En route to the Spa Classic 2018, I finally managed to see to the official Museum of the Spa Francorchamps Race Track. 2021 marked the 100th anniversary of the race track, giving another chance to revisit.
The Museum is located in the cellar of the Monastery of Stavelot, the administrative center of the region, and provides an excellent insight into racing and the long history of this classic race track.
The Museum keeps several dozen race cars and other historic vehicles, as well as memorabilia from all epochs of racing.
The decoration is modest but effective in creating the right atmosphere, and interactive elements provide refreshing activities (and also keep the children busy, if they get tired of the static monuments of the past).
Since the 2018 visit, the Museum installed a high tech ultra realistic simulator, which was unfortunately closed do the rising COVID restrictions.
But until November, the simulator was included in the price of an all in Museum ticket. The Abbey keeps several permanent and temporary exhibitions in the upper floors, for details, I recommend to have a look at their website.
The first hall showcases a few cars from the touring era of the 70’s and 80’s, including a Capri in Belga Livery, that was also showcased in many shows (last time I saw one at the Antwerp Classics).
The 02 Bimmer and the RX7 offers a nice geographic and technological variety for a start. The entry hall leads to a larger chamber with an exciting collection of all sorts of cars, from various epochs.
The corridor features funny additions like a scaled down Ferrari F1 car that a school prepared (Hey!, why didn’t we get this in my school? : ) ),
and a naked cockpit (also serving educational purposes) and a set of die cast models.
This hall is one of the two main chambers of the Cellar, and the glorious set of cars includes an F40 (my personal favourite moment of automotive history).
The line-up continues with a (quite recent) Mustang, and about a dozen race cars from various times and series (mainly F1 but many other long-forgotten Formula and endurance series).
The hall concludes with a nicely decorated corner hosting two recent touring cars from the early 2000’s.
Next up is a real labyrinth of memorabilia and homage galleries that feature many famous drivers that ever raced this circuit.
It’s pointless to name all the legends from the past 100 years, feel free to browse them through in the gallery. The labyrinth also includes interactive sections, including a cinematic room to see a lap on the track with various series (including a bicycle), as well as simulators and die-cast models.
If you find your way out of the labyrinth, you arrive in the second main chamber with many historic vehicles, (with four or two wheels and some without any wheel, or even engine).
I recall the M3 with the colorful livery from the BMW’s centennial show from the Autoworld Museum, which also strikes a nice contrast to the white M1.
Yet the latter is the one that steals the show without bragging with spoilers or colors. But there is a truly great variety of vehicles, again with proper geographic balance and age distribution.
So much for the official museum of the Circuit of Spa Francorchamps. It can not be compared to the major ones like Louwmans or Autoworld, but it provides a refreshing sidekick to the main even int Spa. And the agenda of Spa is quite busy, Endurance, touring, Formula or Classic series, the track has a lot to offer.
FOR AN OVERVIEW OF ALL THE CAR MUSEUMS I EVER VISITED, CHECK OUT THE INTERACTIVE MAP:
