The Royal Automobile Club is delighted to announce that the island of Madeira is once again its exclusive travel partner for the 2025 RM Sotheby’s London to Brighton Veteran Car Run. The collaboration renews a perfect combination of destinations for the enjoyment of historic cars set against dramatic scenery.
 
Every year hundreds of participants set out at dawn from Hyde Park in the heart of the capital city heading for the very welcome warmth of the finishing line in the Sussex seaside resort of Brighton on the world-famous Madeira Drive – as it has done for decade after decade.
 
Its Madeira namesake, located off the coast of west Africa and blessed with a subtropical climate, has long been a coveted, year-round holiday destination with visitors of all ages. It offers everything from seaside resorts with warm waters and rugged volcanic mountains to its own delicious food and wine.
 
Indeed, mouth-watering Madeira delicacies will be offered to all those weary veteran car crews reaching Madeira Drive on Sunday 2 November.
 
Madeira has been associated with the East Cliff seafront in Brighton ever since the first Madeira Road was opened behind the new sea wall in 1870.
 
Victorian travellers had been impressed by the island’s luxuriant gardens and healthy temperatures, and so the name had the perfect cachet for what was becoming a very chic sea-bathing resort just a short train-journey from London.
 
Furthering the close association, a green wall in the style of Madeira’s terraced gardens was also planted and survives today above the shoreline’s iconic, cast-iron covered Madeira Terrace promenade. This was created at the end of the 19th century to protect the growing numbers of visitors from the rain and sun. Topically, restoration of these iconic, turquoise arches and the green wall has recently commenced.
 
Madeira Road was tarmacked in 1905 in time for the first ‘Motor Race Week’ which saw three world speed records broken, and was then renamed Madeira Drive in 1909.
 
“It is hard to imagine a more appropriate partnership than one between the RM Sotheby’s London to Brighton Veteran Car Run and the island of Madeira,” agreed Duncan Wiltshire, Chairman of the Royal Automobile Club, custodian of the world’s longest running motoring event since 1930.
 
“Both Madeira Drive and Madeira itself are much desired destinations with strong historic links. The former is the goal for all those intrepid travellers aboard their veteran cars, the latter the perfect journey’s end for anyone seeking a holiday whether for relaxation, adventure sports or culinary treats. Madeira has it all.”
 
As well as its welcoming geography, cuisine and weather, Madeira boasts a vibrant vintage and classic car community with strong historic links to the United Kingdom.
 
The first car – a Birmingham-built 10hp Wolseley  – was brought to the island in January 1904 by the British businessman Bernard Harvey Foster, who was planning to spend a warmer winter there and did not want to forgo the pleasure of driving.

The ‘Ten Horsepower Invader’, as the machine became known, marked the beginning of the history of the automobile on the island, with a surprising number of the cars that followed surviving until the present day.
 
Indeed, there are so many old and well-preserved cars there, the island’s motoring heritage is celebrated with several exhibitions and rallies. The most notable is the annual Madeira Classic Car Revival. Held in May at the same time as the ever-popular Flower Festival, it brings together around 500 cherished vehicles from yesteryear.

“Madeira has a passionate car culture and that’s just one of the many, many attractions which has made the island such a popular destination with UK travellers for more than a century,” confirmed Eduardo Jesus, Regional Secretary of Tourism, Environment and Culture and President of Madeira’s Promotion Bureau
.
“It’s all these longstanding ties, coupled with the fact the world famous London to Brighton Veteran Car Run terminates on Madeira Drive, that makes this partnership so appropriate and so special.” 

Madeira Classic Car Revival images ©Andre Ferreira