National Motor Museum offers behind the scenes events

There is a new calendar of exhibitions, displays, behind-the-scenes tours, talks, vehicle meets, and family events.

National Motor Museum Trust Chief Executive Jon Murden said: “We’re really delighted to unveil our 2023 events calendar.

“In addition to aspects of the history of the motor car, the programme will focus on the future of automobility, and see the Museum contribute to the debate on how we get about in the future.”

The events programme will provide an opportunity learn more about the Beaulieu-based museum’s vast collections of motoring objects and meet the team that care for them, with a series of Collections Centre open days and ‘meet the curator’ sessions in the Museum building.

As part of a visit to Beaulieu, visitors will be invited to book special free-of-charge tours. The next Collections Centre open day is on Saturday March 11, at 1.30pm, when some of the 1.9m objects, images, films, and books will be on display during a 90 minute behind the scenes tour.

Visitors to the Museum, located on its campus in the New Forest National Park, can also listen to talks about our vehicle collection with ‘Under the bonnet afternoons’.

Motoring enthusiasts can bring their vehicles to Classic Grille evenings during the summer at Beaulieu when they can take their cherished vehicle onto the arena of the National Motor Museum for free and meet other car enthusiasts and members of the National Motor Museum team.

A series of specialist evening lectures or ‘Transport Torques’ in the Collections Centre theatre will include an evening to celebrate 100 Years of the MG and commemorate the 70th year of the iconic film Genevieve.

A photographic exhibition marking the centenary of the famous Le Mans 24 hours sports car endurance race will also feature in the Museum this year.

An exciting headline exhibition Motopia? Past Future Visions, from May 20 to April 14 2024 will be held. Examples of innovative technology, art, films, vehicles, radical concepts from the past, ideas that have become reality, and future visions still to be realised will be on display in a newly designed museum exhibition space in the Museum. To complement the exhibition, a week of family activities and pop-up events, ‘Motopia? – Are We Nearly There Yet?’ will be at the Beaulieu between May 29 and June 2, and ‘Photopia: Framing the Past’ will be on July 31 to September 1 – a partnership project run between the National Motor Museum, the Caravan and Motorhome Club and the Shell Heritage Art Collection.

Before the year ends there will be an amazing opportunity to sleep the night amidst the vehicle collection at the National Motor Museum on ‘Night at the Museum’ October 28, 6pm to 9am. A chance for all the family to see over 285 cars and motorbikes with their bonnets, tanks and bodywork gleaming under the museum lights.

The National Motor Museum events supplement the Beaulieu events programme that included the high-octane thrills of the Beaulieu Supercar Weekend, 15 Simply rallies, the colourful Custom and American Show, and the bargain-hunting opportunities of the Spring and International Autojumbles.

Further information on the events programme is available at www.nationalmotormuseum.org.uk/events.