Tourist Trophy 1907

After the 5th place at the Tourist Trophy in 1905 and the missed participation in 1906 - one had arrived late for the start - the great victory of Ernest Courtis on the Rover 16/20 hp 1907 was a deserved success.
In the following we present the description of the race process from the brochure Tourist Trophy Souvenir 1907.

The Tourist Trophy, 1907

The tenency of the present age is to achieve knowledge with rapidity, rather than with thoroughness, to attain information regarding the greatest possible number of things in the smallest possible quantities. We live in an age of figures, the tabloid form in which many of us imbible our impressions of what is passing in the world around us.

Figures, we are told, are incontrovertible things and soeak for themselves.

Thus the merely creditable performance, born of favourable circumstances, becomes classic, whilst the triumph of grit, nerve and pluck, accomplished in the face of terrible odds, soon ceases to be even a memory as far as the public is concerned since the record remains unbroken, and there is nothing new to write in that interminable table of figures in which the devouring statistican takes his great delight.

But to some of us who saw it, the race for the Tourist Trophy in 1907 represerved one of the finest exhibitions of endurance, pluck and carminess, that it has been our lot to witness, and though it may perhaps take, in the annals of motoring, but an ordinary place unmarked by any special speed, it will probably live in our memories as a real contest, in which men strove bravely, not only with their fellow competitors, but with the elements, with the dangers of a hilly and slippery course and with the additional difficulties of exceptional weight. Truly a test of endurance of both man and car.

Heavy rain fell without ceasing throughout the whole of the race, the mist on the mountain was so dense at times that drivers were able to see but a very short distance ahead, whilst the roads were, towards the finish, churned (chumed) up in a manner that made rapid travelling a matter of very considerable danger.

The course consisted of six complete circuits with a total of 241½ miles, 1 gallon of petrol being allowed for each 25 miles.

The load to be carried by each chassis was fixed at a minimum weight of 1,400 lbs., consisting of driver, mechanic, car-body, spares and ballast.

The back of each car was required to reach to a height of 5 feet 3 inches from the ground.

Comparing these figures with those of 1906, we find that the length of the course was increased by a distance of 80 miles, the load by 225 lbs., and the height by 1 foot 6 inches.

There were twenty-two starters, of which two finished, their average speeds being:
• Rover 28.80 miles per hour; • Beeston-Humber 28.13 miles per hour.

It is not in any way possible to draw a comparison between these speeds and those maintained by the leading cars in last year’s contest, the circumstances attending the races and the conditions under which they were held being so very different.

The fact that two only of the twenty-two cars that started were able to complete the full distance is, in itself, a sufficient accentuation of this: the twenty-two cars in question being entered by the principal makers of touring cars in this country and also by several of the best known firms from avroad.

An entirely new feature, and one of very considerable interest, was the addition of a race for Heavy Touring Cars, each carrying a wind screen representing the area of a covered-in body.

The petrol allowance was originally fixed at 16 miles to the gallon, but the climatic conditions proving so unfavourable, the allowance was increased to one gallon for each 14 1/6 miles.
The course consisted of five complete circuits, with a total of 201½ miles.

Ernest Courtis during the 'Tourist Trophy' race in 1907.