Donington Collection To Close
Discussion
scrw. said:
when does it close?
5 of November. Sad news.https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/leicester-...
Not surprised tbh. I went a couple of years back and found it pretty depressing. Some nice cars, but also plenty of naff ones like a load of crappy Formula Classics. Of course there are dozens of photos of the man himself, and of the ‘93 GP. The first hall somewhat bizarrely was full of military vehicles. All a bit random. A bit like a morgue for F1 cars. I went mainly to get some reference material for a model I’m building, but I doubt the staff could have been less helpful.
Quite sad about this, I went in April for the first time as the wife bought me a ticket to see the collection for Valentines Day. I did think it was a bit dated, and it was weird to have a full hall of military bikes and vehicles just after looking at all the lovely Williams F1 cars sat opposite the Force Indias. But the last hall with the old 60's BRM's, wow. The best bit of it for me.
Had been planning to go again around Christmas or the new year as I'd have more time to go, sadly I can't go before November.
Had been planning to go again around Christmas or the new year as I'd have more time to go, sadly I can't go before November.
I went about 7/8 years ago and it was great from what I recall and spent 2-3 hours in there. For some reason the McLaren MP4-17D sticks in my mind for still retaining an aura from the remnants of the legendary MP4-18. I also remember noticing Nigel Mansell recently signed the visitor's logbook!
Went as a kid in 1999 and it was amazing.
Went again with mates in January this year and it was less so.
I’m sure that for military buffs the vehicles there are great but I couldn’t be less arsed about them.
It’s always great seeing F1 cars up close and to that extent it’s still a good collection but there were far less cars (at least back in 1999 there were one of every Williams and McLaren MP4 up to that point whereas there are definitely many less Williams - FW15C, FW18 and FW19 being the big omissions for me - and quite a few less McLarens too) and I noticed some of the more modern cars are definitely show cars (Jordan/Midland 05/06) rather than real race cars so it’s not quite as up to date and impressive as it once was. As others have mentioned I think many were sold off or returned to their owners when Senior Wheatcroft died and space was made for military vehicles. They definitely had a Bugatti Royale (coulx’ve been a replica) back in 1999 too because I remember being amazed at how big it was. Guess things were just more impressive as a 9 year old too.
Don’t think the museum was helped hy the mess of trying to get the GP back in 2009/10 was it? Could’ve been why they shed some of the cars.
I would imagine the Williams’ will go back to Dickie and Jonathan and the McLarens back to Unit 2 although McLaren are supposed to be selling off the family jewels and Williams Heritage offer cars up for sale occasionally too so maybe as a positive we might see the cars sold off and maybe ran at Goodwood, etc if they’re runners? There’s a full wuota of Force Indias up to the 2014 car IIRC and Damon’s Brabham from 1992. Plus a bunch of 70’s F1 cars that I have no clue about so it’ll be interesting for sure to see what happens. A Coys/RM/Bonhams auction would be nice.
Would help to know the chassis numbers too for my own lirtle oet project.
Went again with mates in January this year and it was less so.
I’m sure that for military buffs the vehicles there are great but I couldn’t be less arsed about them.
It’s always great seeing F1 cars up close and to that extent it’s still a good collection but there were far less cars (at least back in 1999 there were one of every Williams and McLaren MP4 up to that point whereas there are definitely many less Williams - FW15C, FW18 and FW19 being the big omissions for me - and quite a few less McLarens too) and I noticed some of the more modern cars are definitely show cars (Jordan/Midland 05/06) rather than real race cars so it’s not quite as up to date and impressive as it once was. As others have mentioned I think many were sold off or returned to their owners when Senior Wheatcroft died and space was made for military vehicles. They definitely had a Bugatti Royale (coulx’ve been a replica) back in 1999 too because I remember being amazed at how big it was. Guess things were just more impressive as a 9 year old too.
Don’t think the museum was helped hy the mess of trying to get the GP back in 2009/10 was it? Could’ve been why they shed some of the cars.
I would imagine the Williams’ will go back to Dickie and Jonathan and the McLarens back to Unit 2 although McLaren are supposed to be selling off the family jewels and Williams Heritage offer cars up for sale occasionally too so maybe as a positive we might see the cars sold off and maybe ran at Goodwood, etc if they’re runners? There’s a full wuota of Force Indias up to the 2014 car IIRC and Damon’s Brabham from 1992. Plus a bunch of 70’s F1 cars that I have no clue about so it’ll be interesting for sure to see what happens. A Coys/RM/Bonhams auction would be nice.
Would help to know the chassis numbers too for my own lirtle oet project.
Edited by F1GTRUeno on Thursday 11th October 23:47
The son of Tom is a massive Nazi memorabilia man, read some articles about him in newspapers and he will bid millions for things linked to the Reich and Hitler. Each to their own obviously, but he clearly wasn't that interested in the track much or the museum
Has no real interest in cars and the collection and merely looked upon most of it as a way of funding his hobby, so would rather see it gone than the way it peetered out after the glory years Tom managed to put together.
Kevin will always have my respect for bringing Donington back from the criminal Gillett who should be banged up for what he did!
Has no real interest in cars and the collection and merely looked upon most of it as a way of funding his hobby, so would rather see it gone than the way it peetered out after the glory years Tom managed to put together.
Kevin will always have my respect for bringing Donington back from the criminal Gillett who should be banged up for what he did!
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