Going to Britain in July for 2 weeks...suggestions?

skr

skr

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Berlin, Germany
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1992 BMW 525iA, 1999 Ford Focus Estate Ghia 1.8
A friend and me are planning a road trip to Britain starting on the 12th of July with my car. We'll be staying near Oxford at a friends place for a few days and then be going from campground to campground as we please, maybe we like one and stay there a few days or we leave the next day.
What I'm looking for are any suggestions what I have to have visited when being a petrolhead like me. (we already found sth what we plan to attend: http://www.castlecombecircuit.co.uk/eventinfo.asp?EventID=16 sounds good to me).


I also like historic racing circuits with maybe just a few metres of track left or an old abandoned grandstand sitting in the countryside.

So any suggestions are welcome, thx in advance.

PS: I also like...no love old airplanes *hint*
 
Mercedes-Benz at Brooklands is around 50 miles from Oxford. They offer a number of experiences, including driving AMGs on a circuit, Varous Mercs on track, a skidpan and an M-class on an offroad course. All of these cost - the website says "from ?25 for 15 minutes" in the AMGs.

There is also a large Mercedes museum onsite, admission free,

Brooklands Museum itself, at the same place, is a large place devoted to the history of motorsports and aviation, and it has over 30 historic aeroplanes in it's hangars - including a WW2 bomber, a Vickers VC10, and one of the Concordes. Brooklands was originally a circuit and testing track.

I've not been myself, but I've heard it is very good.
 
?25 for 15mins is for a passenger 'taster'. You don't even drive the car. :(
 
teeb said:
Mercedes-Benz at Brooklands is around 50 miles from Oxford. They offer a number of experiences, including driving AMGs on a circuit, Varous Mercs on track, a skidpan and an M-class on an offroad course. All of these cost - the website says "from ?25 for 15 minutes" in the AMGs.

There is also a large Mercedes museum onsite, admission free.
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As a German I would feel weird to drive to Britain for visiting a Mercedes Museum ;)
 
Goose+ said:
Perhaps pop into neighboring Berkshire and see Windsor castle!
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But I wanna go Legoland!

Anyway, Castle Combe is a small but awesome circuit, well worth a visit. At almost every event you'll see a wide veriety of exotic cars in the car park!

Around that time BTCC goes to Donington, it's two hours away from there but well worth it, being the best track in England and hugely entertaining racing.

Of course Brooklands isn't all about Mercs, there's tons of F1 and other racing cars, and some great british cars too, as well as a rather good aviation good avation museum.
 
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Brooklands is awesome. Went there just to look at the planes (did a small volunteer project working on restoring the Concorde that they've got there back when I was at Uni, only had time to go once though... :( ) and it is a good museum. Didn't get a chance to look around the car side of it though, so no idea what that's like.

Windsor castle... well, too many tourists and meh... IMO. But then I did live just down the road from it... ;) Don't get me wrong, it is very very nice and a great day out once I guess. But it'll be very busy in the middle of July.

When do you leave UK and are you planning on travelling North or South? Spend a few hours looking around Oxford itself and if you have time, go to Cambridge too - it's nicer (again IMO). Just spent the day there today.

Santa Pod may have something on which isn't too far away.

But, if you're still here in the last weekend of July (28th if memory serves me) go to Silverstone. It's the Silverstone classics weekend. I went last year and it was the best thing I did all year. 1950s onwards F1 cars racing (and I mean racing) around the circuit and you can watch (fantastic even for a young one like me!). All kinds of Le Mans cars. Lots of static cars (pretty much anything you can think of. Closest I've ever been to an Enzo, Stratos, etc, etc). I've not been to Goodwood yet so can't compare but really thought Silverstone was fantastic.
I probably can't go again this year due to other plans (really gutted) but still may (hopefully!)... if you go head over to the MR2 club stand as I may be there... :)
 
I would strongly recommend telling BTCC where to go and heading to Brands Hatch for F3/GT, it's a much better series (IMO), proper GT cars and they're on the Brands Hatch GP circuit (which is rarely used, and I would say was better than Donington) and you've got an excellent single seater series aswell in the British F3. Again, about two hours from Oxford, but well worth it for some top class racing I'd say.
 
Brooklands sounds definately good....they way it seems every racetrack in the region has a something interesting going on, I can't split in half ;)
 
I recommend going to Hethel to visit Lotus and their test track. I went a couple of years back and I got a personal tour of the whole plant. I saw Elises and the Exige S getting made at every step in production and you can even drive around their track (if it's not too busy that day). The driving part does cost money, but the guys there are so nice and tell you loads about the cars. Great vacation! I would definetly go back again later.
 
Thistle said:
I recommend going to Hethel to visit Lotus and their test track. I went a couple of years back and I got a personal tour of the whole plant. I saw Elises and the Exige S getting made at every step in production and you can even drive around their track (if it's not too busy that day). The driving part does cost money, but the guys there are so nice and tell you loads about the cars. Great vacation! I would definetly go back again later.
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WOOOOW, that sounds great, added it to my list. I love Lotus:)

Keep it coming ;)
 
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