With five halls and over 130 exhibits, the Donington Grand Prix Collection comprised the largest exhibition of
Grand Prix cars in the world. The collection contained vehicles from many forms of open-wheel, single-seater racing, but was primarily focussed on Grand Prix and
Formula One machinery. The museum was formed by the late
Tom Wheatcroft in March 1973 and is based on Wheatcroft's personal collection of vehicles. These include some that Wheatcroft's own motor racing team ran for drivers such as
Roger Williamson and
Derek Bell, although many cars exhibited are on loan from other owners. Various external collections of
automobilia and motor racing
ephemera have been donated to the museum over the years. Specific attractions included the world's only complete collection of
Vanwall cars, a near-complete collection of
McLaren Formula One cars from the team's inception to the early 2000s, and extensive collections of
Williams and
BRM cars (including examples of both notorious BRM
V16-powered machines as well as the
H16-powered BRM P83). The collection also had examples of four different
four-wheel drive Formula One cars, including an unraced
Cosworth car. Another star exhibit was the
Lotus 18 with which
Stirling Moss won the
1961 Monaco Grand Prix, along with
Jim Clark's World Championship-winning
Lotus 25. Noticeable, however, was the distinct lack of Ferrari vehicles, 3 in all, but fine examples nonetheless. First being a
Ferrari 312 driven by Chris Amon, second a
312B and thirdly, a
Ferrari F1-2000 (the particular chassis driven to victory in the
2000 Canadian Grand Prix, one of nine victories for
Michael Schumacher in his maiden championship winning series with Ferrari), conversely, the establishment housed the
Jordan 191 in which he made his formula 1 debut in 1991. The 1998
Jordan 198, the most successful in Jordan's history, (the chassis being the one Damon Hill drove to victory in a 1–2 with teammate
Ralf Schumacher at the
1998 Belgian Grand Prix at
Spa Francorchamps) also figured. Another interesting exhibit was an
Auto Union, built from pre-war plans following the factory's destruction by
Allied bombing during
World War II. Wheatcroft had also supplemented the racing car collection with some additional notable cars, including a replica of the personal
Bugatti Royale of
Ettore Bugatti. Augmenting the car collections were the world's largest collection of motor racing helmets;
Fangio,
Graham Hill,
Mansell,
Hunt and
Alonso amongst others, a small collection of racing
motorcycles, including a
Daijiro Kato Honda and a
Barry Sheene Heron Texaco
Suzuki and a number of collections of trophies and awards gained by a selection of British drivers and riders. In addition to exhibits, the Donington Grand Prix Collection museum also incorporated a conference suite and gift shop. In 2007, the owner began an attempt to bring Formula 1 back to Donington Park, however the deal collapsed. The Donington Grand Prix Collection was closed briefly in late 2009 in the wake of the death of Tom Wheatcroft, and Donington Ventures Leisure Ltd. entered administration under leadership of his son Kevin Wheatcroft. It reopened in January 2010, along with the cafe and race control offices. The museum began to sell items to help fund various costs. They sold the Jim Clark
Lotus 25 c.2008 to an unknown private collector. Several other Formula 1 cars also disappeared from the museum including Jackie Stewart's 1973 championship winning
Tyrrell 006, a
Lotus 72 and a
Ferrari F1-2000. These cars may have been sold in order to solve Donington's financial problems when it enlarged the circuit and attempted to host the 2012 British Grand Prix. ==The McLaren Hall==