... All right, if you're one of the tiny minority who have never seen the film, I'll come clean. Genevieve is a motor car, a twin-cylinder 10/12 hp Darracq built in Paris in 1904...

'But,' you're saying, 'I own a 1966 DB6 Vantage, so why should I be concerned about a 1904 Darracq named Genevieve with non-original body work which appeared in a film launched in 1953? Lionel Martin owned many makes of car, but never a Darracq -- what relevance does it have to my hobby?'

Well, for a start, no less an authority than the National Motor Museum declares that 'Genevieve is the mascot of the old car movement.' Why? Because if it hadn't been for that Darracq, tens of thousands of people probably wouldn't have a hobby. Before Genevieve starred in that film, 35-year-old cars interested no more than a handful of connoisseurs and eccentrics. Very few people bothered to restore old cars and few garages would have anything to do with them.

Genevieve changed all that and owning old cars became socially acceptable. Even though the film had been made by a South African, it precisely captured that peculiarly British enthusiasm for ancient machinery -- and the peculiarly British characters who collected old cars.

Centered on the London -- Brighton Veteran Car Run, which had been held since 1927 to commemorate the raising of the speed limit from 4 mph to 12 mph in 1896, Genevieve played to packed houses round the world and proved the best ambassador the antique car movement ever had.
 

It transformed the ownership of old cars from a minority interest into a major international hobby and made the Brighton Run the world's biggest motoring event. It also ensured the preservation of cars not yet born when they in turn became hold an interesting. The historic vehicle movement owes a tremendous debt of gratitude to Genevieve.

The moment of her discovery deserves recording: Bailiff Bailey was on his way to serve a court order one day late in 1945 when, looking at the document he was about to serve rather than where he was going, he barked his shin on the rusty dumbiron of an ancient car that was sticking out of a hedge. As a collector of ancient motorcycles, his curiosity was aroused. Realising that the derelict car was a veteran twin-cylinder Darracq, he peered through the hedge to find what looked like a sunken builder's dump, strewn with heaps of rubble, old bricks, chimney pots and doors, from most of which protruded an ancient wheel or a steering column.

He passed on the intelligence to two friends, Bill Peacock and Jack Wadsworth, who collected veteran and vintage cars: they investigated, and eventually located the owner of the yard living in the scullery of an adjoining house which was otherwise filled with junk.

After a long period of haggling Peacock and Wadsworth bought every car in the yard -- there were 15 of them, dating from 1903 to the late 1920s, mostly lacking their body work -- for £45, which even by the standards of the day was a bargain. With the help of willing, if ill-prepared, friends, the cars were extricated from the yard and trailered to Wadsworth's yard in Isleworth, Middlesex. Wadsworth and Peacock kept the best of their purchases, a 1903 Sunbeam and a 1903 Argyll, for themselves, and sold off the remainder to friends.

The Darracq from the hedge had been robbed of everything removable by the local children, but there was a second Darracq chassis of similar age which was complete but badly rusted. Both cars were sold to an acquaintance named Peter Venning for £25 and he began dismantling them to make one good car out of the two chassis. The bits were taken to a workshop near Kew Bridge, stripped, cleaned and reassembled and put into working condition.

Front wheels of the correct size were found on an old model T Ford on a chicken farm in the shadow of Dunstable Downs and, when Venning got married in 1949 and moved to the village of Takely in Hertfordshire, the rolling chassis was towed to a new home in a shed at Canons Farm at nearby Start Hill. Here, old farmer Cannon proved to have an old gig made out of a veteran car body lying in the barn and, as luck would have it, the body fitted the Darracq chassis precisely.

This, however was the point at which Venning decided, like so many restorers since, that "I had to acknowledge that I did not possess the facilities or the money to continue and complete a proper and worthwhile restoration," and advertised the incomplete restoration in Motor Sport for £35.

It was bought by Uxbridge Ford dealer Norman Reeves, who already had for veterans in his workshop -- two Benzes, a De Dion-Bouton and a Dürkopp -- and handed it over to his mechanic Charlie Cadby. The tubular radiator on the Darracq was only fragmentary, so Reeves borrowed a 1904 "Flying Fifteen" from a near neighbor and copied its radiator, even though it was the wrong pattern for the little 10/12 hp.

In 1949, the old Darracq was ready to rally, and Reeves, who had nicknames for most of his cars, christened it 'Annie'. The car proved so reliable that in 1950 was taken on a veteran rally to Le Torquet, and that year 'Annie' completed her first London -- Brighton run.

Finally, Norman Reeves stepped forward and offered 'Annie' for the starring role: his friend Frank Reese then lent his Dutch-built Spyker -- which had once shared that yard in Uxbridge with the Darracq -- for Claverhouse's car. Along with 'Annie', who had to change her name to 'Genevieve' for the film, Reeves offered the services of his mechanic Charles Cadby for the duration of the film, shot between September and November, with the real-life 1952 Brighton Run being filmed at the end to add authenticity.

Cadby had to perform more than mechanic's duties, for when filming started it was discovered that John Gregson, who played Alan McKim, was unable to drive, and had to be coached by Charlie -- and his co-star, Dinah Sheridan, cast as McKim's long-suffering wife Wendy!

Miss Sheridan, now living in California, recalls 'Although he was the "owner" of the main character, the whole story being about the annual journey from London to Brighton, John couldn't drive! I spent the whole film time trying not to be seen giving him instructive help out of the side of my mouth. At the end of the film he could have taken his test on Genevieve, but he still couldn't drive a modern car.'

