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Old 10 Oct 2018, 20:22 (Ref:3855990)   #1
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Donington Museum to close on 5th November

For anyone considering a visit to the Donington Collection - best hurry up.


It is due to close on 5th November 2018.
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Old 10 Oct 2018, 20:40 (Ref:3855995)   #2
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Oh no. Terrible news.
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Old 10 Oct 2018, 20:50 (Ref:3855996)   #3
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Now that is awful news, absolutely fantastic place.
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Old 10 Oct 2018, 21:03 (Ref:3855998)   #4
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So where are they moving it all to?
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Old 10 Oct 2018, 21:09 (Ref:3855999)   #5
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So where are they moving it all to?
They aren't moving anywhere, it's being closed.

https://www.classicandsportscar.com/...x-museum-close
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Old 10 Oct 2018, 22:15 (Ref:3856017)   #6
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I was thinking more of where all the cars are going to go
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Old 11 Oct 2018, 02:09 (Ref:3856038)   #7
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I was thinking more of where all the cars are going to go

Good question.


In recent years and I think as a long time tradition quite a lot of the cars were on loan from elsewhere and a few seem to have used it as a place to store cars (usually interesting cars with a history) over winter or for longer periods where they were not planning to use them.


In recent times quite a few cars that were owned by the Collection seem to have been sold on where a suitable race category had become popular for those with the wherewithal to buy a car and enjoy it.


Of what I saw last time I was there - which I suppose was about 2 years ago now - many would have no place to race at the moment and probably not in the future either. And of course there has been quite a large military vehicle collection present in recent years. Mostly German from WW2 era.


There's quite a lot of memorabilia there too. Whether owned or loaned I have no idea.


I would imagine there might be some private sales and then perhaps an auction but that is pure speculation on my part.
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Old 11 Oct 2018, 05:55 (Ref:3856054)   #8
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A massive massive shame, but there clearly isnt enough paying footfall to keep it open. I assume that the Wheatcrofts family have been subsidising the museums existence for a while, and remember, Kevin isn't actually a racing fan.

The focus for all activities at Donington is now at the Paddock end of the property; it's a pity that the museum (or a part of it) can't be moved to that end, to one of the Formula E buildings perhaps, so that race meeting spectators have an opportunity to visit during race and test days.

ISTR that Dr Palmer had some of his old cars on display at Bedford, maybe he should take over the remains of thecWheatcroft collection and combine with his cars in one of the Formula E buildings as suggested. Doubt the business case stacks up though.

A great shame.

Must visit again before it closes.
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Old 12 Oct 2018, 16:24 (Ref:3856298)   #9
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Very sad news. I first visited just after the Museum opened & have been many times since. Unfortunately I won't be able to get there again before it closes. As has already mentioned, quite a few of the exhibits were loaned, including I think quite a few cars owned by Bernie Ecclestone.

I am just in the process of reading a book about the Schlumpf Collection, & it seems that Tom Wheatcroft was in the process of negotiating a deal with the Schlumpf brothers when their empire suddenly collapsed. Initially Wheatcroft was arranging to take some cars as collatoral for a loan, but further to that investigated buying the entire collection; that came to nought as amomgst other things the French Government refused export licences.
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Old 12 Oct 2018, 16:55 (Ref:3856302)   #10
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A massive massive shame, but there clearly isnt enough paying footfall to keep it open. I assume that the Wheatcrofts family have been subsidising the museums existence for a while, and remember, Kevin isn't actually a racing fan..

I think the article mentioned that there have been something like 2.5 million visitors since it opened. So that's 2.5 million in 45 years. It doesn't sound like a lot in commercial terms if it has to be self financing. Presumably the financing was less of an issue when it was simply part of the circuit's business model.
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Old 12 Oct 2018, 18:40 (Ref:3856323)   #11
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Grant, is it possible that since MSV took over the circuit that the museum now has to pay them rent? Or were the buildings not included in the sale?
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Old 12 Oct 2018, 20:40 (Ref:3856343)   #12
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Grant, is it possible that since MSV took over the circuit that the museum now has to pay them rent? Or were the buildings not included in the sale?
No idea Mike I'm afraid.

The circuit offices have vacated the building next to the museum.

