A V-shaped cocktail glass of clear pale amber drink with a red cherry, beside curled orange peel on a pale marble counter. — R.A.C. Cocktail with a cherry in a V-shaped glass, beside a curl of orange peel.

R.A.C. Cocktail, the Royal Automobile Club’s Gin and Two Vermouths

Name: R.A.C. Cocktail
Prep time: 5 min
Total time: 5 min
Cuisine: British
Ingredients: 1 1/4 fl oz London dry gin; 5/8 fl oz dry (French) vermouth; 5/8 fl oz sweet (Italian) vermouth; 1 dash grenadine; 1 dash orange bitters; 1 cup ice cubes; 1 cocktail cherry; 1 strip orange peel

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Gin with French and Italian vermouth, a dash each of grenadine and orange bitters, stirred and served with a cherry: the house cocktail of London’s Royal Automobile Club, credited to Fred Faecks, 1914.

By Forgotten DrinkPublished October 30, 2026

Recipe makes: 1 drink, about 3 fl oz
Prep: 5 min
Total: 5 min

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R.A.C. Cocktail with a cherry in a V-shaped glass, beside a curl of orange peel.

The story behind the recipe

The R.A.C. is a gin cocktail with both kinds of vermouth, a dash of grenadine and a dash of orange bitters, stirred and served with a cherry and a squeeze of orange peel. Robert Vermeire printed it in 1922 in Cocktails: How to Mix Them and explained the initials: “R.A.C. means Royal Automobile Club. This is the largest club in London, with over 16,000 members.” The recipe ends with a credit: “(Recipe by Fred Faecks, 1914.)”

The author’s first club

Vermeire knew the place. The book’s blurb says he was known “first at the Royal Automobile Club, then the Criterion, finally at the Embassy Club,” so the bartender who wrote the book started at the club the drink is named for. Who Fred Faecks was, the book doesn’t say beyond the credit. The London and Paris bar trade of the decade is told in Cocktails in 1920s London and Paris.

Making it today

Equal French and Italian vermouth make what bartenders now call a “perfect” Martini, between dry and sweet, and the grenadine gives it a faint blush. The Bronx uses the same two vermouths with orange juice instead. Stir, don’t shake, so it stays clear.

R.A.C. Cocktail. Fill the bar glass half full of broken ice and add: ¼ gill of Dry Gin. ⅛ gill of French Vermouth. ⅛ gill of Italian Vermouth. 1 dash of Grenadine. 1 dash of Orange Bitters. Stir up well, strain into a cocktail-glass, add a cherry, and squeeze orange-peel on top. R.A.C. means Royal Automobile Club. This is the largest club in London, with over 16,000 members. (Recipe by Fred Faecks, 1914.)

Robert VermeireCocktails: How to Mix Them (1922), p. 42

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Ingredients

For 1 drink, about 3 fl oz. Quantities are shown as written.

Quantities as written here, for 1 drink, about 3 fl oz.

London dry gin1 1/4 fl oz
Dry (French) vermouth5/8 fl oz
Sweet (Italian) vermouth5/8 fl oz
Grenadine1 dash
Orange bitters1 dash
Ice cubes1 cup
Cocktail cherry1
Strip orange peel1

Ingredients as written here

1 1/4 fl oz London dry gin
5/8 fl oz dry (French) vermouth
5/8 fl oz sweet (Italian) vermouth
1 dash grenadine
1 dash orange bitters
1 cup ice cubes
1 cocktail cherry
1 strip orange peel

Equipment

Mixing glass and bar spoon
Strainer
Small stemmed cocktail glass

Instructions

Chill a small cocktail glass in the freezer or with ice water.
Half fill a mixing glass with the ice cubes and add the London dry gin, dry (French) vermouth, sweet (Italian) vermouth, grenadine and orange bitters.
Stir well for about 20 seconds, until the mixing glass is very cold.
Empty the cocktail glass if it holds ice water, strain the drink into it and drop in the cocktail cherry.
Twist the orange peel over the glass so its oil falls on the drink, then discard it and serve.

Nutrition

125calories per serving

Recipe makes: 1 drink, about 3 fl oz

Estimated from USDA FoodData Central values for 80-proof gin and grenadine and typical label values for dry and sweet vermouth, for one drink.

Recipe notes

When adjusting quantities

This is one drink. Stir no more than two at a time.

Notes

Quantities mentioned in these notes don’t change when you adjust the batch.

A quarter of a British gill is about 1 1/4 fl oz, and an eighth about 5/8 fl oz. The drink is about 23% ABV after stirring. The membership figure is Vermeire’s, from the 1920s.

Vermeire’s book has a drink without alcohol named for the dry campaigner Pussyfoot Johnson: the Pussyfoot Cocktail, lemon and orange juice shaken with mint and egg white.

Scaling changes the ingredients only; glassware, ice and timings need their own judgment. To adapt this recipe further, try the recipe tool at TuneMyRecipe (opens in a new tab), our sister site.