Everyday

Burns and McRae on a Public Road: St James’s Motoring Spectacle 2026

Level of Challenge

★★★★★

Gentle challenge

Quarter Past Nine

The St James’s Motoring Spectacle was due to open at ten. I reached Pall Mall at quarter past nine, and every car was already in place.

Those forty-five minutes were the best of the day. The crowds were still thin, so I could walk the whole street at my own pace, stop wherever I liked and take my photographs without waiting for a gap. If you have sight loss, as I do, that matters. An empty street is one you can wander. A packed one is one you have to negotiate.

And it does get packed. By the afternoon the people who planned their visit are joined by everyone who stumbles across it on a walk through the city, and the street fills.

Nothing Between You and the Cars

The Royal Automobile Club closes Pall Mall to traffic for the day and fills it with more than 150 vehicles, from cars built before 1905 to this season’s Formula One machinery. It is free. There are no tickets. You just turn up.

A bright blue Bugatti Chiron with a black roof faces the camera on Pall Mall, its horseshoe grille filled with a large blue number 16. To its right, across a paved island with a black lamp post, a silver Aston Martin Valhalla is parked nose on, with a teal supercar beyond it. A long line of hypercars stretches away down the street between pale stone buildings hung with Union flags, and visitors stand right beside the cars, photographing them. — A Bugatti Chiron and an Aston Martin Valhalla at the head of the hypercar line. The cars are parked on the road itself, and visitors can stand right beside them.

Because it happens on a public road, you can get right up to almost everything. Nothing was roped off except the Formula One and Le Mans cars, and that was only because their carbon fibre wings sit low enough to trip over. Even then, the ropes let you stand right beside them. The usual car show manners apply and you don’t touch, but there is no cordon holding you several feet back.

Two Subarus

Where else could you see Richard Burns’s rally car parked next to Colin McRae’s on a public street? Both were Subaru Imprezas. McRae’s wore the blue and yellow 555 colours of the years when he became Britain’s first world rally champion, in 1995. Burns’s carried his name and his co-driver Robert Reid’s on the window. Burns took the title in 2001.

A blue Subaru Impreza WRC rally car in Subaru World Rally Team livery, with bright yellow green stars and swooshes along its side, gold wheels and a white door panel carrying the number 5 and Network Q branding. Yellow lettering across the windscreen and bonnet reads 2001 Drivers’ Champion, and the names Burns and Reid appear on the rear side window. Parked alongside to the left is Colin McRae’s older blue Subaru Impreza in yellow 555 livery, with four large spotlamps across its bonnet. — Richard Burns’s Subaru Impreza WRC, lettered for his 2001 world title, with Colin McRae’s 555 Impreza parked alongside.

That range is what makes the Spectacle. Within a few minutes’ walk there were rally cars, the Aston Martin Valkyrie and Cadillac hypercars that race at Le Mans, Formula One cars, the newest road-going hypercars and a row of classics. At the far end were the veterans that leave for Brighton in the morning.

The Trophies People Walked Past

Outside the RAC clubhouse were two trophies. One was the British Grand Prix Trophy, which Charles Leclerc lifted at Silverstone in July. The other was the Tourist Trophy, first raced for in 1905 and due back in competition when the World Endurance Championship comes to Silverstone next April.

A few very friendly RAC staff were taking people’s phones and photographing them with the trophies, one person at a time. I had mine taken. I was surprised how easy it was to queue. Most people, I think, didn’t realise what they were looking at.

One of 39

The car I least expected was an RML GTH. RML Group, the motorsport engineering firm in Wellingborough, is building only 39 of them, each a Porsche 911 Turbo S reworked in the image of a Le Mans racer. I stumbled over it parked alongside a Bugatti Chiron and an Aston Martin Valhalla, with plenty more beyond.

A dark green RML GTH parked on Pall Mall, a heavily reworked Porsche 911 with a long, low nose, wide sculpted wheel arches, black multi spoke wheels with red brake callipers and a large rear wing mounted on tall supports. A crowd of visitors gathers around it on the pavement and in the road, several holding up phones and cameras, in front of pale stone buildings with arched doorways and Union flags. — The RML GTH, one of only 39 being built. RML Group reworks each one from a Porsche 911 Turbo S in the image of a Le Mans racer.

