What am I doing, playing spot the other car on the M3 at 5.00am on a cold, dark, foggy Sunday morning in November, memories of a nice warm bed still lingering in my mind. No I'm not trying to find a Hotel for a CAAR Rally, I am on route to London, in my 1963 Morris Minor, heading for the Royal Automobile Club in Pall Mall were I am meeting Tomasz Skrzelinski and two of his friends from Poland. They are taking part in the RAC London to Brighton Veteran Car Run.Just how did I get myself in this predicament? I suppose it all started with a phone call from Poland, this lead to a few more phone calls and faxes, which lead to me driving to Heathrow Airport early on a Friday Evening to meet Tomasz and his friends and bring them home.
I already suspected that there would be problems, the car they were going to use, a 1896 Peugeot Vis-a-vis, was in a museum in Coventry, the owner lived in Australia, and Tomasz, who is Polish, was now in Aldershot with only a few phone numbers and no idea how he was going to meet with the car. After a few more phone calls it still wasn't clear exactly what was happening, except that the car was on its way to London and we had the name of the hotel they were staying in, so we went to bed none the wiser. Still this is typical Polish.
Saturday mornng we all piled back into the Morris and drove back to London. After eventually finding the Royal Automobile Club in Pall Mall they could not help and told us that all the information had been sent to the Museum in Coventry. They did tell us that most of the cars parked overnight in an underground car park in Park Lane.
So off we went, and although there were a lot of cars in the car park, no 1896 Peugeot. We did not even know what the car looked like. More phone calls and message leaving and I eventually left Tomasz and his friend with another friend who lived in Richmond and drove home.
Late that evening the phone rang, "Martin can you please pick us up from the Royal Automobile Club and take us to the hotel to meet with the Car"
"Yes, what time"
"Could you be there by 6.00am"
So that's why I am driving down the Motorway at 5.00am on a cold, dark, foggy Sunday November morning.
I arrived at The Royal Automobile Club, which incidently is a superb hotel and club, and meet Tomasz just finishing his breakfast. He looked rally excited as this was something he had all ways wanted to do. My job was to take all the luggage and one of Tomasz's friends, who is a journalist, and follow them all the way to Brighton. We drove round to the other hotel and there was the car. It looked great, well it looked a bit like an old pram, but it was as original and had not been restored. Why was Tomasz driving this car? Besides the fact that Tomasz is a lunatic, this model Peugeot was the first car in Poland and an exact replica of this car has been made. Last year it was planed to drive the replica from Warsaw to Paris. This never came about, but when the opportunity arose for the original car to be used on the London to Brighton exactly 100 years after the date it entered Poland, Tomasz could not turn it down.
This was also the first year ever that a team from Poland had entered the run.
Soon after arriving at the hotel the museum staff came out and started the car. This involved lighting two gas burners to warm up the "spark plugs" and then cranking over the engine until it started. This seemed to work fairly well and the engine soon roared, well purred into life. With all aboard they then left for the first stage of the run, driving to the start line. We followed for a short distance and then had to via off to find somewhere to park. Would you believe it, there was a traffic jam at 6.30 on a Sunday morning. Hyde Park was a hive of activity as the Veteran cars, over 400 of them, were arriving. Tomasz was number 7 and was due to leave at 7.30 sharp in the first batch. We made our way on foot to the start line but could not see the Peugeot. Were was it? The worst that could happen was for the car not to make the start! We waited. Time passes, we walked up and down looking at the other cars, still no Tomasz. We waited. Still no Tomasz. By this time most of the cars in the first batch had arrived, but still no Tomasz or Peugeot. We waited. Then out of the glum we saw them chugging there way thought the other cars to there start position. They had had carburettor problems but it was now fixed and me engine was running fine. Tomasz looked very happy, all was set for the start of the 1997 RAC London to Brighton Veteran Car Run.
They were off. Not exactly a grand prix start, some were pushed, some were peddled and some seemed to kangaroo, but they all left and joined the streets of London. The route takes them from Hyde Park, past Parliament square, Lambeth Town Hall, Thornton Heath, Croydon, Purley, Redhill, Gatwick, Crawley, Cuckfield, Burgess Hill, Pyecombe and finally to Brighton Madeira Drive, some 58 miles.
We stayed at the start to watch some of the other cars leave, knowing that with a top speed of lOmph it would not take us long to catch up with the Peugeot. True to form we soon came up behind them, overtook them and then waited for them to catch us up. It was quite an experience driving through the streets of London being "cut up" by cars built over 90 years ago. They would overtake on both sides, even on the "wrong" side of the road. They did not stop for anything, including red lights. Maybe they were still driving to the rules of the road at the turn of the century.
As we continued along the route, regularly stopping to wait for the Peugeot to catch us up, it started to get very cold and misty and the traffic was starting to increase.. By 8.30 we had covered the first 5 miles. Yes, just 5 miles and they made there first stop to check the water. We had already surmised that with a top speed of lOmph it was going to take at least 6 hours to get to Brighton. But only 5 miles in the first hour! Grim. Still Tomasz and the team were determined to make it to the Finish by 4.30pm to get their finishers medal, and they were soon on their way again.
The next 3 to 4 hours were easier going and they made good progress. Each time we saw them Tomasz would be waving the Polish Flag or leaning over the back of the car topping up the water. All seemed to be going well, until their first long hill.
The car just seemed to die and just could not get up. They all got out, even the driver, set the throttle to a fast tick over and pushed the car up. This seemed to work until it just got too hot and started to boil over. After obtaining some more water from a friendly Land Rover dealer they continued and made the top of the hill. Back in and off they went. This then became the procedure at every hill.
By the time they arrived at the official coffee stop at Crawley they were nearly the last car! They were due to arrive from about 9.10, it was now past midday. This gave them just four hours to cover about 20 miles. On they went, not even stopping to spend a penny knowing that the worst hills were still to come.
And indeed there were some steeper hills. No way was the car going to make them, they pushed until it just stopped. However the rules do allow for a tow up two of the worst hills and a service vehicle was on hand and pulled them up. They were still mobile.
By about 3.00 they still had about 10 miles to cover, including the traffic in Brighton. I had to leave them and drove into Brighton to try and find a parking space. By the time I had parked, some distance from the finish line, and walked down it was now 4.00pm. We had no idea where they were and just waited. I met up with Mike and Jenny Taylor who had been there since 2.00pm. Most of me cars had arrived hours ago, and were now leaving to go home. We looked up the road, and yes, here they come. At 4.15pm they crossed the finishing line, 15minutes to spare. They had made it!
As they parked up they received a heros welcome and the champagne flowed. Tomasz was over the moon but by the time we got round to taking photographs it was getting dark, and within about 15 minutes of the car arriving it was winched onto a trailer and was gone. It was all over.
Although it was a hard long day, in fact a hard long weekend, we all felt a sense of achievement. Tomasz had fulfilled a dream. He was the first Pole to take part and complete the London to Brighton Veteran Car Run, and I was proud to be a part of it. As to next year, well lets see.
Martin Carter
Fact File
Tomasz Skrzelinski is the founding President of CAAR Poland. He is well known to all of us who have taken part in the Polish Rallies, Route 66 and Amsterdam Moscow.
Since the run he has appeared on several Polish television programmes and many articles have been published in the Press.