Last time I passed through the Ritchie Brothers plant auction site and offices still seemed to be in place although at one point I thought they looked like they were moving out.

The Aston Barclay auction site looks fairly permanent as well.

It would be quite interesting to know what the lease agreement actually covers.

My guess is that the basic overheads of the museum are simply not covered by the footfall and that the family are not interested in the exhibits they own (or what is left of the original Wheatcroft owned collection) and might prefer to see it monetised.

If that is the case it may be a good time to sell off since we must be at or near the top of the market.

There is, of course, Kevin's collection of military vehicles and memorabilia to consider as well. I have no idea if he has an alternative home for them.
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Old 12 Oct 2018, 21:31 (Ref:3856350)   #13
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I think that the museum was the one part of DP that was not included in the sale of the lease.

Kevin Wheatcrofts military collection was, and is, mostly housed in a large Whitehorse at his base in central Leicestershire, from where he has developed it over many years. I think he only moved some exhibits to DP in the last few years to cover some of the gaps in space left by the sale of some exhibits and the return to owners of others.
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Old 13 Oct 2018, 20:40 (Ref:3856587)   #14
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According to this article, http://classic.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/139307 "The remaining exhibits are being returned to owners or sold."

I've been to Beaulieu but never Donington.
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Old 14 Oct 2018, 06:35 (Ref:3856763)   #15
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I've been every year or so , despite living 2 hours drive away. The problem is that most people either never visited it at all or went once . In latter years the Collection was rarely advertised and has felt run down and was often deserted . Signage of exhibits was often abysmal , strewn with errors and badly written.



BUT it was still an amazingly diverse collection and far more interesting than Schlumpf, for example ,and was a terrific place closely to study the evolution of the F1 car in real life . Shame about Kevin's hideous Nazi crap filling the place up of late though.



I'll miss it .
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Old 14 Oct 2018, 09:40 (Ref:3856776)   #16
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I remember going there on the way back from my grandparents 50th wedding anniversary at Derby when I was a nipper. First time I'd ever been to a race track. As well as the museum, we saw the rover stunt team in action on the start finish straight
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Old 14 Oct 2018, 18:40 (Ref:3856819)   #17
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Despite attending a few race meetings at Donington every year, I haven't been inside the museum for something like 15-20 years.

As I have the week beginning 29th October off work, I'm going to have to make a trip up there before it closes.
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Old 14 Oct 2018, 19:11 (Ref:3856824)   #18
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I went when it was still run by Tom and in its heyday, always heard bad stories about when Kevin ran it.

He has a bizarre fascination with Nazi memorabilia, which I personally find quite disturbing for one so well off AS I have read the odd article about him too, and is clearly not at all interested in racing cars as he has sold a few to fund this odd hobby.

I will always be thankful to him for managing to keep DP open after the crook Gillett got away with murder for what he did and got away with, but Kevin was never that bothered in aspects of it.

I would think most of the stuff is loaned, and that Palmer will have a plan, he usually does it it usually involves making money, he is not at all interested in history unless it makes him money, shows no real passion for the old times that I have seen. So will probably be car parking or sell it for flats!!

So I dont expect it to be re-opened at all.
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Old 15 Oct 2018, 06:37 (Ref:3856891)   #19
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Well , you can knock JP all you like but without him British motor racing would be f***ed . I go to Cadwell, Oulton and Donington regularly and the first two have been transformed from under-invested , run down basket cases to places with decent food , good staff and not a scrap of litter. Go to Croft, and see the crap left lying about since the BTCC visited to see how not to do it, and endure Stasi like security staff for the 14 people who still bother turning up, and paying more than MSV prices too .


