TV Chef takes controls of historic car for London to Brighton run.

Great British Bake-Off celebrity baker, Paul Hollywood, will be officially starting the 2014 Bonhams London to Brighton Veteran Car Run this Sunday, alongside Olympic legends Sir Ben Ainslie and Sir Steve Redgrave and multiple world-championship wining F1 team boss Ross Brawn. They will be tearing up the red flag on the start line of the run, commemorating the day that motorists could drive without a man walking ahead of them with a red flag and the raising of the speed limit from 4 to 14mph.

Paul will be driving a two-seater 1904 De Dion Bouton powered by a single-cylinder 6hp engine kindly loaned by the National Motor Museum, Beaulieu. “It’s going to be great fun,” commented Paul, “I’ve always wanted to do the Run ever since my granddad used to talk about it, so I’m really looking forward to the journey. I’ve got a real passion for cars and taking this trip with lots of other people who also clearly have a similar passion is going to be something really, really special.”

Paul was delighted to have an opportunity to get to grips with the unusual controls on the De Dion under the expert guidance of Ian Stanfield, Senior Engineer at the National Motor Museum’s restoration workshop. “It’s very different from today’s cars,” said Paul. “You control just about everything with your hands and that takes a bit of getting used to.”

For more details of the Veteran Car Run, visit www.veterancarrun.com.