The IVVCC International Gordon Bennett Rally Ireland^® was established by the IVVCC in 1974 and is held every June.  Click on the button below to visit the website.

 The IVVCC represents almost 5100 old car enthusiasts in Ireland

            Updated 14:40  19 February 2012         

IVVCC / AXA

 Insurance scheme for affiliated clubs

Myles O'Reilly of AXA, with Shane Houlihan and Tom Farrell of the IVVCC, at the signing of the contract for the new insurance scheme for affiliated clubs.

Affiliate Clubs Insurance

 On election to the board, club affiliate secretary Shane Houlihan expressed his desire to improve communications with our affiliate clubs by meeting with them to find out how we could represent them better. One of the main concerns being expressed by clubs is the high cost of public liability insurance around the country and how for smaller clubs this represented a significant part of their expenses. Shane presented this to the board and after speaking to a number of companies, tenders were received, which after discussion by the board led to the decision that AXA had the most appropriate offering. This offering was designed to meet the specific needs of our affiliate clubs for the events they run at a considerable saving. This was only made possible by the fact that we represent over forty clubs and AXA has a clear understanding of our needs. On Wednesday 1^st of February a contract was signed by IVVCC club president Tom Farrell and Myles O’Reilly of AXA to provide this cover exclusively to clubs affiliated to the IVVCC.

To avail of this policy, a club should contact either Shane at  clubs@ivvcc.ie or Myles directly at myles.o’reilly@axa.ie 

If your club is not yet affiliated to the IVVCC and you would like become a member, please contact Shane and he will start the simple process for you. We hope this will be just one of a number of initiatives that the club is working on to help keep our hobby on the road and we particularly appreciate any feedback from clubs around the country.

IVVCC Club News – February 2012

Recent Events

Valentine's Run: Richard Seavers and the events committee have discovered the perfect recipe for a one day event – just take a sunny day, fifty four cars, add a choice of three routes with an optional observation quiz, tea and scones at the start and a great four course meal served in a fine hotel with wonderful views at the finish and you’re nearly there. Then you add the secret ingredient – one hundred and five enthusiastic and fun people to give you an event which really sets the tone for the year ahead – the bar has now been well and truly set at lofty heights! 

A wonderful day was had by all in attendance and we were joined by quite a few members of our affiliated clubs including the local Garden of Ireland Vintage Car Club. It’s great to see the level of support we receive from our affiliates around the country and we look forward to building stronger ties with every one of them in the months and years ahead.

Winner of the best pre-war car - Albert Collier in his 1929 DeSoto pictured here by Pat Foley on the 2010 Gordon Bennett Rally

The cars in attendance were wide ranging in years and among the oldest were Anselm Aherne’s 1926 Citroen, Denis Dowdall’s 1928 Rolls Royce and Albert Collier in his 1929 DeSoto which took home the best pre-war car award on the day. Other prize winners on the day included Eddie Connally of the Blessington Club being awarded the best post war car in his 1962 Fiat 1200 and Fred Lewis taking the honours for the best MG of the day in his 1968 MGB Roadster. One of the things which was commented on by a lot of people in attendance was the wonderful feeling of warmth and friendship on the day which was clearly evident by the amount of smiles and banter that could be witnessed throughout the event. The atmosphere was truly electric and this is without a doubt the direct result of likeminded people enjoying each other’s enthusiasm for historic motoring.

 After the meal and prize giving ceremony, Bernadette Wyer, our unbelievably hard working secretary was presented with a bouquet of flowers in celebration of her birthday. It’s only since starting to work with Bernadette that I have begun to realise the colossal amount of work that she undertakes on our behalf and would like to wish Bernadette ‘Many Happy Returns’ and to say thank you for her dedication on behalf of us all.

Retromobile and Bonham’s Auction

Where better to start the year’s overseas events than at Retromobile and this year saw quite a number of Irish enthusiasts travel over to Paris for this wonderful show where you get the chance to see some of the top sales offerings in Europe. Among the glamorous cars for sale, which had a distinctly French bias were a considerable amount of Bugattis and Delahayes which were mixed into a packed hall containing a large number of UK car dealers. There was also a large auto jumble area where hours could be spent trying to find that elusive part to finish off a restoration project. The auction area was taken over by local company Artcurial who had a vast selection of cars entered for the Friday auction with possibly the most unusual being an unrestored and original 8 litre engined 1913 Delauney Belleville Type 0.6. Not to be out done Bonham’s, held an auction on the other side of town on the Thursday and had organised a shuttle bus transfer from their stand to the auction site. The auction itself presented a few surprises but non so much as a 1978 Fiat 900T Ferrari liveried service van which was used by Jacques Swaters' Garage Francorchamps SA for parts delivery and race assistance in the late 1970s and 1980s. The van itself had a considerable amount of rust on the body and the engine required some care but this didn’t stop it selling for an amazing €17,825 including buyer’s premium – surely proof that the ‘prancing horse’ adds to any vehicles value!  More realistic sales included a 1964 Renault Dauphine Gordini at €9,200 while, at the other end of the scale, there was an Aston Martin DB4GT Coupe which achieved just over one million euro!

