QUEENSLANDS HIDDEN MOTORSPORT GEM

By DARIN MANDY  – Photos: Darin Mandy

Queensland harbours a hidden motorsport gem that so many people need to know about, more so the “older” motorsport fan, then again new fans should take a look too, what am I talking about? Its the Queensland Motorsport Museum and its amazing, hidden in a back street of the suburb of Sumner on Brisbane City’s South Western outskirts, along the Centenary Highway its only around 20mins from the CBD (on a good day!)

Up until a year ago the museum was situated in downtown Ipswich, not far from Queensland Raceway, the city started to do a make over of the region and the owner of the Museum Ian Bone was forced to move the entire place to new digs.  I had the personal tour of the two warehouse/office block with Ian last week, I only had around one and a half hours to spare but I could have spent 8 hours there and still not seen all the displays.  “We have guys (and girls) come by regularly just because you’ll see something you missed the last time” said Bone.

In fact there is almost as much on display as there is in storage I was told.  On the tour Ian gave me one of the first things I saw was the Daytona that Peter “perfect” Brock was unfortunately killed in, and as I type this story its the day Peter was killed 12 years ago and you can read our tribute to him.  “The car was on display at Dreamworld on the Gold Coast, but the Brock display there was disbanded last month and the owner of this car rang me and asked if I wanted to display it” commented Bone, “I jumped at the opportunity – although I had some reservations about it, being the restored car he died in and I know some people don’t like that, but it is what it is, it was a sad day and I think all motorsport fans can remember what they were doing when they heard the news”.

The museum is home to many car displays of all types, not just circuit cars, there are post war race cars, motorbikes, drags, even a Group A Skyline out of Japan, along with Leanne Tanders RX7 improved production car.  There really is something for all motorsport enthusiasts with the cars and bikes and so much memorabilia, when I say so much, one half of the display in the office block has around 5-6 rooms of books, models (tons!!) car parts, photos galore and both buildings have video’s of photos running none stop.

A band of volunteers help out Ian with the museum’s day to day running, along with the displays, many are privately owned and instead of gathering dust in a garage they are there for everyone to see, and its rotational, so to speak.  “I’ll get a call from a car owner saying do you have room to “store” haha display my car, or they’ll ring and say hey I need my such and such back, but I have another to fill the spot” says Bone with a huge grin on his face.

I think I promised to come and see the museum as least 10 times when it was in its old place and a few times when it had moved, I’m so glad I finally did, do yourself a favour, go and take a look and give yourself plenty of time! Thank you to Ian Bone for taking the time to give me the personal tour, I’m amazed, check out a few of my snaps below from my time at the museum. Oh and one more parting comment, I feel very privileged to see some of my own photographic work on display in the QLD Motorsport Museum.

Queensland Motorsport Museum Unit 2/25 Argon St, Sumner QLD 4074 www.qldmotorsportmuseum.org  

OPEN Friday,Saturday & Sunday 10:00am [Last Entry – 3:30pm] Normal ADMISSION Adults – $15.00 Car Clubs & Concession – $10.00 School Children $5.00 Tel:07 3137 0822

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