Return to Silverstone!

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A return to Silverstone Museum for me, this time with super-techy-mate, Chris A. The reason? Well, nothing specific, we just fancied going there, and it’s only a short drive away! 👍

I was last here back in December, last year with John C for exactly the same reason! 😀

With today’s weather looking and feeling like Summer had well and truly vanished, our first stop, on arrival, was the Café! Great coffee! And looking through the window we could see it was also a Track Day and wondered if we’d be able to get closer to that a little later? (assuming the weather improved!).

With refreshments over, it was a short flight of stairs to enter the Museum. First impressions were excellent! With more staff on-hand than during my previous visit, it was all felt a bit more ‘joined up’ and also had more of a ‘buzzy’ atmosphere here today! We declined the offer of the opportunity to try out the simulators (an extra £25 each) – maybe next time? – but at least being upstairs, we got a better view of the ongoing Track Day. So, a great start to our visit! 👍😀

Once through the double-doors it was a short AV presentation presented in a thin ‘tunnel-like’ area that began the story of historic Silverstone as an iconic race venue (September, 1947). Cue lots of famous racing cars on-screen! It was only about 5 minutes long, and it set the scene nicely for what was to come. Once we exited the ‘tunnel’, we discovered that it was a controlled route around the exhibits, beginning with a history of the Silverstone circuit area itself. I guess not many people know that it was originally an airfield used for training Wellington Bomber crews – and before that, a country estate… and before that, an Abbey! 🤔

There was certainly a wide range of exhibits here – it’s NOT all racing cars – so even for the NON car fancier, there’s plenty to enjoy! 🤔

Having said that, once the history lesson was over, there was a significant amount of space (over two levels) devoted to the love of ‘performance on four wheels’ – from all angles. It was all well laid out with plenty of background information. Obviously for car-nerds, this is a dream destination, but even those with just a casual interest will find something to love. 😍😍

The level of detail (and the clear love for the exhibits) on show was clear to see, where for many, this is the closest they will have ever got to actual racing cars! Brilliant! 👍😀

Given that the whole Museum is about SPEED it wasn’t too surprising that this is the second fastest location I’ve ever visited for mobile phone connectivity. How’s that for lateral thinking? 🤔 Given that most of us make do with anything up to about 50 Mbps, the following numbers were impressive and perfectly in keeping with Silverstone’s raison d‘etre!

885 Mbps down! 😀 – that’s only a tad lower than the Tower Bridge area from a few year’s back when I clocked 900 Mbps whilst travelling UNDER Tower Bridge on a Thames Clipper! – back then, the fastest I’ve ever experienced in the UK😉. It’s still not as fast as home though! 😉😝

Anyway, back to Silverstone…

…and if the whole ‘racing car thang’ isn’t your bag, then there’s a fascinating section that looks at the ‘science’ of it all… engine technology, suspension theory, tyre construction etc – a fascinating series of exhibits with many of them, very ‘hands-on’.

Our visit finished with a visit to the Imax-esque cinema putting us literally in the driving seat, allowing us to take part in the ultimate Grand Prix (featuring champions of car and bike across the years). This all felt very realistic, and I certainly experienced a little motion sickness as I ‘took the racing line into the bends’. 🤢🤢

No visit to this iconic venue would be complete without a visit to the Gift Shop. Prepare to take out a second mortgage though as even the baseball caps were over £40 each!! Kerchinnnnggggg!!! 💷💷

As I mentioned earlier, today was also a Track Day – an opportunity for your car insurance company to squeeze even more money out of you by charging a premium to take your own car on the Silverstone circuit. There were plenty of would-be ‘Hamiltons’ out there, and even the sun came out! Today’s event had around 20-30 cars taking the opportunity to put their pride and joy through its paces, both in terms of speed and tactical driving. Plenty of Porches, BMws, a few electric cars and an Vauxhall Insignia too! From what we saw, some were doing better than others, and the sound of the occasional screeching of tyres suggested that some might be stopping off at Kwik-Fit on the way home! It looked like great fun though! 👍😀.

All in all, a GREAT day! We covered all we wanted to see in under two hours, but we could have easily added another hour if we’d succumbed to the temptation of the sims and studied the exhibits in even more detail. If you’ve not been before, allow yourself two hours, maybe half a day if you fancy a ‘light bite’ from their Café 🏁🏁