The classics weren’t forgotten. A Lamborghini Miura sat beside a Countach, in a display marking sixty years since the Miura put its engine behind the driver. Nearby were a Plymouth Superbird, with its long nose cone and towering rear wing, and a Lotus Europa, the small mid-engined coupé whose high, slab-sided tail earned it the nickname “bread van”.

A lime green Lamborghini Miura parked at an angle on Pall Mall in low autumn sunshine, with black slatted grilles around its round headlamps and across the bonnet. Behind it sit a yellow Lotus Europa with tall rear flanks, a red sports coupe and a purple Lamborghini Countach with a sharp wedge nose, beside a tall grey Automotive Anniversaries display board. Cream stucco buildings with balconies and flower baskets line the street. — A Lamborghini Miura in the anniversaries display, sixty years on from the car that put its engine behind the driver. A Lotus Europa and a Countach sit just behind.

Bound for Brighton

The London to Brighton cars were quite unbelievable. Every one was built before 1905, and their owners turn out in full period costume. Walking among them, you feel as though you have gone back in time. There was even a steam carriage, its tall chimney standing up behind the seats.

A dark brown 1898 Stephens veteran car on Pall Mall, with tall wire spoked wheels, a buttoned brown leather bench seat, brass lamps and a black registration plate reading AE 174. A round badge on its side marks it as a St James’s Motoring Spectacle Concours entrant for 2026, and a red paper poppy is fixed to the front. Other veteran cars with leather seats and brass fittings fill the street behind it. — The 1898 Stephens, a St James’s Concours entrant this year. Richard Stephens built it in Clevedon, Somerset, and it is one of only two of his cars known to survive.

The owners and drivers are on hand to chat, and you hear them going into great detail about their very special vehicles. Nobody needed persuading to talk.

A veteran steam carriage on Pall Mall with a dark wooden body on a bright yellow chassis, large yellow spoked wheels and two padded black leather bench seats, with a black carriage lamp on its side. A tall rusted chimney rises from a riveted boiler at one end. Spectators stand around it in the street, one of them photographing it with a compact camera. — A steam carriage among the veterans, with its boiler and chimney at one end and padded leather benches for its passengers.

Look at some of the seats, though, and it is wild to think that these cars, all more than 120 years old, are about to drive 60 miles to the coast. They leave Hyde Park at sunrise tomorrow for Madeira Drive in Brighton, 130 years after the Emancipation Run that started it all.

I will be there to send them off.

Practical Tips

The Spectacle officially runs from 10am to 3pm, but the cars were all in place when I arrived at 9.15. Go early for thinner crowds, an easier walk round and better photographs.
Expect it to be very busy by the afternoon, when planned visitors are joined by people who simply come across it.
Entry is free and there are no tickets.
Read up on the British Grand Prix Trophy and the Tourist Trophy before you go. They are easy to walk past, and the photo queue was short.
Talk to the veteran car owners. They are on hand and happy to chat.
Respect the cars. Look closely, but don’t touch.
The veteran cars leave Hyde Park at sunrise the next morning, and watching the start of the London to Brighton Veteran Car Run is free.

Accessibility Checklist

I could not find any published accessibility information for the Spectacle. It is held on a public street.
Pall Mall is closed to traffic for the day and the cars are parked on the road itself. Only the Formula One and Le Mans cars are roped off, and those ropes still let you stand right beside them.
Green Park, Piccadilly Circus and Charing Cross Underground stations are all within about ten minutes’ walk. Green Park is the nearest station with step-free access.
I could not find toilet provision listed for the event. The nearest public toilets are in St James’s Park, just inside the park opposite Marlborough Road on the Mall.
Crowds build through the day, and the morning is noticeably calmer.
St James’s Motoring Spectacle official event information

Final Reflection

Very little stands between you and this event. There is no ticket, no booking and no charge. The challenge on Pall Mall is the crowd, and it grows through the day. Get there before ten and the cars are in place with room to move around them.

It is the trophies I keep coming back to. Two of the most significant objects on the street had almost no queue, because most people walking past didn’t know what they were. A little homework before you go turns a stroll past them into a photograph you will keep. For anyone with sight loss looking for free things to do in London, and for anyone who simply loves cars, the St James’s Motoring Spectacle is one of the easiest days out on the motoring calendar.

Reader Challenge and Invitation

Pick an event you have put off because of the crowds. Find out when everything is in place, not when the doors open, and get there first. Then go anyway.

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