Motoring historian Bob Montgomery browses through his archives
The racing Guinness brothers: The Guinness brothers, Algernon and Kenelm Lee, of the famous brewing family, were among the first Irish drivers to achieve international success in motor sport. Algernon, the elder of the two, first competed in the Portmarnock Speed Trials of 1904, before acquiring the fearsome V8 Darracq which he took to 117.7 mph over a flying kilometre during the Ostend Speed Trials in 1906. Other successes were to follow with the car at even higher speeds.
Third place in the 1906 Isle of Man Tourist Trophy Race and second in the 1907 Circuit des Ardennes were followed in 1908 by second in the famous "four-inch" TT Race.
Thereafter Algernon withdrew from motor sport before returning, again in the TT, in 1914 when he held second place for the Sunbeam team behind his younger brother, Kenelm Lee, until the late stages of the race when his transmission failed and he had to retire.
Apart from a win in the Beacon Hillclimb in a 1914 GP Sunbeam, this was the end of Algernon's motor sport career, although he immersed himself in the running of the sport, holding many important positions at Brooklands and elsewhere.
Kenelm Lee first came to prominence when he joined the Sunbeam "works" team before the first World War. In the 1913 French Grand Prix at Amiens, a burst tyre caused him to crash, but a fine third place followed in the Coupe de l'Auto race at Boulogne. Shortly afterwards he was part of the driving team in the single-seater Sunbeam which took no fewer than 37 records at Brooklands that year.
In 1914, Kenelm Lee became the first Irishman to win a major international motor race when he took victory in the Isle of Man TT Race. Now an established star, Bill, as he was known to his friends, was highly regarded as a driver. He had a wicked sense of humour, which he demonstrated at the start of a French Grand Prix: his friend Henry Segrave having been rudely pushed out of the way by police, Bill evened the score by starting his engine just as the band struck up the French national anthem; adopting a solemn pose, he sat in his cockpit noisily warming his engine and completely drowning out the music until the band finished; then he switched off his engine.
Bill also mastered the huge 350 hp 12-cylinder Sunbeam which he took to a world land speed record at Brooklands with a two-way average of 133.75 mph. This was an astonishing achievement - and the last time a LSR was set on a racing track.
A regular member of the Sunbeam GP team, Bill crashed 50 feet into a ravine during the 1924 Spanish Grand Prix at San Sebastian. His riding mechanic, Barrett, was killed and Guinness so badly injured that he gave up racing.
These remarkable racing brothers are remembered in the Royal Irish Automobile Club Guinness Segrave Library in Dawson Street, Dublin.
Ireland's first motor show: In January 1907 the Irish Automobile Club organised Ireland's first motor show at the RDS in Ballsbridge. It was reported that: "There is every prospect of it providing a vastly more important fixture in future and that, having once proved a success, motorists who have decided to purchase new cars will place their orders in Ireland either at or after the show, instead of travelling especially to Olympia and giving their orders to English firms."
However, when the club set about organising a second show in 1908, there were some rumblings from the Dublin traders about the cost of exhibiting. The matter was then put beyond discussion by the SMMT, which declared that all its members, including those who had participated in the 1907 show, had on being admitted as members signed a bond precluding them from exhibiting anywhere in the UK without SMMT approval. This approval, it was made clear, would not be forthcoming. That was that. The Dublin Motor Show was dead, after just one brief, glorious appearance, not to be re-born until 1976 when the SIMI, the Irish successor to the SMMT, organised the first of several successful two-yearly shows at Ballsbridge.