The Royal Automobile Club Celebrates 100 Years of World Beating British Technical Achievement

05 March 2007

For 100 years the Royal Automobile Club Dewar Trophy has been awarded to companies and individuals who have shown outstanding technical achievement to maintain the UK’s leading position in the world of motoring.

Because of the high standards required by the Club’s Technical Sub-committee the Dewar Trophy is only awarded when it is considered that a performance has been recorded of sufficient merit to warrant the award. Since the first award in 1906, the Dewar Trophy has been presented on just thirty eight occasions’, with this year’s winners, the JCB Dieselmax, becoming the 39th.

In 1904 Sir Thomas Robert Dewar MP, later Lord Dewar, presented a 57cm high silver trophy to the Automobile Club of Great Britain. The leading Scottish whisky distiller was a avid supporter of early motoring and the work of the Club, which became the Royal Automobile Club in 1907 when it was awarded the prestigious Royal Warrant by Edward VII in that year.

The Dewar Trophy, made by the famous silversmiths Elkington & Co, was to be awarded at the discretion of the Technical Committee in the Certificated Trials held by the Club. The first recipient of the Dewar Trophy was Dennis Brothers Limited in 1906 and it was awarded a further fifteen times up to 1929 to companies such as Rolls-Royce, Daimler and Armstrong-Siddeley and individuals who were leading the way in the development of early motor vehicles.

In 1931 the terms of the award were altered to become "for most outstanding technical achievement under the Club rules" and then the terms were further modified in 1957 to become "for outstanding British technical achievement in the automotive field". Between 1931 and 2005 the Dewar Trophy has been awarded on just twenty-two occasions. Recipients have included Dunlop (1957 and 1973), MIRA (1967 and 1997), BMC and Alec Issigonis for the Austin Seven and Morris Mini-Minor (1959) and, more recently, Jaguar (2003) and last year’s winners Ricardo for the development of the Dual Clutch Transmission technology for the Bugatti Veyron.

"Lord Dewar once famously said ‘minds are like parachutes; they work best when open’ and this seems to sum up the thinking behind the Dewar Trophy award," said Dr Stephen Hammerton, Chairman of The Royal Automobile Club Motoring Committee. "The list of companies and individuals who have received the award over the past 100 years reads like a who’s who of British motoring excellence. The fact that the JCB Dieselmax land speed record project is only the 39th recipient of the Dewar Trophy is a testament of the high standards set by the Technical Sub-committee and underlines the high regard in which The Royal Automobile Club holds their world beating achievements. The award of the Dewar Trophy is richly deserved and is one of those feats of engineering that keeps Britain at the forefront in the world of automotive engineering."

The Royal Automobile Club Dewar Trophy Award Lunch will take place at the London Clubhouse in Pall Mall on Tuesday 13th March 2007.

See trivia page for World Land Speed Records

Related Story 06.02.2007 - Royal Automobile Club Dewar Trophy to be Awarded to the JCB Dieselmax