Accompanied by the smells of oil, soot and petrol, and the sound of two and four-stroke engines starting with a cough, cars begin to set off, many of them with passengers dressed in period costume. The best of British, and the rest of the veteran car world, all built before 1905, converge on London's Hyde Park in readiness for the annual London to Brighton RAC Veteran Car Run. This run is not a race, for the cars are limited to an average speed of 20 mph. The finishing line is in Madeira Drive, Brighton, where all who manage to complete the run line up proudly to be admired by all, inspected and photographed. This annual event began on Saturday, 14 Nov 1896, to celebrate the passing into law of the Locomotives on the Highway Act, which raised the speed limit from 4 mph to 14 mph and abolished the requirement for vehicles to be preceded by a man on foot! No need for the man on foot to carry a red flag had been abolished 18 years previously, in 1878, but the Locomotive A! ct was still known as "The Red Flag Act" and a red flag was symbolically destroyed by Lord Winchilsea at the start of the 1896 run. Only 14 of the 33 cars that started in 1896 reached Brighton, although it is rumoured that one car was taken by train and covered with mud prior to crossing the finishing line! Prince Michael of Kent, President of the RAC, has been a regular participant, having driven a variety of vehicles including a 1900 Daimler, 1903 De Dietrich, 1904 Mercedes and 1930 Napier over the years. In 1971, Her Majesty the Queen entered the run, but did not drive, in a 70-year-old Daimler once driven by her father, King George VI, and originally owned by her great-grandfather King Edward VII. It was he who commanded that the Automobile club of Great Britain and Ireland should be known as the Royal Automobile Club.