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Reg hacks crawl from London to Brighton

Cantankerous 1904 jalopy no match for PARIS team

You might imagine that the Paper Aircraft Released Into Space team would be taking a well-deserved Caribbean beach break following their recent high-altitude triumph, but no sooner had the dust settled on PARIS than we were ready to face a new, and perhaps even more daunting challenge: the London to Brighton Veteran Car Run.

It just so happens that our own John Oates owns a 1904 Crestmobile, in which his dad Jeremy had himself done a few London-to-Brightons before deciding to symbolically pass the starting handle to his son:

As John explained, and as anyone who's ever driven a 1904 Crestmobile will know, this act didn't exactly represent the tearful transfer of a beloved heirloom, but rather the bequest of a family curse guaranteed to bring rain, hypothermia and starting-handle elbow to the male heir.

Still, despite the fact he and his jalopy have finished just five of ten starts in the last decade, and obviously having forgotten the severe pasting he took from the weather last year, John looked rather chipper at 7am in Hyde Park on Sunday:

John Oates and in his 1904 Crestmobile in Hyde Park

Petrolhead aficionados of old school vehicles will doubtless appreciate our neighbours in the paddock, including a couple of 1904 Cadillacs...

A couple of Cadillacs in Hyde Park

...and a Vulcan from the same year:

Our neighbouring 1904 Vulcan

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