aston martin at classic car run The poet Louis MacNeice celebrated the pleasure of riding in cars: Riding in cars / On tilting roads / We have left behind / Our household gods. That was then - the 1930s - when roads were free and open, not the congested roads of today's South East. The Classic Car Run tries to salvage some of the feel of the halcyon days of motoring. The organisers's website tells us that 'With a fully detailed and easy to read “tulip” style route book, entrants drive at their own pace through picturesque villages and along unspoilt minor roads to the official stopping point'.

The Classic Car Run is open to any car registered on or before 31st December 1981. So the Triumph Herald, Ford Anglia, Alfa Romeo, Rolls Royce and many other cars from former days can be seen side by side along Madeira Drive.

The event also includes kit cars, and very impressive pieces of kit they are.

In fact, two events are combined in one: The Classic Car Run and the Kit and Sports Car Run.

commentator with mike On the day, the cars enter the Drive from the east via Duke's Mound. As each car approaches the parking area the driver is briefly interviewed by the MC. He has such an extensive knowledge of classic and kit cars that listening to him is like listening to an ad hoc lecture on the history of the motor car.