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Alvises watching the London to Brighton VCC run
It rained, a LOT.
Three of us had decided to breakfast at Staplefield to watch the event.
Ray in the Riley had taken the scenic route from Piddinghoe whilst Jon with his newly acquired Alvis 12/50 Woodie met me on Brighton seafront in a lashing gale at 07.30.
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| Greasy Spoon, Gourmand and Oily Rag |
We trundled up the A23 at an estimated 45 - 50 mph; that’s the mid-point of the speedo’s oscillations from 30mph to off-the-clock (another winter job)
At Staplefield, Jon drove the Woodie onto or should that be into the common land; into, because it sank due to all the recent rain we’d had. Fortunately I had a rubber mat in the dickey seat to put under one of the rear wheels and there were three or four helpers on hand to push.
We found some hard-standing and Jon proceeded to fire up his two BBQs... One for the coffee and the other two-burner BBQ for the ...
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| .. and Shepherd Neame flavoured sausages. |
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| ...black pudding, bacon, eggs... |
And of course, this is the other reason we went there...
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| The way to arrive |
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| Doing it in style...1901 Panhard Levassor |
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| 1898 De Dion Bouton |
WOW...
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| ...the 1903 100hp 11.1 litre four cylinder Gordon Bennett Racing Napier...yes, that’s correct, the displacement of each of its four cylinders is the same as the total displacement of a 2.8 litre Daimler Sovereign... |
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| The sun shines on the... |
Heading back to the Jack and Jill Inn at Clayton I lost the group when I got stuck behind some of the veteran cars so I headed back to Brighton via Ditchling and with some trepidation I drove up over the Beacon and was very pleased to have done it in third gear; double-declutching from third to second whilst driving up a hill is completely beyond me!
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