Of course MSV are in it for a profit - so just like Grovewood etc were. Race circuits aren't charities ....
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Old 15 Oct 2018, 09:55 (Ref:3856904)   #20
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I see in The Leicester Mercury today there is a quote from Kevin Wheatcroft saying that the museum didn't fit into the business model of MSV.
I suppose that really, the original museum was another one of Tom's schemes, somewhere to house his collection, and to give members of the public the opportunity to view them. This also encouraged others (such as McLaren) to loan cars to the museum for people to see.
Kevin clearly has little of his Dad's passion for motorsport and his interests lie elsewhere.
Plus I suppose the museum building is at the wrong end of the circuit now as the original main entrance is no longer the focus of the park, this having moved to the original paddock entrance.
It's sad as I see it as another severance of Tom Wheatcroft from the circuit he adored and renovated...
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Old 15 Oct 2018, 14:04 (Ref:3856950)   #21
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Well , you can knock JP all you like but without him British motor racing would be f***ed . I go to Cadwell, Oulton and Donington regularly and the first two have been transformed from under-invested , run down basket cases to places with decent food , good staff and not a scrap of litter. Go to Croft, and see the crap left lying about since the BTCC visited to see how not to do it, and endure Stasi like security staff for the 14 people who still bother turning up, and paying more than MSV prices too .


Of course MSV are in it for a profit - so just like Grovewood etc were. Race circuits aren't charities ....
Yes if it wasn't for Palmer buying the Brands Hatch group, who knows what would have happened to the circuits. Would they even exist anymore?
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Old 19 Oct 2018, 22:30 (Ref:3857823)   #22
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I visited the museum today and spent a pleasant hour or two there. My focus was the historics (F1 cars from the 2000's to today do nothing much for me and there're quite a number of these in the collection!); I loved the F5000s, F3's (McLaren, Roger Williamson cars). My highlights were the Vanwalls (wow!) and the 60s Grand Prix cars. The BRMs looked resplendent (I would have paid the £12 just to see these) as did the Cosworth 4-wheel drive Grand Prix car. I thought there would have been more Grand Prix cars from the 60s and early 70s but there's actually only a handful.

One thing I hadn't realised was how much the military collection seems to dominate the museum (maybe it's my perception and if I were to actually count them, they probably aren't that many proportionally) but it felt like a bit too many if you ask me. I would have thought that sort of thing belonged to Duxford or the Imperial War Musuem. To my non-expert eye, they all looked rather similar too. What's the point? Storage? Still, I'm glad I went!
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Old 19 Oct 2018, 22:43 (Ref:3857824)   #23
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I visited the museum today and spent a pleasant hour or two there. My focus was the historics (F1 cars from the 2000's to today do nothing much for me and there're quite a number of these in the collection!); I loved the F5000s, F3's (McLaren, Roger Williamson cars). My highlights were the Vanwalls (wow!) and the 60s Grand Prix cars. The BRMs looked resplendent (I would have paid the £12 just to see these) as did the Cosworth 4-wheel drive Grand Prix car. I thought there would have been more Grand Prix cars from the 60s and early 70s but there's actually only a handful.

One thing I hadn't realised was how much the military collection seems to dominate the museum (maybe it's my perception and if I were to actually count them, they probably aren't that many proportionally) but it felt like a bit too many if you ask me. I would have thought that sort of thing belonged to Duxford or the Imperial War Musuem. To my non-expert eye, they all looked rather similar too. What's the point? Storage? Still, I'm glad I went!
Wan't the military vehicle thing Kevin Wheatcroft's interest/preference which may account for the quantity? I've still got plans to get there some time in its last week of opening.
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Old 20 Oct 2018, 09:30 (Ref:3857897)   #24
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Wan't the military vehicle thing Kevin Wheatcroft's interest/preference which may account for the quantity? I've still got plans to get there some time in its last week of opening.
Being quite local I've been there a few times and I must admit to enjoying the war stuff.
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Old 20 Oct 2018, 10:23 (Ref:3857900)   #25
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£12 to get in?

It used to be much less than that but I suppose a few years have passed.

For several years, once a year, the access to club AGM in the Senna Suite was via the museum entrance so one got a chance to see what was there on the way to and from the AGM.

The military stuff was not much in evidence in the original museum. There were usually a few special older car displays near the entrance. I recall when one of the only 6 (iirc) Bugatti Royale examples was auctioned for a then world record price it was on display in the first hall for several months not long after the auction.

As for the 60's GP cars - there were a lot of Coopers around at one time. Whether owned or loaned (or stored) I don't know - but the number dwindled a few years ago (or at least seemed to). Pretty much around the time that racing old GP cars became especially popular as a few hard core racers became wealthy enough and interested enough to have a wide ranging fleet of investment racers at their disposal and the market sought out formerly dormant examples.

These days it may be cheaper to build a replica?
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