17th March 2007

Brooklands

We kicked off our 2007 programme of events in March with a visit to Brooklands, the spiritual home of British motoring. This was our third visit to this ever popular museum and this year we had the added attraction of combining our visit of Brooklands with a tour of the adjacent Mercedes Benz World. With over forty members in attendance this was a remarkable turn out and our collection of cars, on display in the main paddock area, drew admiring glances all day from the museum visitors.

Brooklands was the worlds first purpose built motor racing circuit and became famous for its unique curved banking, allowing cars to travel flat out around the circuit. For over thirty years, Brooklands was at the heart of the motor racing world with many famous names competing on the 2 ½ mile circuit. Among these were Malcolm Campbell, who designed and built his various Bluebird cars at Brooklands and set some of his first land speed records on the circuit. The Brooklands speed record was set by John Cobb in 1935, achieving a speed of 143.44 mph in a 24 litre Napier Railton. This and many other cars are on display at Brooklands charting all aspects of motor sport, right through to today’s Formula 1 cars.

Motor racing came to an end at Brooklands following the outbreak of the second world war. By then, Brooklands was already firmly established as the home of Britain’s aviation industry. As far back as 1906, a competition was launched offering a prize of £2,500, should anyone be able to build a plane and fly around the circuit, before the end of 1907. The Vickers company was just one of several to base themselves at Brooklands, building both commercial and military aircraft. The Wellington bomber being just one of the aircraft produced in huge numbers at Brooklands.

In the 1960’s and ’70’s, Brooklands was pioneering the jet age. The first prototype DC10 airliner was flown on a test flight at Brooklands in 1962. More famously however is the part Brooklands played in the development of Concorde. The first meeting between the British and French companies who would design and build the supersonic jet, took place at Brooklands in 1961. More parts and components for all the subsequent Concorde’s were made at Brooklands than at any other site. Fittingly today, Concorde G-BBDG ‘Delta Golf’ is now the star exhibit at the museum. This aircraft was the first production Concorde to be built in the UK.

After lunch, we made the short journey across to Mercedes Benz World. Opened in 2006, this ‘showroom’ marks a new take on anything seen before in this country. Covering a massive 16,000m2 site, Mercedes Benz World combines a three story futuristic building showcasing the entire range of Mercedes cars. It also hosts unique displays of classic Mercedes from through the years including the famous ‘Gullwing’. Outside, a large test track allows visitors to test the various cars out on the track providing a real try before you buy experience. We were all suitably impressed by the whole Mercedes Benz World experience, but the question on everyone’s lips was ‘why couldn’t Jaguar have built something like this?’.

Everyone enjoyed the trip and it was great to welcome along several new members who were attending their first club event.