Moving Motor Museum

Being a bit of a transport geek I can’t resist either a heritage railway or a motor museum. Over the weekend I visited the Mid-Hants Railway or Watercress Line and the National Motor Museum, Beaulieu. Much as I love the Beaulieu museum I do wonder if motor museums could learn a thing from the steam railway.

From Beaulieu and Watercress Line

The great thing about these enthusiast-run railways is that you experience the trains running; not just as static exhibits. You get a flavour of what railway travel was like fifty years ago. It would be interesting to see the same model applied to cars.

Imagine a museum where some cars are in use either every day or, at least, at the weekends. The public could see and possibly even ride in old cars. To that end you’d need a short test track. Not a race track but somewhere with a variety of road surfaces, corners and gradients and maybe a long straight. Cars would not be pushed to their limits but I would want to give people an idea of acceleration, ride comfort and cornering; hearing the noise of the engines, the feel and smell of the upholstery.

What cars would go in the collection? You’d want cars that were interesting to look at and travel in.

Considering those factors the first cars I’d source for my collection would be:

From Model T Pictures

Ford Model T – A unique character with its strange controls.

From Haynes Motor Museum

Citroen SM – demonstrate the ride quality and general eccentricity of Citroen.

From BIMS 2008 Oldies

Lamborghini Countach – big on drama and spectacle whether in motion or standing still.

From Warwick Classic and Retro Cars

Mini Cooper – cramped and uncomfortable but fun.

From Gold Cup 2008

Jaguar XJ12/Daimler Double Six – Possibly the smoothest engine ever and a great ride too.

From Gold Cup 2008

Rolls-Royce Corniche – Or any Shadow variant, to sample Rolls-Royce craftsmanship.

From Luton Festival of Transport

Plymouth GTX – Feel the power of a big, American V8 as well as the comedy cornering behaviour of a car designed for straight roads.

What cars would you include?

Weekend part 2

While I was down in Somerset I took the trouble to visit the Haynes Motor Museum at Sparkford. Established by John Haynes, of workshop manual fame, the collection is wonderfully diverse and covers everything from the dawn of motoring to the present day.

My description could make the museum sound somewhat disorganised and lacking in purpose. It is, in fact, very nicely laid out with cars in sensible thematic groups.

You enter the main part of the museum through the “Red Room”, where every car is painted the same colour. The idea, allegedly, is that by having a lot of cars with near identical paint the visitor can more clearly consider line, form and proportion.

From Haynes Motor Museum

There are bubble cars but about the smallest “proper” cars are things like the Renault 4CV, Fiat 600 and this Honda.

From Haynes Motor Museum

It was nice to see three iconic Citroëns together, a Traction, D-series and SM.

From Haynes Motor Museum

Other double chevron cars included a lovely little 5CV.

From Haynes Motor Museum

As well as the corrugated shed that is the evergreen 2CV.

From Haynes Motor Museum

If you prefer your cars low and impractical there is the utterly gorgeous, early De Tomaso Pantera.

From Haynes Motor Museum

Or if you like luxurious grand tourers there is a Ferrari 400i.

From Haynes Motor Museum

The Ford Cortina is more down-to-earth. In fact this is the most basic 1.3-litre, two-door version of the mark four ‘tina. Funnily enough there is a dark blue car of exactly the same type (2-door, 1.3) local to my home. I wonder how many others there are?

From Haynes Motor Museum

A mark-three Ford Fiesta surely belongs in the car park and not behind a velvet rope. This is one of the experimental Fiestas fitted with a three-cylinder, two stroke engine.

From Haynes Motor Museum

I found this Bristol 403 impossible to resist. Sleek and spacious the Bristol was incredibly advanced for its day, with integrated bumpers mounted on rubber to absorb impacts, bonded in rear window and impressively low aerodynamic drag. With a 100bhp version of the BMW-derived two-litre, six cylinder engine the 403 could exceed 100mph. It could also carry four people, plenty of luggage and had decent ventilation. All of which makes it easy to understand why it was priced to compete with Aston Martins and Bentleys.

From Haynes Motor Museum

All of which can only give a taste of the breadth of the collection. If I get the opportunity I’ll post more photos.

Grand day out 1 – Donington Collection

I decided to take a day to go to the Donington Grand Prix Collection. It is the largest collection of Grand Prix cars in the world, apparently. Once you are inside the collection seems to go on almost forever with halls full of cars and other memorabilia. The oldest cars are, I think, the two 60 hp Mercédès while the collection features examples from every era of racing right up to the present day.



One interesting thing is the noise; there isn’t any except that made by visitors. It is nice to see the temptation to go “interactive” and “multimedia” has been resisted. My experience today might not be typical but as it is half-term there were plenty of families in the museum and everyone seemed to be enjoying the exhibits without needing audio-visual stimulatiion. Somehow even quite young children seemed calm and well-behaved giving the collection a much most agreeable atmosphere. Some museums give the impression of being little more than glorified adventure playgrounds.

It is difficult to pinpoint a favourite exhibit as there is so much to see and I you have ever followed motor racing (I don’t really bother anymore to be honest) then nearly every exhibit will make some sort o connection, whether it is a famous historic machine like the bimotore Alfa Romeo or 1980s Williams and McLaren racing cars driven by Mansel, Senna, Prost, etc.

If motor cycles are your thing there are plenty of those too, including some almost toy-like Yamaha racers and a fine collection of vintage cycles. One of the most eye-catching is an early NSU cycle. Car enthusiasts may associate the Necarsulm firm with the futuristic but flawed RO80 or the unusual, rear-engined small cars but the company made bikes too.

It took me over an hour to get round the museum; a good length of time as I felt I had seen a lot. The only slightly negative criticism I’d make is that to get out you have to double back on yourself. On the other hand, if you want to go back for a second look at something at least you get the chance.

Of Instruments and Museums

Last weekend I visited my friend Simon, owner of the utterly charming MG Midget which I have mentioned before. Sadly, the Midget is not entirely well as you can read in Simon’s blog. But, component failure aside, the Midget did offer an interesting illustration of a phenomenon that is usually overlooked. Most cars, if they have a temperature gauge at all, only show you the engine temperature when the ignition is switched on. However, the Midget comes from a time before electrical transducers and has a mechanical temperature gauge, which shows the temperature even after you switch off the engine. When the engine stops the coolant pump and fan stop and the coolant just sits, picking up heat from the engine, with a mechanical temperature gauge you can actually watch the needle move towards the “H” marker. Wait long enough and the needle will drop back as the engine cools.

This weekend I visited the Coventry Transport Museum. As I may have said before, one of the reasons I like this museum is the way the exhibits are moved regularly so that there is always something new to see on each visit. The latest special exhibition is a celebration of anniversaries; the 60th anniversary of the Land Rover and Morris Minor and the 40th year of the Jaguar XJ6. It seems anniversaries only count if they are whole multiples of ten! There were some interesting substitutions among the exhibits. Using a Tygan Porsche 356 speedster recreation (developed, I believe from the famous Chesli Speedster) in place of a 1948 Porsche 356 was understandable, the Rover P4 in lieu of a 1958 P5 3-litre Rover was odd but the signage made it clear that it was only a temporary situation. No mention was made of the fact that the “Jaguar XJ6” was clearly an XJ12 series one (built in 1972-3 although Jaguar intended to launch the XJ with the V12 in ’68. Even more unusual was the presence of Daimler wheel trims (you would hope the museum could source the correct parts). Even so, it was a great exhibit even if it ignored the most meritorious 60-year old car, the 1948 Bristol 401.