, everything, all set.

Get 'em all tuned up for the Brighton run on Saturday.

That's one of the really fun things about this particular event is these are some of these are extremely rare cars and it would be very unusual to see them in a museum setting.

Here you're seeing them, they're running and sometimes they're broken.

So now you get to really get inside and see how the technology used at that particular time, that particular manufacturer's approach to a particular technical problem, sort it out.

So everybody's willing to come in and get their hands dirty and sort stuff out.

And we've got people that are making parts and cobbling stuff together.

So it's quite a challenge.

(whimsical music) Getting 125 miles out of an antique car is quite an accomplishment.

So this is on, if you're into really early cars, this is on a lot of people's bucket list to make that run.

(horn honking) You wouldn't believe how much elation you get when you get over that run the first time.

Oh, that finish line.

For 36 years, people have been coming from all over the United States and Canada.

We've got people from England, have people from Australia.

But this is a pretty unique run.

There are a few younger people and my daughter has been on this run and we've got some young people on the run that they're in their thirties, that their family has been doing the run and they've inherited the car.

There are some younger people that are doing it but we'd love to see more younger people doing it.

(whimsical music)