20 replies to this topic

[Derwent Motorsport]

I wrote an article recently on the history of local car clubs and it brought out a number of questions.

a) Are then any "works" clubs still existing as on clubs for employees of a factory?

b) How any university clubs are still going?

c) Professional or business based clubs like the Nat West Bank MC?   Obviously CSMA (Boundless) is still going strong although mainly social.

d) Old school pupils clubs like Old Merchant Taylors MC

 

Was there any difference between a Car Club and a Motor Club?  Many one make clubs were/are Car Clubs?

[Allan Lupton]

I can't answer the numbered questions but Motor Clubs usually catered for cars and motorcycles, whereas Car Clubs were for cars only.

[pete53]

I was thinking about this the other day, particularly in relation to motor clubs that used to organise occasional race meetings. As a Brands regular in the 60s I recall events being run by the likes of the Maidstone and Mid-Kent MC, Thames Estuary MC, Sevenoaks and DMC,  Rochester Chatham DMC. A quick Google indicates that the Maidstone, and Sevenoaks clubs are still going, although the days of running race meetings seem to be in the past.

[john winfield]

A quick Google search shows that many British universities still have motor and/or motor sport clubs: Loughborough, Nottingham, Bath, Bristol, Imperial etc.

[Tim Murray]

The club which has had me as secretary for more years than I care to remember started out as the Bristol Aeroplane Company Motor Sports Club in around 1944, and was responsible for organising the Filton Sprint in October 1945. It was set up as a club for employees of the then Bristol Aeroplane Company and was intended to cover all forms of motor sport, including events for light aircraft and motor boating, although these never materialised.

After many of the club’s main protagonists went on to form the 500 Club (which evolved into the BRSCC) the BACMSC fell into abeyance for a while, but was revived in the mid-1950s and continued as the Bristol Aeroplane Company Motor Club until the end of the century, even though the BAC Engine Division became first Bristol Siddeley Engines and then Rolls-Royce. The club allowed ‘associate’ members in who were not employees, but for many years the majority of club members worked in the Bristol aerospace industry.

By the year 2000, however, this industry was a shadow of its former self, so we chose to cut our remaining ties with the relevant companies and rename ourselves Bristol Pegasus Motor Club. We are now just an ordinary motor club with no ties to anyone or anything, although we do cherish our history.

[Derwent Motorsport]

A quick Google search shows that many British universities still have motor and/or motor sport clubs: Loughborough, Nottingham, Bath, Bristol, Imperial etc.

Oxford Brooks has an active one related to their motorsport course but sadly many of the older ones, like Newcastle have gone.  Oxford UMC was hugely active in its day and was kept going by past studens like John Brown who invented targa for the Targa Rusticana Rally.

[Derwent Motorsport]

The club I am secretary of is Wigton Motor Club in Cumbria and we currently have 850 members. It's our centenary next year. In the 1920s it was the Wigton & District Motor Cycle and Car Club. Note that the bikes came before the cars. it wasn't until the 60s that the name was shorted to Wigton Motor Club, although bike trials and scrambles continued until the mid seventies. 

[Dick Dastardly]

As a matter of interest....how many of your 850 members are local to your area?...or are many from afar and have joined as a requisite to competing on event(s) you've out on?

[Derwent Motorsport]

The vast majority of our members live in the northern half of Cumbria, within 30 miles of our HQ.  We do have some loyal members from further afield who enjoy our events or are members who moved away from Cumbria. Obviously our events are open to members of other invited clubs. Some older members till like to read our monthly magazine even though they no longer compete.  The classic side of the club has developed a lot in the last twenty years as well. Our major show, historic rallies, classic tours etc are very popular. 

[P0wderf1nger]

Cambridge University Automobile Club is alive and well.

[arttidesco]

Proud to have been a member of the Bristol Pegasus Motor Club, former Bristol Aeroplane Company Motorsports Club, Tim mentioned above, in fact it was Tim who introduced me to the club thanks to these hallowed pages.

 

Oxford Universities Motorsports Foundation often bring a Riley to Race Retro which I believe they race in historic events. 

 

Congtatulations to Wigton Motor Club on reaching their centenary !

[wheadon1985]

The vast majority of our members live in the northern half of Cumbria, within 30 miles of our HQ. We do have some loyal members from further afield who enjoy our events or are members who moved away from Cumbria. Obviously our events are open to members of other invited clubs. Some older members till like to read our monthly magazine even though they no longer compete. The classic side of the club has developed a lot in the last twenty years as well. Our major show, historic rallies, classic tours etc are very popular.

I’m Competitions Secretary for BARC based at Thruxton but I’m originally from Longtown, north of Carlisle and I was a member at Spadeadam Motor Club in my late teens/early 20’s. Living on the South Coast now, been down here 7 years in May.

For University Motorsport Clubs, you just need to look how successful the British University Kart Championship is and how many University’s now run official Student Motorsport Clubs because of it.

It runs with championships for rookies and experienced alike. I was a competed when I was studying Motorsport Management just under 10 years ago. Some teams turn up with fully sponsored matching suits, minibuses etc. and some teams turn up with 5 kids wedged into a generic small hatchback and have to borrow a helmet and suit from the circuit but the camaraderie and respect on the race days is brilliant and it really is an open field when it comes to the track action.

