The DEWAR - Trophy

In 1925 the ROVER 14/45hp was awarded the DEWAR Trophy. In a small brochure ROVER celebrates the event with media attention. We reproduce the brochure text below.

Presented by Lord Dewar in 1906, this valuable trophy is awarded by the Royal Automobile Club to commemorate outstandingly meritorious performancesaccomplished in Certified Trials observed by the R.A.C.

The Story of the Dewar Trophy

Every year the Royal Automobile Club (of Great Britain) awards a valuable trophy to the car that has made the most meritorious performance in a Certified Trial conducted by the R.A.C. during the preceding twelve month.

This handsome award is known as the Dewar Trophy, having been presented to the R.A.C. in 1906 by Lord Dewar for the purpose of commemorating the outstanding events in the evolution of the motor car.

In the years that have passed, milestones in motoring history have bee fitly recognised by the award of the Dewar Trophy; for instance, in 1907 the Rolls-Royce 15,000 miles trial of the „Silver Ghost“ was singled out for this honour, and in 1909 the seven days‘ non-stop-test of the Knight sleeve-valve engine (which firmly established this type of power unit in public estimation) was hall-marked by the award of the Dewar Trophy. Later, the 30,000 miles trial of the Rapson tyre carried off this palm of the motoring world.

And now, for 1925, The Royal Automobile Club has awarded the Dewar Trophy to the Rover Company, Ltd., of Coventry.

The trial in respect of which the trophy has deservedly been awarded to this old-established concern is unique in that no car has ever before accomplished it successfully. It was performed by a 14/45 h.p. Rover saloon model, and the trial itself is of special interest.

	Tackling the worst section About half way up Bwlch-y-Groes the gradient stiffens considerably (see Contour overleaf), and the surface of the road becomes very rough and stony. The adverse weather conditions under which the trial was carried out are visible in this photograph. Heavy rain fall practically the whole time.

For the Rover Company, having decided to demonstrate the ability of their 14/45 h.p. car to maintain a high power output indefinitely under the severest possible conditions, undertook to make fifty consecutive climbs of the longest and steepest mountain pass practicable to motors that lies within Britain’s shores.

This was the notorious Bwlch-y-Groes, a climb that has been responsible for the stalling of unnumbered specimens of the best makes of car that have tackled it. It is, indeed, a climb well-known to the British sporting motorist, for many endurance trials include it annually as the chief „tit-bit,“ and never does it fail to claim its share of failures.

Nearly two miles in length, Bwlch-y-Groes (Welsh for „Pass of the Cross“) lies amongst the mountains in the region of Bala, North Wales. Up and up the side of the mountain it winds, a roadway cut in the sheer side of the precipitous slopes, a climb that starts away with a sharp hairpin bend on a steeply rising gradient which precludes all possibility of taking it with a rush.

Breasting the summit of the pass. At the top of Bwlch-y-Groes the car was circled round stopping at the conclusion of each ascent.

Then comes a long, long drag, where any engine finds it an all-out task to haul the car along, even on second speed, and, after about half a mile of this, comes a sudden uplifting of the gradient to a maximum of steeper than 1 in 5 - this, mind you, at a time when the engine has already been doing its utmost for some considerable time.

Here it is that the average driver finds it expedient to call a halt, and to admire the rushing torrent hundred of feet below; here it is that the average car decides to become a „steamer,“ and to demand a replenishment of supplies in the radiator. And even once over the steep portion there remains a further lengthy climb before the summit heaves in sight, and the motorist decides that one climb of Bwlch-y-Goes is enough for the car’s good.

It was up this pass, then, that the 14/45 h.p. Rover made its epic test. Fifty times up and down, a twelve hours‘ gruelling test of engine, gears, transmission, and brakes (not once during the day was top gear engaged, for the descents were made on third speed).

And, at the finish, not half of 1 pint of water was needed to restore the contents of the radiator to their original level.

Truly a test that hall-marked the 14/45 h.p. Rover with an indisputable stamp of merit - indisputable because an impassive official observer of the Royal Automobile Club accompanied the car on every climb and descent - a trial fitly to be commemorated by the Dewar Trophy.

Observers and drivers change over

The trial commenced at 7 a.m., and continued without pause until 7 p.m. At the conclusion of thirteen climbs the first driver and R.A.C. Observer werde relieved, resuming after a further thirteen ascents had been completed. Never, on any occasion, was the car out of an Observer’s supervision.

The press is quoted as follows:

„Not does this convey a complete idea of the test, in that the road surfaces are both loose and rough in any circumstances, and, on the occasion in question, rain fell continuously, so that the trial was of an exceedingly original character of really practical value. No work, nor adjustment, was done on the car during the trial.“
Massac Buist in The Sporting and Dramatic News

„Most motorists who have tried their cars up this famous Welsh gradient congratulate themselves if they make a clean ascent. Once is quite enough for the ordinary individual or the ordinary car.“
A.P. Bradley in The Sphere

„I cannot recall a more severe test than this one.“
J. Owen in The Referee

This certificate confirms the success of the ROVER 14/45hp

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Among others, "Motor Sport" also reports on the event. First, in November 1925 the test drive is reported on, then in December 1925 the awarding of the DEWAR Trophy.

Motor Sport - November 1925	Motor Sport - December 1925