From the archives of Bob Montgomery, motoring historian
WATERFORD'S FIRST MOTORIST: Sir William Goff of Glenville, Waterford was a prominent Waterford businessman and one of the first motorists in Ireland - although not the first, as has been claimed on occasion. He was a successful racing cyclist and was the founding chairman of the Irish Automobile Club in 1901 and later, in 1909, of the Irish Aero Club. He was a participant in the Motor Tour of 1901 and won the class for four-cylinder cars in Ireland's first hill-climb event at Glendu in the Dublin Mountains in 1903. His first vehicle was a Beeston tricycle in 1897, but this was unsuccessful and was replaced with a Daimler, on which he travelled many miles with his son, Herbert, himself a pioneer motorist.
Fittingly, at the end of 1903, when vehicle registration was introduced in Ireland, it was the Napier of Goff which carried Waterford's first registration, WI 1. In 1905 he had the misfortune to be involved in a fatal road accident in which a Dublin woman was killed. A subsequent court case exonerated him from blame. He was a director of the Waterford motor company of W F Peare which erected the first purpose-built garage in Ireland. Prior to his involvement with motoring, Goff had been an enthusiastic cyclist and had built - at his own expense - a cycle track at Waterford's People's Park in 1895/'96, which he then presented to the Waterford Cycle Club. This was the first cycle track to be scientifically designed and cambered and was regarded for many years as the best cycle track in the British Isles, all the top riders of the day coming to Ireland to ride on it.
He remained a passionate motorist throughout his lifetime, being involved in all the great pioneering Irish events. When almost 70, he drove in a single day from Waterford to Dublin, then to Belfast, back again to Dublin, and then home to Waterford, a distance of over 400 miles which, on the roads of the day, would have taxed the endurance and ability of a much younger man.
Sir William Goff, pioneer Irish cyclist and motorist, died in November 1917 after a long illness.
EMILE LEVASSOR'S GEARBOX: Thirty-five years ago, in 1968, the motoring world was mourning the final ending of production of one of the greatest names in automotive history, the French pioneer car-maker, Panhard.
Founded in 1887, the company (Panhard et Lavassor) were the pioneers of the great early French motor industry, having been started by Eduard Sarazin working from Gottlieb Daimler's patents. Sarazin died a few years after the company was founded and his widow married Panhard's chief designer, Emile Levassor. In a few short years, Levassor re-wrote the automobile design rule-book, putting the engine at the front, and for the first time, transmitting its power through a train of gears. Levassor believed a better way of harnessing the power of the engine would be found and no doubt would be amazed to find that today's high-tech cars still use a development of the gearbox based on the ideas he first incorporated into his Panhard design 115 years ago.
Panhard won a famous victory in the 1893 Paris-Nice-Paris race and went on to win a further 1,500 races including the coveted Index of Performance Award in the Le Mans 24 Hour race on no less than 10 occasions. Indeed, in an Irish footnote to the Panhard story, it was two Panhards driven by Rene de Knyff and Henri Farman that provided the stiffest opposition to the winning Mercedes of Camille Jenatzy in the Irish Gordon Bennett Race which celebrates its centenary this year.