The new Museum of Land Speed in Wales has opened, after a three year project to update what was formerly ‘The Museum of Speed’ on the Welsh coast.
Based alongside the seven miles of Pendine Sands in Carmarthenshire, the museum sits at the site of many land speed record attempts, dating back to the 1920s.
The Museum of Speed first opened March 1996, but by 2017 the building structure was at risk because of movement and damage through erosion, and it was closed for the last time in 2018 to make way for a new building.
The new museum building was constructed as part of The Pendine Tourism Attractor project, which also includes an adventure playground and 14 room, 43 bed accommodation which will sit side-by-side with the museum building.
The museum’s displays of objects relating to racing and land speed history include motorbikes, racing outfits, and material lent by Amgueddfa Cymru and the National Motor Museum.
The museum is annually host to the record-breaking race car known as ‘Babs’, once owned and driven by J. G. Parry-Thomas. The car has been consequently restored after having been buried in the Pendine Sands for years.
Today it is driven by Geraint, the son of Owen Wyn Owen, and is featured in the video cave experience at the Museum of Land Speed. Wrecked parts of the race car are currently in storage.
New interactives will explore why the beach sand have made a perfect location for land speed records, and the story of motorcycle racer and TV host Guy Martin’s land speed record on a bicycle, featured in ‘Speed with Guy Martin’ in 2013.
The focus for the new museum’s first special exhibition will be transport designs by students of the Automotive and Transport design course at University of Wales Trinity St David (UWTSD).
