A century ans a quarter ans still going strong

[911MRP]

One for the historians.The Autocar. My club has bound editions of the magazine going back to dawn of motoring.

This is the first ever edition
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From November 1895

“The Royal Automobile Club is Britain’s longest standing and historically most influential motoring organisation. Founded in 1897 – when ‘horseless carriages’ were regarded with scepticism and suspicion – to promote automobilism, the Club is proud of its contribution to motoring and motor sport”.

In 1896 the restrictive ‘Red Flag’ Act referred to as holding back industry in Great Britain , which had required a man to walk in front of every vehicle, was repealed: the birth of motoring in the UK.

Quite interesting reading given the opportunities and threats around “automobilism” these
days.

London to Brighton commemorates the Emancipation Run of 14 November 1896, which celebrated the Locomotives on the Highway Act. The Act raised the speed limit for ‘light locomotives’ from 4 to 14 mph and abolished the need for these vehicles to be preceded by a man on foot waving a red flag.

The first commemoration of the Emancipation Run was held in 1897 with a drive to Sheen House in Richmond Park. Then, in 1927, the inaugural re-enactment followed the original Brighton route and has taken place every November since, apart from the war years and 1947 when petrol was rationed and 2020 during the global Covid-19 pandemic. The Royal Automobile Club has managed the Run with the support of the Veteran Car Club of Great Britain since 1930.

Steve