Draft:Royal Automobile Club of Flanders

The Automobile Club des Flandres, renamed after 25 years in 1924 in the Royale Automobile Club des Flandres or the "Royal Automobile Club of Flanders".. is today, 125 years after its inauguration, the only remaining club of the similar clubs founded in Brussels, Liege and Antwerp.

The club was founded on February 24, 1899, in Ghent as an independent local branch of the Royal Automobile Club of Belgium. The goals as described in the founding document were:
 * Institution of automobile activities.
 * Excursions.
 * Encouraging road repair or construction
 * Help with customs papers
 * Defend common interests (taxes or other)
 * Increase accessibility to and study of tourism, sports and automobile industry
 * Presentations
 * Establishment of library and reading room

The Club had a local division in Bruges starting in 1902, but that was abandoned.

The members of the Club were, due to the scarce distribution of expensive cars at the beginning of the 20th century, for the greater part people of nobility or industrial company owners.

Activities
Activities in the past included Concours d'Élegance, Standing and Rolling Kilometer, touristic drives and the organisation of local rallies.

One of the activities was a race in 1902 on the road to a castle in Varsenare. This race was re-enacted 120 years later with cars and motorbikes from that era

Other activities were Rallye-Ballons, where cars were to follow air balloons and arrive first when the balloon landed

After World War I, activities took up slowly.

Only from 1959 onwards, activities gradually increased again, with sportive events taking place like Slaloms, Spring Rally, Sprints, ...



In the 1970's, a delegation of British drivers participated every year with their Bentleys, Jaguars or Aston Martins in the Standing and Rolling Kilometer on the outskirts of Ghent, where they could test the top speed of their cars Some exceptional cars that took part in the race:


 * Napier Bentley


 * Aston Martin DP214

Encouraging road repair or construction
In the years leading up to the World Exhibition in Ghent in 1913, the RACF pushed the local and national politicians to improve the roads to the fair grounds, because the neglected roads would leave a bad impression on the visitors.

After World War I, the Club pushed for road repairs to and from the battlefields in the region of Ypres, in order to get the local economy back on track.

External link

 * Official website