Royal Automobile Club
| Founded | 1897 |
|---|---|
| Home Page | www.royalautomobileclub.co.uk |
| Address | 89–91 Pall Mall, London |
| Clubhouse occupied since | 1911 |
| Club established for | Automobile enthusiasts |
The Royal Automobile Club is a British private club and is not to be confused with RAC, an automotive services company, which it formerly owned.
It has two club houses: one in London at 89–91 Pall Mall, and the other in the countryside at Woodcote Park, Surrey, next to the City of London Freemen's School. Like many other gentlemen's clubs in London today, the Royal Automobile Club welcomes women as members.
It was founded on 10 August 1897 as the Automobile Club of Great Britain (and, later, Ireland). The headquarters was originally in a block of flats at 4 Whitehall Court, moving to 119 Piccadilly in 1902.
During 1902 the organisation, together with the recently formed Association of Motor Manufactures and Traders campaigned vigorously for the relaxation of speed limits claiming that the 14 mph speed limit imposed by the Locomotives on Highways Act 1896 was 'absurd' and was seldom observed. The organisations, with support from the Prime Minister Arthur Balfour, had considerable influence over the forthcoming Motor Car Act 1903 which originally proposed to remove all speed limits for cars while introducing the offence of driving recklessly. In the face of considerable opposition a speed limit of 20 mph was retained in addition to the creation of the offence of driving recklessly, dangerously or negligently.
In 1905, the Club organised the first Tourist Trophy (TT) motorcycle race, the oldest regularly run motor race. The Club became the governing body for motor sport in Britain. King Edward VII's interest in motoring led to the command in 1907 "that the Automobile Club of Great Britain and Ireland should henceforth be known as The Royal Automobile Club". In 1911 they moved to the current address, part of the site of the old War Office; the club house was (and remains) one of the largest in London, with a frontage to Pall Mall of 228 feet and a depth, in the centre, of 140 feet. It cost over a quarter of a million pounds and is described in the Survey of London as "a polished essay in the late French Renaissance manner".
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