Which motor museum - Gaydon or Haynes ?

[rayny]

I have a few days off work and intend to spend one of them having a day out at either the Haynes Museum in Sparkford or the Heritage Motor Museum at Gaydon.

Actual visiting time will be about three or four hours including lunch.

Any thoughts as to which one I should go to?

[MrFlibbles]

rayny said:

I have a few days off work and intend to spend one of them having a day out at either the Haynes Museum in Sparkford or the Heritage Motor Museum at Gaydon.

Actual visiting time will be about three or four hours including lunch.

Any thoughts as to which one I should go to?

Which is closer?

I've been to both, I dont think there is enough at Gaydon to occupy you for 4 hours. The Haynes Museum is quite good, especially the Ghostbusters Ambulance!

[Dilligaf10]

MrFlibbles said:

rayny said:

I have a few days off work and intend to spend one of them having a day out at either the Haynes Museum in Sparkford or the Heritage Motor Museum at Gaydon.

Actual visiting time will be about three or four hours including lunch.

Any thoughts as to which one I should go to?

Which is closer?

I've been to both, I dont think there is enough at Gaydon to occupy you for 4 hours. The Haynes Museum is quite good, especially the Ghostbusters Ambulance!

+1. Gaydon is good but I preferred Haynes as it seemed a little more diverse.

[Frederick]

I visited the Haynes one last week, really good - the cutaway cossie (with the VW engine) is a bit of a "wtf-mobile"... not least because of the fact it's driveable!

A very strange L reg fiesta in there too... that's all I'm saying on that one!

Well worth it

[vrooom]

Hayes is nice if you like red cars.

i preffered gaydon. But go to both anyway.

[RedexR]

Don,t forget Brooklands as well , now owned by Mercedes and you can have a look around the Mercedes part for free ,they have their own skidpan etc if you want to book a ride etc

[Puff Puff]

RedexR said:

Don,t forget Brooklands as well , now owned by Mercedes and you can have a look around the Mercedes part for free ,they have their own skidpan etc if you want to book a ride etc

If the OP is in the South East, Brooklands it HAS to be.

I've been to Haynes and Gaydon quite a few times and neither matches Brooklands.

[Callan.T89]

Have you considered the Motorsport museum at Donnington, when I went a few years ago it was pretty awesome.

[minimatt1967]

I like haynes its always good, nice selection of standard cars classic cars super cars etc! I prefer Gaydon though you can get more up close and personal! Oh and the off road experience is awesome if they still do it!

[Mars]

MrFlibbles said:

I've been to both, I dont think there is enough at Gaydon to occupy you for 4 hours.

Totally agree. I reckon even someone really into their British cars would be in and out inside 2 hours.

It's great but there's only one floor of parked cars.

[rayny]

Many thanks folks,

I'm a bit of a slow walker, it would take me 4 hours to cover what others would do in 2 hours, so Gaydon would be OK.
However, special thanks to those who reminded me about Brooklands - I had a great time at Mercedes World earlier this year but did not have time to 'do' Brooklands as well.

Thanks to your reminders I shall be going to Brooklands tomorrow as it gives me a relatively short drive up there, time to have a wander around and enjoy some lunch, then time to find an interesting route home to Hastngs.

[MikeyT]

We had a few days down south back in Feb and I badgered the missus into going to Beaulieu for a look as I hadn't been there since I was a kid.

Disappointing or what! They seemed to have exactly the same cars there that I remember when I did go as a kid! Nowt that was really THAT good - an old Capri, a Triumph Herald etc, a Peel, stacks of really old cars that I'm not really that bothered about, Bluebird which has been there since the year dot and that was it.

And a couple of Nick Mason's 'spare' exotica ... very 80s ...

DOn't waste your money - not that you were looking to go to this Museum I know.

[williamp]

If you do go to Gaydon, also think about two others which arent too far away:

-Grand Prix collection at Donington
-Coventry road transport museum. Both are crackers. The only downside with the latter is that you have to go into coventry to see it. But they have BOTH Thrust 2 and Thrust SSC there. Well worth the journey.

[speedtwelve]

I reckon Haynes has a much broader spread of car interest than Gaydon. Gaydon's fine if you want to look at rows of BL history, but there's something different and interesting in every hall at Haynes; little touches such as Corvettes C1 to C5 lined-up side by side, that sort of thing.

Brooklands I enjoyed, although car & bike-wise very much biased towards the vintage stuff, understandably. A decent selection of aeroplanes as well, the bigger ones usually open and with ground power connected. Nice to see some of the track banking still in place also; I was amazed how steep it was.

[dcb]

speedtwelve said:

I reckon Haynes has a much broader spread of car interest than Gaydon. Gaydon's fine if you want to look at rows of BL history, but there's something different and interesting in every hall at Haynes; little touches such as Corvettes C1 to C5 lined-up side by side, that sort of thing.

+1.

If 20+ Landies and assorted BL stock is your cup of tea,
go to Gaydon.

Haynes has a much broader range of stock, including
foreign stuff and dozens of motorbikes.

Brooklands has lots of older stock, the airplanes
and plenty of new M-B stock in M-B world.

They even let kids drive their cars there.

[AngryS3Owner]

Gaydon was pretty boring, missing huge chunks of British motoring history and not worth the effort in my opinion.

I've heard good things about the haynes one though!

[ewenm]

But what about Beaulieu?

[T66ORA]

1) Haynes
2) Gaydon
3) Beaulie

IMO of course.

[AngryS3Owner]

ewenm said:

But what about Beaulieu?

I thought that was great and would happily go again, also plan to pay haynes a visit at some point but Gaydon was just pointless without a more comprehensive collection of british motoring history.

[BIG BAVARIAN]

did beaulieu,last september,some superb cars their and stopping off at haynes,a week on monday on my way to dorset hopefully