The MGF Register has held a photographic competition since 2008. That year photos were submitted, printed and displayed at MGFest08 at Gaydon. They were then voted on by the visitors to the show. This continued for the following two years. The cup itself was instigated in 2011, when there was no longer an annual show and the previous winners inscribed upon the base.

The competition was changed to one where the photos were emailed and placed in an online photo gallery. Judging was then by a panel. The judging has changed over the years and culminated in a complicated points based system from a selected panel of judges drawn from Brooklands Museum and Kimber House. That system was streamlined to a shortlist based system where a professional photographer, Jason Dodd, chose the final winners. He had no connection with the club and knew none of the entrants making him a truly independent judge. Finally, in 2019 the choice was made by Jason on his own from the entirety of the entries. In 2020 the competition changed to one run on Facebook with entries being posted on the competition thread and then public “likes” were counted to ascertain the winners.

The top twelve winners were published in a printed calendar for the following year on sale through the Register online shop and an overall winner received the Photographic Cup. No calendar was printed for 2020 due to the nature of that competition but an online printable version was made available.