| About
- Club History |
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| The
750 Motor Club was formed in 1939 as a
means for impecunious Austin 7 enthusiasts
to meet each other and talk about things
Seven-ish. It wasn't long before such discussions
led to competitive rumblings, but for the
financially challenged membership these
naturally had to involve an extremely small
outlay. |
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Such
competition therefore took the form of road
rallies and trials, although the 'specials'
builder was already in evidence at circuit
meetings.
The
War Years
The outbreak of WWII bought all forms of motorsport to halt, but the
club continued to meet at pubs in the London area, albeit with most of
the membership arriving on bicycles. After the war, the club continued
to grow under the leadership of chairman Holly Birkett who, in 1949 was
to come up with three ideas that were to have quite an influence on motorsport
at the bottom end of the scale.
Early
Racing Days
 The
first of these was that a consortium of the
lesser motoring clubs should band together
to organise a race meeting at Silverstone,
which up until then was the sole preserve of
the bigger and longer established clubs.
Thus
was born the Eight Clubs Meeting. Secondly,
Holly came up with the proposal of a 750 Formula,
a two seater sports/racer powered by the 750cc
Austin Seven engine and based around the Seven
chassis. This provided an outlet for the skills
of the home constructor and specials builder,
and a number of what are now well known figures
in international motorsport started life as
club members.
Perhaps
the most famous of these was Colin Chapman
whose innovative interpretation of the regulations
allowed him to blitz the opposition by "de-siamesing" the
inlet ports of the Austin Seven engine!
The
Relay Races
 Holly's
third idea was for a six-hour relay race.
Nearly 50 years on and both races are still
being run, and the 750 Formula still attracts
the home constructor/racer but with power
coming from the 850cc Reliant engine.
Other
formulae have been developed over the years,
but with the accent always being on Low Cost
Motor Sport.
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