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Published: October 22nd 2018
Why is it that when you return from holiday you initially feel that sense of relief to see that the house is still OK. That the car is still there and that you can lie in the bath and have a long long soak in that bubbly bath water? A relief to eat baked beans on toast or fried egg and chips . To sleep in our own bed. But then the doubts about being home start to work their way back into my brain. We did have a good holiday didnt we? Then its time to check the post. The house insurance has turned up as has the quotation for the car insurance. Gabbys road tax is due and is a lot less expensive than we expected it to be. All those normal things that start to irritate . Gabby needs a wash to remove all the dust she has accumulated. We rush to produce a photobook of memories and get that off to the printers. She is booked in for her habitation check, an oil change and the brakes need a serious bit of looking at . She has only travelled 7000 miles and the handbrake has failed ..
Appointments have been booked for flu jabs, doctors appointments, hair cuts , feet pampering and dentists appointments. It is at this time that we start to think what to do next. Short trips are required this side of Christmas and a longer one for next year. Turkey has been mentioned a few times. We could get to Istanbul and book a hotel for a few nights to give us the chance to see the sites we have always wanted to see.
But first we had to find somewhere to go for a day trip out. It was a chance read that brought us to the Donington Track museum. We used to go to Moto GP races years ago at Donington before the races were moved to Silverstone. We had intended to visit the museum in the past but never quite got round to it. Originally part of the Donington Hall Estate it was created as a racing circuit between the first and second world wars. It had been used as a military storage depot but fell into disrepair before being purchased by the local entrepreneur Tom Wheatcroft. it hosted one round of Formula One race and has been the
venue for Superbikes but I guess more of its money come from corporate events and track days. It was a shock to read that the museum on site was going to close in November. So the decision to make a visit was an easy one. If we didnt go now we would never get the chance to go again.
It was an easy three quarter of an hour drive down the M1 and around the East Midlands Airport . Arriving we found the large carpark easily accessible for a motorhome. The car park on the other side of the track was full to bursting. Either the museum was busy or perhaps there was a track day running . It seemed more likely that it was an overspill car park for the nearby airport . A good money spinning opportunity. We parked up and entered the museum. Outside the doors were old petrol pumps . The sort that were just being replaced in the 1960's and 1970's in rural Wales. The thin tall petrol pumps were common when I was a child in our local garage . I remember it when I used to go to fill cans with parafin.
Can you imagine a young child being sent these days with a metal can to ask for a fill of parafin? What about nipping to the shop for a packet of Players cigarettes? Running out with 2/6 to place a bet with the bookies runner. It brought back memories of a lifestyle long gone and a time of great innocence.
We paid our £10 reduced seniors entrance and started our journey around car racing and cars. A petrol heads dream perhaps. On each of the windows were plans of racing tracks no longer used - Laguna Seca, the Austrian Ostereichring, Interlagos and Clermont Ferrand. Right through the museum the black and white tracks of the Neuburgring and Brooklands reminded us of the demise of first class tracks replaced by clinical street racing circuits. Circuits in the Arab world where money is the key to running a race.
The first part of the tour took us through the military vehicles. The collection comprised of around 200 items of which 130 were vehicles. 88 tanks were displayed. The majority German with some American a few of British origin. For anyone interested in military vehicles this was an ideal place to
meander and admire the different bicycles , cars and tanks. Amongst the vehicles were rare Second World War Panther tanks. As there were not many visitors we had time to meander and read about the items on show.
Once out of the military vehicles we entered the areas devoted to Formula One racing cars. What we were looking at as we walked from room to room were beautfully designed racing cars . Many open wheel single seaters that had taken part in F1 races. Some of the vehicles were from Wheatcrofts own collection from his own racing team where he ran drivers such as Derek Bell. Around the vehicles were memorabilia from racing. Signs from the past - BP , Shell - a large Michelin Man in a corner. A mock up of a garage scene from the past . A mock up of a F1 wheel change during the Grand Prix.
We walked past a near complete collection of McLaren F1 cars from the early 2000's extensive collections of Williams and BRM's. Cars in racing green and models made of balsa wood. Prototypes and complete fuly scaled up models. Glenn particularly liked the Van Wall collection which
was near complete. A collection of green cars that were all identical. They seemed the star exhibit. One exhibit which drew particular attention was the Lotus 18 which Stirling Moss won the 1961 Monaco Grand Prix along with Jim Clarks Lotus 25. The list went on and on with the most successive Jordan car made.
There was a wonderful collection of helmuts belonging to Fangio, Graham Hill. Mansell and Hunt and Alonso. There was also a small collection of racing motorcycles including items from Barry Sheen.
What did I like best? Probably the Van Walls in their racing green. Also the petrol pumps and petrol signs all of which took me back to a much simpler past and my early years of driving . I was glad that I saw the information for the closure. Sad for the closure but at least we got to see the vehicles and memorability before it was split up and dispersed to the four corners of the UK .
Back home and it was time to pull out the Dorling Kinderley travel books and the Rough Guides .
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Jackie Harrison
non-member comment
Istanbul
is brilliant! Loads of mosques and palaces to see as well as boat trip on the river, the bridge with its fishermen, the old fish market......loads of things to see!