The Towcar of the Year award was originally created by Martin Lumby of CI Caravans in 1978. This came after the dwindling popularity of caravan road rallies in the early seventies.
For years The Club had organised competitive events on road and track. Cars and caravans hurtled around roads, motor racing circuits and off-road courses to test the abilities of towcars and to improve the towing qualities of caravans.
Through the 50s and 60s these events gained support from prominent names throughout the caravanning industry. Famous race drivers of the time also became involved and the whole thing gained quite a following.
In 1971, an event, sponsored by Lombard North Central, allowed motor caravans to enter for the first time.
In 1974, one of these events, the British Caravan Road Rally, was renamed The Caravan Club International Road Rally. Unfortunately, petrol shortages due to the Arab-Israeli war forced the rally's cancellation.
Around this time car and caravan rallies became subjected to increasingly stringent regulations and dwindled heavily until, in 1977, The Club's International Road Rally had to be cancelled because of such small entry numbers.
It was a year later, in 1978, that Martin Lumby and CI Caravans organised and ran the first ever Towcar of the Year awards. The winner of this event was the Rover 3500.
The Club first became involved in 1980 when they supplied a judge for the awards. Three years later, The Club became sponsors of the competition and so The Caravan Club Towcar of the Year Awards were born.
In the years since, the awards have retained the same format throughout apart from the introduction of a Diesel Towcar of the Year from 1985 to 1997. This special award was dropped as diesel vehicles became more and more popular, and since that time they have always featured heavily in the awards roll of honour.
The awards are still a major highlight of The Club's calendar and attract masses of media coverage. They also retain the values with which they were started: to enable members of The Club to make informed decisions when choosing a towcar and to further the technology and engineering from manufacturers of towcar vehicles.
Download the Towcar of the Year winners to find out class and overall winner from the last 26 years.