The film opened on 27 May 1953 -- Coronation Year -- at the Leicester Square Theatre, and its gentle humor centered around the Brighton run and a subsequent race back to London by the two protagonists with Genevieve as the prize, caught the public imagination.

The credits, maybe, said it all: 'Any resemblance between the department of the characters and any Club members is emphatically denied -- by the Club.'

Its success was repeated all round the world: in Colorado the local Horseless Carriage Club staged a run from Denver to a nearby town named Brighton and in Melbourne the film ran continuously for months. One old lady attended every matinee for 13 weeks and was eventually awarded a free pass by the management.

Whatever the reason, with her two-seat bodywork, flared front wings and twinkling brasswork, Genevieve came to epitomise the typical veteran car to the general public, and her image appeared on every conceivable type of souvenir.

Despite appalling weather, record crowds turned out to watch her in the 1953 Brighton Run, in which she was driven by another hero of the hour, the Dutch rally driver Maurice Gatsonides, winner of that year's Monte Carlo Rally in a Ford Zephyr. (For Aston-philiacs, that charming gentlemen "Gatso", sadly better remembered for his invention of the now ubiquitous police road camera, won his class in the 1955 Monte with a DB 2/4.)
 

Sadly, all that attention got too much for Norman Reeves (who became known as 'Mr. Genevieve') to bear. At the end of filming he offered Genevieve to Henry Cornelius and his wife for £450, but, as Margery Cornelius recalled in 1992: 'We had no suitable garage for her and anyway we had no idea that the film would make her so famous. We had also invested our last penny in making the film.'

Then in 1956 Norman Reeves tried to sell Genevieve to the Mayor of Brighton, the town she had done so much to publicise, but without success. The asking price of £1200 had quite a bit to do with it!

Finally, in 1958 he entered Genevieve in the Australian Blue Mountains Rally, and then loaned her to New Zealand enthusiast George Gilltrap for his car museum at Rotorua. Eventually Gilltrap bought Genevieve from Reeves, and when he was presented with an excessive demand for import duty for her he simply shifted his museum -- lock, stock and 1904 Darracq -- to Australia.

George Gilltrap died in 1966, but Genevieve remained in the possession of the Gilltrap family until 1989, when she was sold for a record £285,302 to Paul Terry, who showcased the old Darracq in his Esplanade Extravaganza car museum in Albany, Western Australia.

In November 1992 she successfully completed the Brighton Run after an absence of 36 years before being sold at auction by Robert Brooks to Evert Louwman, whose Dutch National Motor Museum is Europe's oldest private antique car collection. Based in England much of the time, Genevieve is once again a regular competitor in the Brighton Run, performing, if anything, with even greater gusto then in the 1950s.

So, whatever old car you drive, take time out on the first Sunday in November to join the thousands lining the Brighton Road to watch the veterans go by -- and raise your hat to Genevieve, the lady who made it all possible, and who will celebrate a notable anniversary -- it is 50 years since her first outing to Brighton!

With special thanks to Dinah Sheridan, Bill Peacock, Peter Venning, Robert Brooks, Elizabeth Nagle-Turnbull, Evert Louwman, G.R.E. Gregory.

Reprinted with the kind permission of the Aston-Martin Heritage Trust; 
Special thanks to David Burgess-Wise and the late Walter Hayes.

Links to:
Aston Martin Heritage Trust
Aston Martin Owner's Club

Antony Davies of Wemyss Fine Art Auctioneers Australia was kind enough to provide a spectacular image (courtesy Paul Terry International) which shows Genevieve just after her 1991 restoration in Western Australia. Again, there is discussion about dating the car as 1904 or 1905, and Genevieve has been authoritatively dated as 1904 and thus fully eligible for the London-Brighton Run.

Antony Davies: I knew Genevieve for many years whilst dealing with the Gilltrap family in Queensland, George Gilltrap having purchased the car after its use in the film. 

He took it to New Zealand. However, he found, in buying cars from around the world for his collection there, that the New Zealand  government would not give import duty reductions for veteran cars, and in annoyance or frustration, George moved his business, family and cars to Australia. 

George died some years ago and on the later death of his wife, the balance of their collection was sold at auction in Queensland. Genevieve went to a businessman named Paul Terry, who had founded a financial services company called Monitor Money in Sydney and subsequently sold his business to retire to Albany, an old whaling port at the south-western most tip of Western Australia.Genevieve was in drivable but run-down condition at the time Terry bought her. I subsequently bought many cars for Paul who told me that he considered his purchase of Genevieve 'a bargain.'

During restoration of Genevieve, which cost substantially more than Paul had paid to acquire the car, it was noted that the car could only be dated  as a 1905 car, as there were not enough 1904 parts on it to qualify as an '04. 

Paul had a private airport with a variety of fast aircraft, his other passion, and I was in Albany with him in 1993 planning the sale of all his post-World War I vehicles so he could concentrate on veteran cars to compliment Genevieve. 

Tragically, a week later, he was killed in a freak accident in America, during his first solo helicopter flight. 

It is a delightful little car and whilst it never did run particularly well, it gave many people their enthusiasm for veteran motoring.

The French-built Darracq auto was created by Alexander Darracq, a man who didn't like driving cars or being driven in them. Born in Bordeaux, France, of Basque parents, Darracq preferred making bicycles. But in 1896, he felt compelled to develop an electric car, which he later dismissed as being "worthless." After running into financial problems, his company was reformed with British capital, ultimately merging with Talbot and then Sunbeam before expiring in 1939.

Click here to listen to David Burgess-Wise on Alexander Darracq