British Motor Museum

What to see at the British Motor Museum

The museum is a semi-circular building with the Time Road display arranged around the outside wall. This exhibit chronicles the history of British motoring from 1896 to 1996. It not only shows how cars have evolved but it also depicts the history of the motoring experience with exhibits showing pivotal moments such as the introduction of cat’s eyes, the first driving test and the UK’s first motorway.

The Design & Concepts display features prototype vehicles that never made it into production including the MG EX-E and the Triumph Lynx.

The sports cars exhibit features leading British sports cars from Aston Martin, Lotus, McLaren, Morgan and Triumph.

The museum’s Jaguar exhibit features the highlights of the Jaguar Heritage Trust’s collection of over 150 cars, which includes the only surviving D-type prototype and the only XJ13 ever produced. The Jaguar exhibit also includes an interactive display that charts Jaguar’s history.

The Land Rover display includes a tracked Land Rover ‘Cuthbertson’, the very first Land Rover, the very first Range Rover and the millionth Land Rover Discovery 4. This display also includes an interactive exhibit that chronicles the evolution of the Land Rover brand.

Under the Skin is an interactive display that explains how cars work. It includes steering simulators plus plenty of buttons to push and levers to pull.

Highlights of the museum’s exhibits include famous cars from film and television including the hot pink FAB1 from the Thunderbirds film, the Land Rover Defender from the James Bond Skyfall film and the Land Rover ‘Judge Dredd’ City Cab. The museum is also home to several royal vehicles including the Rover P5 used by the Royal family.

The collections centre

The vehicles that are not on display inside the main museum building are kept in the museum’s collections centre. Unlike most other museums, visitors can also visit the collection centre meaning that you are able to see all the cars in the museum’s collection.

As this is a storage facility, as opposed to a museum, there is not a lot of information provided for the cars at the collection centre. However, there are volunteers on hand who can answer any questions and there are also two daily guided tours of the centre.

Visiting the British Motor Museum

The British Motor Museum is located in Gaydon, 14.5km (9 miles) southeast of Warwick. Gaydon is a small village that also happens to be home to Aston Martin’s headquarters, one of two Jaguar Land Rover engineering centres and a test track on the site of a former RAF base.

Ample free parking and the museum’s location in an industrial area near a small village means that it is easiest to access if you’re driving. You can visit by public transport, however, with bus routes 77, 77A, 78, X77 stopping around a 10-minute walk from the museum. These buses connect the museum with Leamington Spa with services running every hour or so and a journey time of around 40 minutes.

The museum is open daily. Although admission isn’t cheap, it is reasonably priced considering how much there is to see here.

Your entry fee includes free tours of the museum that depart daily at 11am and 2pm and tours of the museum’s collections centre run at noon and 3pm every day.

The museum and the collections centre are both fully wheelchair accessible.

The museum’s Junction 12 Cafe serves tea and coffee, cakes and light meals.

It is a surprisingly large museum for a small village and you can easily spend between two and three hours here.