Few years back, I was one of the organisers who ran the “baby brother” British Schools Karting Championship for a while. It was brilliant to start with but eventually turned into something that could have won the best soap opera award. One word… Parents 🙄

[Stephen W]

DEWS is still going despite the company closing down!

[DouglasM]

I was thinking about this the other day, particularly in relation to motor clubs that used to organise occasional race meetings. As a Brands regular in the 60s I recall events being run by the likes of the Maidstone and Mid-Kent MC, Thames Estuary MC, Sevenoaks and DMC,  Rochester Chatham DMC. A quick Google indicates that the Maidstone, and Sevenoaks clubs are still going, although the days of running race meetings seem to be in the past.

Add Romford Enthusiasts Car Club to that list, organized meetings at Brands and Snetterton.

[Allan Lupton]

I was thinking about this the other day, particularly in relation to motor clubs that used to organise occasional race meetings. As a Brands regular in the 60s I recall events being run by the likes of the Maidstone and Mid-Kent MC, Thames Estuary MC, Sevenoaks and DMC,  Rochester Chatham DMC. A quick Google indicates that the Maidstone, and Sevenoaks clubs are still going, although the days of running race meetings seem to be in the past.

In those days there were fewer (or no) one-make/model races and races for whatever car you had were the norm. All-comers' races were run with engine-size classes or as handicap races and had good entries. As I am inclined to do, I shall cite the Eight Clubs which existed to put on a race meeting at Silverstone, pooling the resources of eight clubs which could not otherwise have supported a meeting. As 750MC was one of the Eight we had their 750 and 1172/1300 Formula races but the rest of the meeting was all-comers' Scratch and handicap races.

The eventual demise of the Eight Clubs owed a great deal to the rise of one-model races, which also stopped the above-mentioned Clubs organising race meetings.

Edited by Allan Lupton, 21 January 2022 - 09:25.

[Derwent Motorsport]

I’m Competitions Secretary for BARC based at Thruxton but I’m originally from Longtown, north of Carlisle and I was a member at Spadeadam Motor Club in my late teens/early 20’s. Living on the South Coast now, been down here 7 years in May.

For University Motorsport Clubs, you just need to look how successful the British University Kart Championship is and how many University’s now run official Student Motorsport Clubs because of it.

It runs with championships for rookies and experienced alike. I was a competed when I was studying Motorsport Management just under 10 years ago. Some teams turn up with fully sponsored matching suits, minibuses etc. and some teams turn up with 5 kids wedged into a generic small hatchback and have to borrow a helmet and suit from the circuit but the camaraderie and respect on the race days is brilliant and it really is an open field when it comes to the track action.

Few years back, I was one of the organisers who ran the “baby brother” British Schools Karting Championship for a while. It was brilliant to start with but eventually turned into something that could have won the best soap opera award. One word… Parents

Spadeadam MC are still going. They were of course a "works" club at their formation. being based at the Blue Streak rocket testing site of Spadeadam Fell. The huge site is not used for aerial attack practice avoiding the radar based there. We had a tour round a couple of years ago and there is a Blue Streak still there plus lots of captured enemy tanks, planes etc being used as targets.

[RCH]

Leicester Colleges Motor Club, which was once very popular with the student population of both Leicester University and Leicester Poly sadly no longer exists. Perhaps my spell as chairman led to its downfall?  My alma mater, now known as De Montford University, has a Formula Student team.

 

Sadly locally Haldon MC and Sidmouth MC seem to have disappeared.

 

Exmouth Motor Club catered for both motorbikes and cars in the past, possibly more motorbikes. With various anniversaries forthcoming the committee would be interested to know any items of history.

[Odseybod]

During the 1960s, my Dad gave a talk to members of the Maidstone Jail Motor Club - not as a fellow inmate - about the life of a Sports Editor and the general motor sport scene at the time. Somewhere I still have the handsome club plaque they presented him with, depicting a racing car wheel secured by a ball and chain.

 

He's been a little apprehensive about accepting their invitation but was very impressed by their friendly welcome and perceptive.questions about the various Grand Prix teams - and even more so by the audience's in-depth knowledge of the new models due to be unveiled at the Earl's Court Motor Show in a couple of weeks' time.

[Paul Hurdsfield]

Westfield Sports Car Club http://wscc.co.uk has been going strong since 1986, organising the WSCC speed series of Hillclimbs and Sprints.

[wheadon1985]

Spadeadam MC are still going. They were of course a "works" club at their formation. being based at the Blue Streak rocket testing site of Spadeadam Fell. The huge site is not used for aerial attack practice avoiding the radar based there. We had a tour round a couple of years ago and there is a Blue Streak still there plus lots of captured enemy tanks, planes etc being used as targets.

 

Didn't know there was a Blue Streak still there, haven't been up there in years. A lot of the boys who worked on Blue Streak drank in the pub in Crosby on Eden many moons ago, some amazing stories they could all churn out. My ears were always listening!

 

Another small link to the Blue Streak is that a close school friend of mine's mother is the little girl in the Solway Firth Spaceman photo!

[mikeC]

We lost the North Midland Motor Club and the Rotherham & District Motor Club many years ago, but Matlock & District, Sheffield & Hallamshire and Carlton & District are still going strong.