What do you think of when you think of British motorsports? Jaguars, Aston Martins, Lotuses, and Morgans doing fast things? Loud noises? Beautiful shades of green paint? The British motorsports scene wasn’t always like that.

Historically, extremely strict British speed limits made it very difficult for any kind of motor racing to blossom, . Wanting to bring in some excitement, a few rich aristocrats who wanted to stick it to the man and go fast went about trying to find a loophole.

They discovered that private property was exempt from the speed limits. There was a stretch of privately owned bicycle path in the English town of Bexhill-on-Sea, and in 1902, this became the site of the very first British motorcar drag race.

And the rest, as they say, is history.