History

Although Britain has a long history of clubs devoted to transport interests, the Federation of British Historic Vehicle Clubs itself is a relatively new organisation that was established in 1988.  Its origins, however, reach back half a century.

The Veteran Car Club of Great Britain (VCC), established in 1930, was, perhaps, the first club to be formed specifically to cater for those interested in “old” cars – at the time of its formation, old meant 1904 or earlier.  Five years later, in 1934, the Vintage Sports Car Club (VSCC) came into being catering primarily for cars of the 1920s, but also for older sporting machines that were too young for the Veteran Car Club.  During the 1920s, and 30s several specialist organisations came into being – Jowett Club 1922, Sunbeam Motorcycle Club 1926, Riley Motor Club 1928, British Two-stroke Club 1928,  Bugatti Owners Club 1929, Aston Martin Owners Club 1935, Bentley Drivers Club 1936 to name but a few.

The Vintage Motor Cycle Club (VMCC) was founded in 1946 when leisure motoring began again after the second world war.  By that time, interest in old transport of all types was growing, and the National Traction Engine Club (now the National Traction Engine Trust – NTET) was founded in 1954 and the Historic Commercial Vehicle Club (now the Historic Commercial Vehicle Society – HCVS) followed in 1958.  The one-make clubs that had sprung up twenty or so years earlier to cater for what were then current vehicles were, by that time, also catering for historic examples.

In the late 1950s, the British government decided to introduce vehicle testing – this was known as “the ten year test” – the idea was that any car or motor cycle over ten years old would be subject to an annual inspection before it could be used.  The officers of VCC of GB, VSCC and VMCC set up an informal committee to liaise with government to ensure that the new test would not disadvantage their vehicles.  Within five years, NTET, HCVS and most of the more prominent one-make clubs were also represented on what became known as the “Historic Vehicle Clubs Joint Committee”, later shortened to Historic Vehicle Clubs Committee (HVCC), which operated by means of personal contact with civil servants to ensure that no regulations were introduced that required vehicles made before 1940 to perform to a higher standard than applied when they were new.

Fast-forward to the early 1980s when changes to the way UK government operated, some caused by membership of what was then referred to as the Common Market, meant that the way the HVCC had operated was no longer viable.  What’s more, its composition was no longer fully representative of the historic vehicle movement in UK as HVCC only really catered for vehicles made before 1940.  Moves in 1980/1 by the British government to change the basis on which road tax is paid had seen the creation of a parallel committee, the Classic Vehicle Clubs Committee (CVCC) catering for clubs such as the Austin Healey Club, Jaguar Drivers Club and TR Register that catered for later vehicles.

The common sense thing was for the two bodies to unite and formalise – and that is what happened in July 1988 when HVCC and CVCC disbanded and FBHVC was formed.  At that time, UK membership of the international organisation, FIVA, was held jointly by VSCC & VCC of GB – both clubs withdrew on the basis that FBHVC was much more representative of the historic vehicle movement in Britain.

At formation, FBHVC had around 60 clubs and museums with just under 100,000 members between them.  Current membership stands at 500 subscriber organisations, ranging in size from under 20 to nearly 20,000 members representing a total membership of around quarter of a million.

In the early years, the focus was entirely on ensuring that regulations relating to vehicle construction and testing were worded in such a way that old vehicles were not required to meet higher standards than applied when they were made.  In more recent years, the risk of restriction through vehicle-specific regulation has receded, and most work is now concentrated on monitoring legislative proposals that have their origins in environmental protection considerations.

The primary object of the Federation is unchanged: it is simply to do all that can be done to uphold the freedom of the road for old vehicles.  Everything else is secondary to that aim, as that is what subscribers pay for.