A great day at Brooklands.

[GazCaff]

As the thread title suggests, I took my dad down to Brooklands today as a belated birthday present as I was sure he'd enjoy the Motorsport and Aviation museum at Brooklands.


(that banking is pretty damn steep!)

As you can probably guess, although I enjoyed the motorsport museum, I was more interested in the other attraction at Brooklands




(we really did well with the weather which was very un-bank hoilday like!)

On the drive home it was obvious that my dad had become a convert. I had expected him to remember the day more for the historic aircraft and old cars, but in MB World he had been like a kid in a sweet shop and I think he sat in nearly every vehicle there. I've got some more photos to upload, but I'll wait until my dad sends me the pictures he took. I'm just going to leave one more picture. It is a picture of my C250td behaving like a diesel for once and a picture I took just as I got home.



Looks like I might have squeezed 40mpg out of this lump for once! I know the CDi owners will be saying "meh." at this point but I think 485miles with fuel to spare is not too shabby for an old school td lump, especially since the round trip was done between 80 and 85mph, with the odd overtaking burst.

I know there are other MB World threads here, but it has to be said that a day at Brooklands is well worth the trip!

 

[GazCaff]

Okay, here's a few pics for the time being.

 

[gurpz]

Looks like you and your Dad had a fab day ! Thanks for sharing some of the pictures, top notch and what a great colour for that SLR a first im seeing in that colour and me likes it !

 

[glojo]

Looks like you and your Dad had a fab day ! Thanks for sharing some of the pictures, top notch and what a great colour for that SLR a first im seeing in that colour and me likes it !

Totally agree and how nice to see a car that is not silver or black!

Regards
John

 

[BlackC55]

I thought the showroom was poor when I went.

It looked like a big warehouse. I found it awkward to walk around and it had zero atmosphere.

I did like the CL63 though. I fell in love with it.

 

[FishtailnZ]

Nice pics, thanks for sharing! Cool pic of the old track too - looks like a lot of history there for sure.

 

[FishtailnZ]

Looks like you and your Dad had a fab day ! Thanks for sharing some of the pictures, top notch and what a great colour for that SLR a first im seeing in that colour and me likes it !

Looks a lot like the Caspian Blue (Benitoite I think they call it outside N.America) on mine. Under indoor lighting it looks the same anyway - for comparison:

 

[c240yaz]

Nice photos. How much of the old track still exsists and is it accessable ?

 

[BTB 500]

How much of the old track still exsists and is it accessable ?

There are some quite big sections of banking left, and I think some of the old straight runs through the museum area. The hill climb course is still there too.

When I last went to a car meeting there they were using the runway to drive on.

Edit: Brooklands website here

 

[bolide]

Most of the track is still intact. Some of it was lost during the war when it was taken down to make taking off from, and landing on, the runway safer. This is, I believe, the bit where the Tesco carpark is

The Gallagher buildings came later and cut into the banking by the Brooklands Clubhouse entrance. That whole section of the banking is missing

Nick Froome
www.w124.co.uk

 

[BTB 500]

Most of the track is still intact. Some of it was lost during the war when it was taken down to make taking off from, and landing on, the runway safer. This is, I believe, the bit where the Tesco carpark is

The Gallagher buildings came later and cut into the banking by the Brooklands Clubhouse entrance. That whole section of the banking is missing

You drive through a gap cut in the banking to get to the Tesco car park. The banking is preserved there at the South, and around the museum at the North end of the site. During the war a hanger was built on the finishing straight (that's where the Loch Ness Wellington is now), and trees were planted on some sections to hide the shape from the air.

The remaining bits of track can be seen quite clearly on the aerial photos in Google Maps etc.

 

[GazCaff]

Nice pics, thanks for sharing! Cool pic of the old track too - looks like a lot of history there for sure.

I think the Brooklands museum and MB World complement each other nicely. I think that if I had driven 200+ miles to see either alone, I would have been slightly disappointed. Going around Brooklands museum would take most people no more than four hours or so and MB world is worth a couple of hours at most unless you are taking part in the driving activities. But being able to go to both in the same visit makes it a worthwhile trip. Yesterday I fell in love with the sound of the 6.3 litre V12 engines from the cars going out on the skid pan and the esses.

The traffic yesterday was excellent, I set off from Warrington at 7.30am and got to Brooklands at 11ish with two stops enroute, the motorways were very quiet indeed.