02-10-2021, 07:55 AM
The London to Edinburgh trial, no longer starts in London and doesn't end in Edinburgh!
Loads & loads of pictures here. Plenty of Austin 7s as well.
https://austinharris.co.uk/event/mcc-lon...-edinburgh
From the link above as worth a quick read:
The Edinburgh Trial was the first of the club’s big three trials.
Starting out from central London in 1904 motor cyclists had just 24 hours to reach Edinburgh city centre.
Whilst officials took the night train to keep ahead of the pioneers on their motor cycles, they faced a 400-mile challenge following the great North Road to Harrogate. They then criss crossed the dales and fells of Northern England, onwards through the Scottish Borders before racing into Edinburgh. This a decade before The Great War, when tarmac had only been patented in 1902, Orville Wright had not yet flown a powered aircraft and the Taj Mahal hadn’t even opened!
Despite these hardships the MCC only took a couple of years before claiming that London to Edinburgh was too easy, so doubled the length and made it London to Edinburgh and back to London, in 48 hours. After that cars were then allowed to enter, and the die was cast.
Loads & loads of pictures here. Plenty of Austin 7s as well.
https://austinharris.co.uk/event/mcc-lon...-edinburgh
From the link above as worth a quick read:
The Edinburgh Trial was the first of the club’s big three trials.
Starting out from central London in 1904 motor cyclists had just 24 hours to reach Edinburgh city centre.
Whilst officials took the night train to keep ahead of the pioneers on their motor cycles, they faced a 400-mile challenge following the great North Road to Harrogate. They then criss crossed the dales and fells of Northern England, onwards through the Scottish Borders before racing into Edinburgh. This a decade before The Great War, when tarmac had only been patented in 1902, Orville Wright had not yet flown a powered aircraft and the Taj Mahal hadn’t even opened!
Despite these hardships the MCC only took a couple of years before claiming that London to Edinburgh was too easy, so doubled the length and made it London to Edinburgh and back to London, in 48 hours. After that cars were then allowed to enter, and the die was cast.