A brief history of UK motoring

The motor vehicle was invented and developed on the Continent (and a manufacturing industry established) well before the turn of the 19th century, but here restrictive laws held progress back. Only in 1896 was the "Emancipation Act" passed, raising the speed limit from 4 to 10 miles an hour. To mark the occasion a procession of cars set out from London to drive to Brighton - a most daring undertaking in those days. One car is said to have travelled by train! This event is commemorated annually by the Veteran Car Club of Great Britain Commemoration Run, formerly known as "The Old Crocks Run", when 300 or so vehicles, each constructed before the end of 1904, set out from Hyde Park. They provide a panorama of the formative period of development of the motor vehicle from the quaint and trembling to the refined and sleek. By 1904, the conventional mechanical arrangement was established, and is only now being superseded, a water-cooled engine placed at the front, driving rear wheels through clutch and gearbox. Most of the vehicles on the London to Brighton Run each year are foreign made, but one of the finest of British cars is almost certain to be represented: the Lanchester.

Another famous car, the Rolls-Royce, which is still made to-day, also has a fascinating history. Henry Royce, a manufacturer of electrical machinery in Manchester, had owned a Decauville - a French made car. He became increasingly dissatisfied with it and felt he could produce something better himself. He built several experimental cars which were conventional in design but manufactured to the highest engineering standards and ran smoothly and quietly. The Hon. Charles Rolls, a pioneer sporting motorist and car dealer, had been looking for a first-class British car to represent. He met Royce, was impressed; went into partnership and in 1904 the first Rolls-Royce appeared. By 1911 the make had established itself as the "Best Car in the World". A popular myth is that on the death of Sir Henry Royce in 1933 the red enamel of the Rolls-Royce badge was changed to black. However, it was actually done for colour co-ordination reasons and so it remains to this day.

Sussex has also been a centre for motor sport. Speed trials were held annually at Brighton and Bexhill, and Goodwood possesses a racing circuit, reopened in 1998. Cars have been built in Sussex too. In 1895 Magnus Volk, the Brighton inventor, built an experimental electric car. It never went into production, but his railway, the first electric railway in Britain, still operates on Brighton beach. In 1901, Lonsdale began building single cylinder cars at Hove. At Shoreham Harry Ricardo manufactured his famous engines and later the Dolphin car driven by a very early V8 engine.

Perhaps the most successful British make in the history of motor sport was the Bentley. W. O. Bentley, who had raced foreign made cars before the First World War, designed a light sporting car for road use based on the racing cars of several years earlier. The first production models appeared in 1921. Between then and the collapse of the Company in 1931 (the name was bought and continued by Rolls-Royce) a whole series of different models was produced. The Bentley will always be remembered for its many successes in the Le Mans 24 hour race, coming first in 1924, 1927, 1928, 1929 and 1930. The events of the 1927 race are part of motoring history. In the fifth hour of the race, just as dusk was falling, a French entered car crashed at the tricky 'White House Corner'. Two of the Bentleys immediately following were unable to avoid the wreckage and were put out of the race, but the third driven by 'Sammy' Davis, though badly damaged, was extricated and went on to win.

Bentleys were heavy and powerful, quite different from their continental counterparts. Ettore Bugatti, the great French designer, the great French designer whose cars were delicate and temperamental but brilliantly successful in competitions, described the Bentley as 'Le Camion le plus vite'! - 'The fastest lorry'!

Click here for a gallery of pictures of motor vehicles both in the museum and on our Vehicle Event Days.