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MV008 -  Edition 2,000

  RAC

On Wednesday 8 December 1897, Mr Frederick R Simms and a group of other gentleman motoring enthusiasts founded the Automobile Club of Great Britain. The inaugural luncheon and meeting was held at 1.15 pm at Whitehall Court and was followed by a display of members cars and demonstration runs. In July 1898 Sir David Salomons arranged an amalgamation with the Self-Propelled Traffic Association and together they became known as the Automobile Club of Great Britain and Ireland, with an original membership of 163. By January 1st 1899 the total membership was 380. In 1900 the ACGBI held the 1000 mile run. This played a large part in bringing the self-propelled vehicle to the notice of the general public and thousands turned out to watch the cars pass by. When King Edward VII became patron he commanded that the club should be known as The Royal Automobile Club. As more activities and club membership grew they centralised into the old War Office in Pall Mall.
In 1912 the first ‘Get you home service’ was introduced and for an annual subscription of one guinea a brass token was issued which could be sent by messenger to the nearest appointed repairer who would despatch a relief vehicle to take your party home or to the nearest railway station up to a radius of 20 miles. Further information can be found by purchasing the book shown on the back cover. We show our first RAC release on a Mini Van from the 1960’s.

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