If you have a car enthusiast in the family, a trip to Bathurst is going to offer you a number of opportunities to explore Australia’s car history and even take a drive on the most famous track of all.
Bathurst is home to both the National Motor Racing Museum and the world famous Mount Panorama Motor Racing Circuit – www.mount-panorama.com.au. This was the race track that launched the great Ford vs Holden rivalry and catapulted Peter Brock into stardom. He is now an Australian legend.
Over Easter we took a car trip to Bathurst. T was keen to explore the auto history the city offered and even booked the Rydges Mt Panorama which stands on the Conrod Straight.
On our very first night in town we hit the circuit for a drive around the track. Oh the exhilaration! Whilst we stuck to the speed limit for the entire length of the track (you risk serious injury going any faster on a number of those corners!) we were still squealing a little as we felt our ears pop. The Forest’s Elbow made my heart pump super fast.
A relaxing sleep and we woke up early to enter the National Motor Racing Museum as it opened. I was actually surprised by the size of the museum and the vast number of cars and motorbikes it has on show.
The National Motor Racing Museum was established back in 1988 after a very solid drive by the Bathurst Light car club, continuing to be operated by the community until 1997. At this time the Bathurst Regional Council took over the management.
Mount Panorama and the Bathurst 1000 are at the heart of the museum, although the displays look at the entire spectrum of motor racing here in Australia. There is at least one vehicle on display to represent speedway, solar, drag, Rallying, open wheeler, sports car and touring car history.
The museum has a true sense of community with almost all of its contents on loan. These have been provided by private individuals and a large number of commercial groups including The Peter Brock Foundation, Triple Eight Race engineering, Bowden’s, ARDC, Suzuki Australia, HONDA MPE, Holden Motorsport, Mazda Racing and Volvo Australia. I find that quite pleasing.
As you may have read in our Building a Car with the Kids post, T has a love for the Holden Torana so he made a beeline straight for the 1974 L34. I think I heard him purring over it. I found the Elfin Formula Junior Racing Car to be the car that I wanted to know more about.
After we walked through the whole site and looked at each bike, car and display we were invited into the theatre to watch the history of Mt Panorama. This quickly captivated the kids who enjoyed watching the early races. I must admit that 10 minutes into the show they discovered that if they walked in front of the projector it cast a shadow over the screen, so for the remainder of the movie giant butterfly shadows and a few dogs gatecrashed the movie and tried to eat a few cars. Lucky we were the only ones in the theatre!
If you are in Bathurst I recommend visiting the National Motor Racing Museum is you like cars. A family ticket will cost you $30.50. If you do visit, drop back here and let us know what you thought.
I am not a car enthusiast but it still looks very interesting!