The Royal Automobile Club International Grand Prix was a motor race held on 2 October 1948, at Silverstone Airfield, Northamptonshire, UK.

The race meeting marked the opening of the Silverstone Circuit, although at the time the site was only on a one-year loan to the RAC from the Air Ministry, having been a bomber station during World War II.

The Royal Automobile Club took a one-year lease on the Silverstone airfield site in early 1948 and set about creating a race track.

The airfield conformed to the standard model for WWII RAF sites: three long, wide runways formed a triangle, their ends joined by a narrow perimeter roadway.

In this inaugural year the RAC decided to lay out a relatively long circuit, using the full lengths of the two longest runways, as well as large portions of the perimeter road.

Here, in an attempt to better emulate a true road circuit,[3] the course designers narrowed the track with straw bales, which funnelled the cars into a 130° left hairpin bend onto the second runway.

To commemorate the opening of this new circuit, all drivers completing either the Grand Prix or 500 cc race received the RAC Silverstone Plaque.

The organisers were particularly pleased to have attracted entries from leading continental firm Maserati;[6] two of their brand new 4CLT/48 Sanremo models were entered: a works car for Luigi Villoresi, and one by British privateer Reg Parnell.

One Alfa oddity was on show, however: the 1935 Bimotore, albeit with only one of its two engines in operation, was driven by Tony Rolt, an ex-Colditz prisoner of war and the future developer of four-wheel drive.

Future four-time British Hill Climb Champion Ken Wharton was also in the running, driving his self-built 500 cc special, in a strong field of well over 30 cars.

In the early corners Parnell was close behind Chiron, in second place, but his month-old Maserati dropped out on the first lap after a flying stone tore out the drain plug of his fuel tank.

By the end of the second lap the Maseratis of Villoresi and Ascari, showing their superior pace and benefiting from retirements, had made their way through the field and were close on Chiron's tail.

As the race progressed de Graffenried dropped yet further back, as his engine went out of tune and started to overheat, and he eventually finished six laps behind the winners.

Gerard sat in fifth place, after Étancelin's engine began to overheat, which dropped him back down the field as he was forced to make successive pit stops to top up his radiator fluid, and he eventually retired on lap 22.

Chiron dropped even further back after spending 45 seconds in the pits investigating the poor handling of his Talbot, and he eventually retired with a seized gearbox on lap 37.

However, Villoresi, who posted the fastest lap of the race (2:52.0), suffered an unusual mishap when his tachometer's fixings failed and the unit fell out of the Maserati's dashboard.