Every time I visit England, I am blown away at the sheer amount of motorsport related activities and places. I should not be, I guess given how many English car manufacturers are based there and all the history and tradition that surrounds England. Yet, here I am – one day wondering where I should go and finding the Brooklands museum that apparently has some old racing cars and an old, abandoned track. And the next day, I am at that old, abandoned track, which turns out to be the oldest purpose-built racing track IN THE WORLD and I stand on it.
Monza was very special for me, but standing on something that can literally be called the cradle of racing (I thought I made this up, but in the gift shop they had a book with this subtitle, so I’m not as original as I thought) is special on a different level.
If you think Silverstone has history, well, Brooklands is the original Silverstone. It was built in 9 months in 1906-07 by Hugh Locke-King and held the first British Grand Prix in 1926. It also hosted the first 24-hour race just after 11 days after it was finished. Believe it ot not, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, home of the Indy500 took inspiration from Booklands (and was built in 1909).
Just like Silverstone, at some point it also functioned as an airfield and turned into an aircraft manufacturing place during World War One. During WW2, they produced Wellington bombers (if the name sounds familiar, it might be because of the Wellington straight in Silverstone that was named after the very same thing), and of course the Concord was made there as well.
Unfortunately, the Second World War put an end to racing, and in 1939 the track closed its doors to motorsport.
The best thing about all this history is that the Brooklands Museum stands witness to all of these! First of all, part of the original banking of the track is there! Some of it is closed down, so you cannot really walk up on it completely, but you can go above it on a bridge!
They have an exhibition about the history the British Grand Prix, and even though Brooklands never held an F1 Grand Prix, they do have some F1 cars (the one that James Hunt drove, for example), and also a simulator set up in a showcar version of Hamilton’s championship winning McLaren, and you can try driving on the original track!
They also have an airplane design section and a bus museum!! Sometimes they offer temporary exhibitions and this time I was in luck, because it was about the McLaren Senna GTR – there was a real model, a show car and a lego version along with a lot of text and videos about the developing of this model (and I have to tell you, I was mind-blown).
The Concord experience was closed for maintenance when I was there, so I cannot tell you about that specific one, but they have a lot of other planes as well, with awesome volunteers. One of them gave me the best and most interesting presentation about the BAC 1-11, which was so clear and fascinating that for a bit I considered developing a serious interest in airplane design, but ultimately, I couldn’t handle any more serious interests. (Besides it was all about aerodynamics, which I’m already interested in.)
The stratospheric chamber was something that I never heard about, but also found amazing! With plain words (I don’t really have any other ones to be honest), it is a place, where they could simulate the low air pressure in the sky and the different weather conditions an aircraft might encounter. So basically it makes a lot of SAFE testing possible, and it was also developed in Brooklands by Barnes Willis.
I spent 4,5 hours there because the website said that some visitors spend even more than four hours and I thought it would be enough. LIES!! It is most definitely not enough, I suggest going there for a whole day, preferably for the opening in the morning and than maybe you can check out everything, but honestly, I think I will have to go back! Not only did I miss the Concord experience, but also all the other planes (except the 1-11), I didn’t go into the Clubhouse (only looking for a bathroom), and I was quite superficial in some other parts as well.
It is important to note that even though some of the buildings are covered, in general this is an open air museum, so you will be spending most of your time outside or even when it’s inside, these huge places are not heated, so make sure to dress appropriately for the weather.
I’ve also made the mistake of taking a taxi from the Weybridge train station, because Google fooled me once again, telling me, it would be a 45 minute walk. On my way back, when I didn’t have to hurry, I walked back in some BEAUTIFUL backroads, and it didn’t take me more than 15 minutes.
All in all, it was one of my best motorsport/car museum experiences (it is definitely among the top 3), very highly recommend visiting it. Especially that it is basically next to Mercedes World, so if you are already there, you can visit that, too.
What are your top 3 car/F1/motorsport museums? For me, I think it’s Silverstone Museum, Autoworld and Brooklands (not necessarily in this order).
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