After the Parisian Exposition Internationale de Velocipedie et de Locomotion Automobile in 1894, English technology enthusiast Sir David Salomons was determined England should not be eclipsed by the rapidly developing French industry. "I am deeply interested in our English manufacturers producing a carriage which shall eclipse all others," he said in The Sketch, and promoted the town of Tunbridge Wells, of which he was mayor, as the host for England's first auto show.

The Horseless Carriage Exhibition held the next spring at the Agricultural Show Ground in Tunbridge Wells attracted all of five vehicles, which was five more than had been built in Britain to that time. Sir Salomons himself was forced to exhibit a vis-a-vis Peugeot. Determined to erode the stumbling blocks to a domestic auto industry, he started with the biggest: Cars were illegal in England.

Thanks to antiquated "Red Flag" Locomotive Act laws aimed at steam tractors ("locomotives") and other conveyances, you were not allowed to operate self-propelled vehicles on public thoroughfares without substantial preparation – flaggers and attendants, bonds, and a four mile-per-hour speed limit. Together with Daimler Motor Syndicate founder Frederick Simms, they founded an organization dedicated first, to the legalization of cars, the Self-Propelled Traffic Association.

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