OV9

I thought Brooklands was pretty cool - Obviously very MB focused but still, a hell of a lot more than an Industrial Estate IMO

i was at a Mini meet last weekend at brooklands, it’s definitely not polished (unless you’re referring to mercedes world?)

Ah OK, yes I was talking about MB World - wasn't' aware there was a different museum there

dinny_g wrote: Fri Mar 27, 2026 2:48 pm Ah OK, yes I was talking about MB World - wasn't' aware there was a different museum there

Yep, it’s a good day out - Brooklands has a motor racing museum, a transport museum and plane museum (all one site). They have various car meets on the site too - there were probably 500+ minis there last weekend.

I'm not saying Brooklands is a big pile of shit or owt - but look at those pictures of the Fuji museum and tell me that they look like they're on the same level of presentation and polish.

Just feels like different approaches to showing off our respective motorsport histories, and one takes it a lot more seriously.

Silverstone Museum?

I guess the British motor heritage museum at Gaydon is the closest thing we have as a purpose built site. It’s not particularly fancy, just lots of cars. Still worth a look if you’re in the area.

The Donnington Grand Prix collection was excellent, before it closed, but again, cars in sheds rather than fancy displays. The beulieu collection? Wasn’t as big when I visited as a grownup as I remembered as a child, but a purpose build facility. The Haynes collection? Mainly road cars but pretty big.

The uk seems to be more about the events if you want to get up close and personal with a vast range of incredible machinery. Obviously Goodwood members meeting, revival and hilclimb taking top billing.

Germany has an incredible collection of museums, obviously helps that several of their large manufacturers still exist.

Porsche museum, bmw welt, Mercedes, vw autostadt, the Nurburgring, but also technical museums. Sinsheim is literally huge warehouses on an industrial estate but is just mental. Planes, tanks, motorbikes, racecars, road cars, trains, artillery. Oh yeah, hard not to be impressed driving in and seeing concord and a Tu144 on the roof!

I obviously worked in a major museum for about eight years and was almost as fascinated by the building itself and how it worked - a cheeky glimpse behind the scenes when a staff member left showed corridors just tucked away for prep and staging rooms, as is common with most museums just behind a gallery wall. I think it is helped by the fact it was built as part of the hotel and the level of fit and finish is uniform across the entire place. But one look round the back of the building shows some very purpose built dockways, loading bays and infrastructure you'd see with a large museum. Basically all very well done and built for purpose.

I was told staying at the hotel isn't cheap, so I can only assume your room goes some way to keeping the lights on at the museum. I'd imagine it's also subsidised by the circuit too, but that's a complete guess.