The Isle of Man TT will be the focus of a major exhibition later this year, but this time it will be the four-wheel history of the event being celebrated.
The Veteran Car Club of Great Britain will be celebrating the early history of British car racing in September and October at its headquarters in Ashwell.
At the centre of the celebrations will be the TT Races, and in particular the 1908 event which marks its Centenary this year.
Although the Isle of Man TT is most famous as a motorcycle event, bikes were actually introduced in 1907 – two years after the TT started as a car racing festival. Cars continued to be a feature of the TT until 1922, when the racing moved to Ulster before transferring onto emerging purpose-built circuits like Donington, Goodwood, Oulton Park and Silverstone.
Last year marked the Centenary of motorcycle racing at the Isle of Man TT and this year the VCCGB is marking the 100th anniversary of another important racing milestone seen in the Island.
The ‘Centenary 100’ exhibition is based primarily on the famous 1908 event, known as the ‘4 inch’ race because of the size of the bore of the engine – set at 4 inches.
The fact any stroke could enter encouraged great competition, not only with British but also European carmakers. It also meant the touring cars of the early TT races were replaced by stripped racers, which were the launch pad for Britain’s own Grand Prix-type race.
The Isle of Man circuit required lighter cars, flexible engines and gearboxes and Britain’s motor industry began to benefit from the innovative engineering undertaken by the participants.
The exhibition will include several famous early TT Touring and Racing Cars from 1905 to 1922, including a 1905/06 Rolls Royce which was one of the earliest and most valuable of all Rolls Royce cars. This famous touring car is a near exact period factory replica of The Hon Charles Rolls’ winning car from 1906.
There will also be a 1914 Sunbeam, which was driven by Dario Resta in the 1914 TT, and was exported to New Zealand after World War I, where it took the Australian and New Zealand land speed record in 1927.
Also on show will be the TT-winning 1922 Sunbeam, which was driven by Jean Chassagne and is now in the collection of historic racer, James Hansen of Speedmaster Cars.
Visitors will also see the original Tourist Trophy, courtesy of the Royal Automobile Club, the legendary Gordon Bennett and Henry Edmunds Trophies, original programmes, a substantial photographic archive and a unique original short film of one of these pre-World War I races, which has never been seen in public before.
Much of the material that covers all the Isle of Man automobile races has been unseen for two generations.
Further racing artefacts and memorabilia have been loaned by members of families whose grandfathers raced in those now long-off pioneering days, including such famous names at Charles Rolls, W.O. Bentley and William Watson, the winner of the 1908 race.
The exhibition opens to the public on September 25 and runs until October 5 at the VCCGB’s Headquarters, Jessamine Court, 15 High Street, Ashwell, Herts. Tickets are £10.
Visit the
VCCGB website.