Brooklands is 100......

[gcarter]

The racetrack in England that is. It's located about 40 miles West of London near Weybridge.
It opened in about June of 1907 and was built not by a large corporation, but an individual. It is (was) 2.7 miles long and banked. Remember, this was about four years before Indianapolis opened, and Indianapolis isn't banked and is shorter. Brooklands was used not only for racing but testing by many auto and motorcycle manufacturers, not to mention many land speed record cars. It was quite rough as it was concrete and the builders probably lacked some of the technology we have today. I think the track record was in the mid 140's. The course ran clockwise for the most part, at least that's what most of the pictures seem to show.
Additionally at least two aircraft companies assembled aircraft there.
Here's a map of the layout from the '30's. Note the entrance at the North end and the "Members Bridge". The buildings just South of there is (was) administration and is now a museum and club house.

[gcarter]

Here's a few pictures from the '30's......
The picture of the Bugatti completely in the air is my all time favorite racing picture.
You had to have real guts to drive fast there.

[gcarter]

As I mentioned, there was a good bit of testing of many types of vehicles done there.
Here's a picture of Count Zborowski's original "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang".
I bet you thought that was a movie.

[gcarter]

During WW-II, it was taken over by the government and used for military aircraft assembly. The banking was cut in several places and many buildings were built all over it. Then the government didn't release the property until well after the war was over.
Today there's a bit of banking left around the North entrance and the Members Bridge. The Club and Museum is still going strong. There's a few very rare race cars in the museum, but it is also the home of quite a few memorable vintage aircraft.

[gcarter]

Here's a Google Earth shot of it now.
Notice that it would take a large fortune to restore it.

[gcarter]

Elaine and I visited England about ten years ago and had the pleasure of visiting Brooklands.
Here's a picture of the occasion;
You may wonder why we were dressed like this, but first let me introduce my friends;
To the right of me is Sue and Doug Patmore who were our hosts. Doug, before he retired, was the largest Kinetico dealer in Britain.
Next, the deminuative gentleman in the kilt is Harvey Bowden. Harvey is from Cornwall, so it's hard to understand the kilt, but he told me he was qualified to wear it. He was the importer and distributor for Kinetico in Britain. He's also the most succesful person I know. Harvey is the only person I know who has a driver only so he can work another two hours a day.
My wife Elaine is on the right.
The reason we were there is that Harvey is well connected in the Conservative Party in Britain. They were having their annual banquet and auction in the clubhouse (see picture above).

[MOP]

Very nice post George, it is really neat to see the old race ways. I have delved into one of the old speedways here on Long Island. It was built by one of the Vanderbilts, I traced many miles of which are pretty much gone now. The road ran from Western Nassau county out to Lake Ronkonkoma, a little history in the link below.

http://home.att.net/~Berliner-Ultrasonics/limpvcup.html

[BERTRAM BOY]

Awesome post George. Thanks for the history lesson.

[BUIZILLA]

very cool info..

[gcarter]

The thing that completely overwhelms me is the forethought that someone had in an era (1907) when cars, for the most part, didn't go over 30 MPH, and the LSR at the time was probably in the 100 MPH range, built this race track!!!:eek!:
If it had been reopened at the end of WW-II and modernized and smoothed, would still be competitive.