‘The main reason we built a track here was to exercise the vehicles’

“Barber Vintage Motorsports museum is the only place like it in the whole world,” says Communications Manager Kelly Stewart. “Period. There are over 1600 bikes in our collection and they date back from the very beginning to the current day. Over 900 of them are on display and the remainder are either in storage or waiting to be restored. We’re always adding more exhibits; there’s no ceiling to our capacity.

“The museum started in a really small location in Southside Birmingham in 1995, but it came to Barber Motorsports Park in 2003. Even in the past five years the amount of growth and capital improvements taking place here is immense. A new 84,650 square foot expansion was added to the museum’s original 144,000 square feet last year.

“In 2014 the Guinness Book of Records said we have the largest collection of motorcycles in the world. The elevator is large enough to carry a truck and that’s so we can move vehicles around. We use a forklift to get the bikes on the towers.

“The main reason we built a track here was to exercise the vehicles and test the newly restored ones. We’re trying to expose people to vintage motorcycles and what a beautiful and exciting place to do it. “People call it the mecca of motorcycles, or motorcycle heaven. It is in a sense because people leave motorcycles to the museum in their will. When you look around at everything and think about the spirit and the people who owned and touched them, it’s pretty incredible.” O Contact www.barbermuseum.org O Adults $15 (around £11.75)

O Children 4-12: $10 (£7.85)