St James’s Motoring Spectacle

Building on the successes of the Regent Street Motor Show and St James’s International Concours, the Royal Automobile Club has announced the St James’s Motoring Spectacle for Saturday, 2 November.

Like its predecessors, this new free-to-attend event will take place on the eve of the London to Brighton Veteran Car Run, during a week of Club activities known as  London Motor Week.  A new home on Pall Mall, in the heart of St James’s, where the Club’s London Clubhouse is situated, will be closed to traffic for the day thanks to support from Westminster City Council.

With five dedicated zones along the Mall, the unique and innovative Motoring Spectacle will celebrate motoring past, present and future, with significant focus on both educational activities and how today’s carmakers are embracing sustainability.

The first zone will host the St James’s Concours featuring around 70 of the pre-1905 pioneers participating in the following day’s Veteran Car Run.

In zone two, title sponsor of the Veteran Run, RM Sotheby’s will feature a collection of significant cars in the auction taking place on the same day, and which itself boasts a brand-new venue in the Peninsula London hotel on Hyde Park Corner.

An educational display charting the history of the car with a focus on alternative technologies and sustainability will fill zone three, while the fourth zone will present a timeline on how motoring has developed from the end of the horse-drawn carriage era, through internal combustion engines, and on to the latest generation of modern electric power. 

The final zone will put the focus on modern design, providing the public with the opportunity to see some of the most spectacular super and hypercars.  The emphasis, though, will be on how today’s manufacturers are embracing cutting-edge technology to meet – and exceed – sustainability mandates.

This November’s Veteran Car Run is honouring the 120th anniversary of the Ladies’ Automobile Club, which staged its first ever event at The Athenaeum Club on Waterloo Place and the Carlton House Terrace in 1904.