Brooklands Museum Talks

Formed in 1940, the Special Operations Executive put Churchill’s instruction to “Set Europe ablaze” into action. The organization's F section sent more than 400 agents into France, 39 of whom were women. They were given months of arduous fitness, gun, explosives, endurance and code training before parachuting into occupied territory. The women were warned of the likelihood of arrest, torture and a...

On the night of 16/17 May 1943 the RAF’s recently formed 617 Squadron carried out what was probably the most famous air raid of all time. A combination of the genius of Barnes Wallis and the astonishing courage and skill of the crews saw two major German dams breached and a third damaged, leading to loss and disruption to the Nazi war economy. Normally kept top secret, the aerial reconnaissance ph...

Philip Hogge first learned to fly in 1958 by completing a gliding course with the Air Cadets. He then obtained an RAF Flying Scholarship while still at school and learned to fly a Tiger Moth, gaining his Private Pilot’s Licence. In 1962 he joined BOAC where he flew the Britannia 312 (the last propeller service across the Atlantic), then Brooklands built VC10s, Boeing 707s and eventually 747s. He w...

Patrick Lynch, the author of "At The Greatest Speed", tells the story of Gordon Bennett who was an American millionaire who inherited a fortune from his publisher father. He supported emerging technology and sport and, in 1899, fascinated by the new motor cars, he instigated the International Gordon Bennett Cup. The inaugural race took place in 1900 between Paris and Lyon, with three countries par...

This episode is given over to the VSCC Winter Driving Tests held at Brooklands at the end of January.

Britain’s V bombers comprised the RAF’s strategic nuclear strike force aircraft during the Cold War. The three models of bomber were the Vickers Valiant, the Handley Page Victor and the Avro Vulcan, which famously flew extremely long-range ground attack missions against Argentine positions in the Falklands War in 1982. Our speaker Andy Richardson served in the RAF from 1960 to 1980, including six...

People lie, cheat, steal and even kill for a variety of reasons, one of which is to go motor racing, a particularly expensive and egotistical sport. This intriguing book, the result of years of research, encompasses not just those who have been ‘driven to crime’ in order to pay for their sport but also characters within motor racing who have been involved in wrongdoing, sometimes through no fault...

Tim Morris looks forward to events taking place in the first three months of 2023 at the museum and highlights Mike Wilds talk of nearly 60 years in motorsport.

Tim looks back at two guest speakers who are no longer with us, Paddy Hopkirk and Tony Brooks. He links Synth Pop with Brooklands and in the news section looks at the new events from 2022 and those to look forward to in 2023 and the success of Innovations day in November.

Brooklands welcomes an FIA world champion – Mike Wilds, who won the 1986 Group C2 World Sportscar Championship with Ecurie Ecosse. Mike began racing in 1965 and has competed in a vast array of machinery, including Formula 3, Formula 5000, Le Mans prototypes, GTs and Touring Cars, driving for works teams and collecting 12 British Championships along the way. In the early 1970s Mike reached Formula...

Tim looks back at what was delivered at Brooklands in 2022 and highlights our last talk of the year, car designer Peter Stevens.

The author of this fascinating book on S.F. Edge talks with Brooklands Gareth Tarr about the life of this motoring pioneer. Selwyn Francis Edge, invariably known simply as ‘SF’, was a highly significant pioneer of motoring in Britain. When, in 1902, he drove a Napier to victory in the Gordon Bennett Cup, a mighty event on public roads between Paris in France and Innsbruck in Austria, he initiated...

Including Motorsport Day with Mike Ward, the C16 Streamliner with Glenn Billqvist and Phil Reid with Wendy Amy.

Peter Stevens is probably best known as the designer of the ultimate 1990s supercar, the McLaren F1, but that is just one of many accolades he has won in a storied career in vehicle design. Motorsport clients have included the Brabham and Williams Formula One teams and he was consultant designer for BMW and Toyota Le Mans projects. Notable road car designs on his CV include the Jaguar XJR15 superc...

Outright winner of the St Mary's Trophy race at the Goodwood Revival; multiple class winner at Rally GB; management stints with the Brabham and McLaren Formula One teams; BBC Television's Formula One pit lane commentator; ITV's Formula One studio analyst; Sky Sports motorsport expert; host of the British Grand Prix after party. Tony Jardine has an impressively diverse motorsport CV and has worked...

With Paddy Hopkirk and Steve Parrish in conversation with Charley Boorman.

THE WORLD'S GREATEST AIRCRAFT. CONCORDE'S MOST EXPERIENCED PILOT. THE DEFINITIVE STORY. For over a quarter of a century, Concorde was the world's only successful supersonic airliner, carrying passengers at speeds faster than a rifle bullet - and at heights that provided a glimpse of the edge of space. As Chief Concorde Pilot for British Airways, Mike Bannister knows her like no one else. From disp...

Celebrating the Aston Martin Heritage Festival, introduced by John Johnson and Kay Petre. Interviews with some of the owners by Gillian. What a day!

Martin Shelley tells the story of Frank Halford, the English aircraft engine designer, best known for the series of de Havilland Gipsy engines, widely used by light aircraft in the 1920s and 30s.

From the Motorcycle Show July 2022. Including Project Pitstop, BSA coming to England, Hollis Motorcycles and Eddie about his Fast Lady Combo.

In 2019 a team of intrepid aviators undertook the most challenging expedition ever attempted in a single-engined World War II era aircraft. After years of planning, the team from Spitfires.com flew a silver Spitfire right around the world, taking in some of the most famous landmarks on the planet from the Grand Canyon in the West, to the snow-capped peak of Mount Fuji in the East. The Spitfire is...

Charley Boorman is an English TV presenter, travel writer and actor. As a noted motorbike enthusiast, Boorman is widely known for a series of three long distance motorcycle rides with friend Ewan McGregor, documented in Long Way Round, Long Way Down, and Long Way Up. Charley is in conversation with Steve Parrish, so be prepared for some lively conversation!

The de Havilland Mosquito is a British twin-engined, multirole combat aircraft, introduced during the Second World War. Unusual in that its frame was constructed mostly of wood, it was nicknamed the "Wooden Wonder” and was one of the fastest operational aircraft in the world. Originally conceived as an unarmed fast bomber, the Mosquito's use evolved during the war into many roles, including low- t...

Buster Bartlett spoke with Alan Robinson at the 2005 VMCC meeting at Brooklands.

Featuring MotorsportUK's StreetCar, the Double Twelve Driving Tests and West Surrey Racing's Dick Bennetts