Back
British Motor Museum at Gaydon - Warwickshire
During our stay on the Waggoner rally at Warmington over the May Day weekend, Pam, Ben and I spent a thoroughly interesting day at the British Car museum and Car Collection at nearby Gaydon. There was much to see and not just cars, so much so that a return is on the cards for later this year at which time entry will be free having added Gift Aid at our initial entry. The museum boasts several hundred vehicles of all shapes and sizes, some we are familiar with, having seen them on the roads over the years, others were never to be seen vehicles, experimental or development prototypes. Some didn't even make the road, instead performed on specialists surfaces such as racetracks or isolated areas where attempts would be made at land speed records. Overall, a fascinating mix of just what the British Car industry was capable of, and thankfully, in the marques of Aston, Jaguar and Land Rover is still achieving today, if now some foreign owned. In addition to the cars, there are numerous displays of fascinating artefacts related to the motor industry, along with scores of pictures and drawings showing events in the lives of the workers, and of the works themselves. As well as the museum there is also the Car Collection, which was new to Pam & I, neither of us recalling it being there on our last visit and housed in a separate building across the way from the main museum. This building is home to the British Motor Industry Heritage Trust and the Jaguar Trust vehicles as well as those loaned to the collection from the Ford and Vauxhall Heritage Trusts. It also houses a small, but extremely well-equipped workshop. There are in excess of 250 cars in the collection at any one time. The whole of the ground floor area being dedicated to Jaguar cars, covering a number of eras of the company's production. With the first floor showing a varied range from Austin, Morris and more up to date Jaguar and Land Rover, most of the latter being first production models and even specialist production vehicles.
Above: First the impressive frontage of the Museum & Conference centre and then the more modern looking building which houses the Car Collection and workshop.
The following pictures are just a sample of the number that Ben and I took on our visit, but hopefully give a flavour of the scale of what the museum and the collection have to offer.
A small representation of the Vintage vehicles that are on display throughout the museum. On one side wall is displayed a pictorial time line, the starting point of 1910 can be seen behind the vehicle in the last picture, which shows memorable events throughout each period in time, not all car related, below which are positioned cars of each period. By scanning your eyes from left to right it is remarkable to be able to see the evolution of the motor car.
A display of racing cars through the ages. The most recent example being the Jaguar chassised car with Ford Cosworth engine run under Stewart racing. Picture number 4 is the Rover - BRM Gas Turbine car, of the 1960's which appeared or ran at the 63, 64 and 65 Le Mans races under the guidance of such notable drivers as Hill, Ginther and Stewart. Its best result, classified, which due to its revolutionary power system, it wasn't originally, was in 65 finishing 8th. Ironically, the concept was to appear again on a race track, not by Rover but by another British manufacturer, Lotus, in the mid 60's first in America at Indianapolis as a Lotus 56 and then in this country as 56B. The car proved its worth but later became banned from competition. Shame as it was weird to sit in the grandstand to see the car pass you at considerable speed and then to hear the engine sound seconds later. The second to last picture shows a Formula 1 Tyrell March Ford 701, driven by Jackie Stewart, in which he finished 2nd in both the Dutch and Italian Grands prix. The last picture shows the Jaguar involvement in Formula one referred to earlier.
Pictures of the mighty minis, winners of numerous rallies, most famous of which being the Monte Carlo back in 1964. The winning car a Mini Cooper S, registration 33 EJB, is shown in picture three above. The first picture with the car in pristine condition, having been lovingly restored and maintained with the next picture of the very car on the Monte Carlo rally in 1964 being driven by one of Britain's best drivers Paddy Hopkirk.
Further examples of ventures into racing include a highly modified E-Type as raced in the United States, followed by a highly customised TVR Tuscan T400R. Finally two more Jaguars an XJR-5 and the later version XRJ-9 which both competed in the highly competitive World Sportscar Championships. The XJR-9 is shown in the workshop facility, which is part of the Car Collection building.
Early examples, dating back to the 1950's of attempts to break the land speed record in vehicles made by a marque more accustomed to producing smart two up sports cars, none other than MG motors. Pictures show the 1954 MG-EX179 and the 1957 MG-EX 181, driven at the attempts by non-other than Sir Stirling Moss.
I could continue showing yet more photos of vehicles, those that have appeared in films or on Television, Lady Penelope's Fab1, 
or Trotter family's Reliant Regal,
or never to be missed an example from 007, 
a rather battered Land Rover.
Modern day production cars from McLaren, 
or Aston 
and Rolls 
.
Cars worth a mere few 1000 pounds when new, which would fetch 10's of £1000's if they ever came up for sale. For example, this amazing Austin Healey 3000, £1100, when new - now priceless. 
Cars that were first off, the production line,
saved for prosperity and those that were last off, like the original design Mini Cooper S, still looking as good as the day it was finished back on that October day in 2000. 
A remarkable collection, worthy of a visit by anyone interested in motors. A chance to drool over some fantastic machinery or to reminisce over cars once owned but not forgotten.
Back to the top