Both these events made Paris a well worth while trip for the Irish and worth pencilling into your diary for next year.

Future Events

The Opel Spring Rally will take place on the weekend of May 12^th & 13^th – this is really shaping up to be a great value event with a difference. We are trying out a new format for an IVVCC event in that we are actually running three rallies in one! On the Saturday morning, rally one will depart from Russborough House and will make its way down to the beautiful town of Dunmore east in Waterford for the lunch stop – this run, which like the others is open to all members of both the IVVCC and our affiliate clubs and  will be open to all classes of cars. At the same time we will have two other runs starting from Dungarvan in County Waterford which will comprise separate routes for Gordon Bennett era cars (up to 1931) and a second route for post 1930 cars – all three routes will converge at Dunmore East which will give everybody attending the event the chance to meet up over lunch, after which the early cars will take one route while the post 1930 cars will all join up and take a separate route back to the rally HQ in the Park Hotel. Dungarvan. A series of driving tests are being organised for the cars on their arrival in Dungarvan which should prove to be both challenging and fun in equal measures. We have a surprise event organised for after the dinner that evening and on the Sunday morning, we will be heading to Kilkenny via Carrick on Suir for our lunch stop and the end of the event in the Newpark Hotel. We are requesting as many people as possible to take their cars out and enthusiasts can either take part in the whole event or just on one day. We have also had a number of offers of hosting parts of the event from clubs along the route and look forward to working closely with them to make this a truly united event. There will be two closing dates for entries – This is due to the large amount of organisation required, so all early entries received by 17^th of March will be entered into a raffle for one of 18 petrol vouchers ranging in value from €20 to €30 euro – with the higher value vouchers being for early cars – this is designed to encourage owners of both more modern and older cars to bring their older (and a lot of the time, harder to drive cars0 back out on events – also, we will have €10 fuel vouchers for every pre 1940 Vauxhall / Opel entered. Further details can be found at www.ivvcc.ie.

Pioneer Run 2012

Entry for this year’s Pioneer Run which will take place over the weekend of May 26^th & 27^th based at Barberstown Castle has now opened. This really is a spectacular event for cars built prior to 1913 and details are available from Bob Montgomery at the Royal Irish Automobile Club, 34 Dawson Street, Dublin 2.

Membership Due

Our hard working membership secretary Jean Morton has asked us to give a gentle reminder that 2012 membership fees are now due and can be paid either online or by post – full details are on the website at www.ivvcc.ie. We are also open to new members and Shane Houlihan would be delighted to hear from any clubs that would like to seek affiliation to the IVVCC - Details are available from Shane at clubs@ivvcc.ie

Members' Help 

A lot of work takes place behind the scenes when it comes to organising an event and the board would like to ask any member who might be able to offer some of their time and become a member of our team to let Bernadette know at secretary@ivvcc.ie.

                                    
Founded in 1963.
Ireland's premier enthusiasts club for vehicles from the dawn of motoring up to 1984.

The IVVCC is the National FIVA Authority (ANF) for Ireland.   (ANF: Autorité National FIVA)

Yesterday's vehicles on tomorrow's roads.

FIVA unites more than  1,500,000  enthusiasts in 62 countries throughout the world.

 (Click on FIVA logo above to see their website).

You can receive the FIVA newsletter, events notifications and legislation updates  free of charge here:-  
 

The Irish Veteran and Vintage Car Club Limited was formed in 1963 to cater for owners of veteran and vintage vehicles and for enthusiasts who did not possess such vehicles. Vehicles catered for by the IVVCC now include post-vintage and classic cars. Cars are divided into the following classes:- 

• Antique: pre 1905

• Veteran: 1905-1918

• Vintage: 1919-1930

• Post Vintage: 1931 – 1945

• Classic 1946 – 1984*

*FIVA adopted a thirty year minimum age for the definition of an historic car from January 1st 2010.  The IVVCC decided to adopt this in a modified form to avoid exclusion of owners of cars that were over twenty five years old but not yet thirty.  The IVVCC adopted a cut-off date of 31st December 1984 which will remain in place until 31st December 2014, after which the thirty year rule will apply on a rolling basis (or whatever later rule supersedes it, if any).     

The club organises rallies, monthly meetings, picnics and outings as well as publishing a quarterly journal giving club news, details of vehicles for sale, information on vehicle restoration and articles of general interest. Various club sections run events especially suited to their own interests and section are usually included in club rallies to cater for these various sections.