Last week, Maxine had to visit West Byfleet, so we looked to see what we could visit in the area, to make a day out of it.  And the Brooklands Museum was just two miles away, so we paid it a visit.  More my sort of thing, but we both had a very interesting time there, and it’s well worth a visit, as there’s all sorts of transport on display.  I’ll start with mostly cars, then they’ll be a post on planes, and finally one on buses.

The museum is in one corner of the old Brooklands race track, used in the 20’s and 30’s.  Part of the banked circuit has been preserved.  Although the road surface has subsided here and there, it would have been just as scary driving around it then, in an 8 litre engine, open topped, racing car with dubious brakes.

And when you look at the racing cars in 2019, can you imagine taking an Austin 7 to Le Mans?  DRS, what’s that??  Aerodynamics????  But this is a lovely little car!

Elsewhere there were all sorts of machines, from long gone companies like Napier Railton and still going, but rather different, ones like Bugatti.

A massive Bentley in racing green – best in a straight line – and a Lagonda.

The MG’s on display were smart little cars, though comparing the MG ‘Midget’ with its contemporaries showed what an accurate name that was!

Elsewhere, there was a display of Grand Prix cars, in the days before spoilers and downforce….

And historic motorbikes with long gone names such as Ariel and Brough Superior…

More up to date is this BOAC Commer van…

Moving onto aircraft, the museum has three generations of Harrier VTOL jump-jets.  This is an early prototype.

This production aircraft landed in Central London, as the nearby poster describes…

This late model was converted to a two-seater and used by British Aerospace as a demonstrator to try and sell the Harrier worldwide.

You were allowed to try out the cockpit for size.  The warning notice is not due to the ejector seat still being operational – more a concern that the aging switches will break!

More planes next post…