In 1934, the definition of “vintage” was not quite what we think of today. At its formation, the Vintage Sports Car Club’s rules defined its role as “To provide competitive events for cars five years old or more and social events for members.”
That five-year rule was intended to roll over, opening the club up to new members and their cars each year, but as mass production changed the face of motoring the club realised that it would have to put in an age cap to maintain the type of fleet upon which it was founded. In 1936, the VSCC’s Captain Tim Carson proposed that “Driving membership of the Club should be limited to owners of cars manufactured prior to 31st Dec 1930.”
During the 90 years since its inception, the VSCC has continued to edit its rule book, so that today there are even more categories of cars eligible. Anything built before 1905 is Veteran, cars from 1905 to 1918 are Edwardian, and those from 1919 to 1930 are Vintage. Select cars built from 1931 to 1940 are allowed in under its Post Vintage Thoroughbred class, along with certain 1950s Sports Racing Cars with additional classes for single-seaters that fit the Formula 500 or Formula Junior and Grand Prix classes, built before 1961.
To further maintain its relevance and accessibility, the VSCC also welcomes non-driving members, and it includes discounts for younger members.
“We’ve worked for a long time to get youngsters involved with the club. At our last sprint meeting at Curborough over 20 per cent of our entrants were under 30,” says VSCC Club Secretary Tania Brown. “I can imagine that most people thinking about vintage car owners would assume that they’re all elderly grey-haired old men, which is not the case at all.
“If you come to any of our meetings, particularly our trials, it’s chock-a-block with girls, boys, women, men, all ages, all demographics. It’s much more accessible than most people realise. You can get an Austin Seven for just a few thousand pounds, and you can actually maintain it yourself – it doesn’t have to be plugged into a computer. You can get your hands dirty, you can see how it works.”
Getting the next generation involved is a key part of assuring the VSCC will continue to flourish in the future, but the club is also conscious of how it can help keep members’ cars moving without harming the planet.
“We’ve done quite a lot of work around sustainable fuels,” adds Brown. “For our winter driving test last year we teamed up with Coryton and Sustain Classic fuels. We offered all competitors five litres of fuel to take part in that, which more than covered the competitive element. We offered it at our Prescott Long Course event as well, so we’re doing a lot of education with our members on sustainable fuels. We’re also offsetting all of our competition emissions and our business mileage.”
To mark its nine decades, the VSCC is hosting a number of events during the summer, including displays at Coventry Motorfest in June and a week of celebrations at Stratford-upon-Avon Racecourse in August, with daily tours, rallies, and competitions. That’s on top of the regular sprints, hillclimb, tours and social events that the club organises for its 5000 members.
2024 is certainly a busy year for the VSCC, but there’s plenty more to come, asserts Brown. “We’ve been here for 90 years. We’re not planning on going away yet.”
To find out more about VSCC membership, visit https://www.vscc.co.uk/
