Forgotten Race Tracks - Birmingham Superprix - The UKs Monaco
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- Опубліковано 3 жов 2024
- #Superprix #Birmingham #Abandoned
Street racing in Birmingham... no, not the financed whips seen in Maccers car park... but actual legit street racing right in the middle of one of the UKs busiest cities.
What an amazing idea... in this episode, we learn of how the Birmingham Superprix came about and look at what remains of this old, abandoned and perhaps forgotten race track.
If like me, you enjoy motorsport, history and looking at pieces of tarmac... you'll love "Forgotten Race Tracks" where we take a look at some of the old and abandoned race tracks around England.
From Drag strips to Formula 1 circuits, in this short series, we'll be investigating what remains of Britain's motor racing history.
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If you visit during the Spring, you can see the words ‘Birmingham Super Prix’ spelt out in crocus just opposite from Bristol Street Motors. Another reminder of this great event. Great video btw!
Could you imagine trying to get planning for such an event these days. Would never happen! I’m even quite surprised they went ahead with it in the 80s. Fascinating video
Next similar event is the Coventry Motofest on 10th & 11th September 2022... there was a relaxation in the law a few years ago to allow councils to apply for permission for street race events in limited circumstances, so that they didn't need to take the route Birmingham had to of a specific Act of Parliament.
The idea started around 1968 and took until 1986 to actually get off the ground. Even back then there was so much red tape, frustrations and set backs.
Somebody is trying to get one going around the roads of.....Bournemouth! They are serious and what's more the council seems interested 🤔
North West 200 motorcycle race in northern ireland. Still going strong! Well worth a visit!
I remember being there in August 86, volunteering for Raynet doing emergency comms stuff. Ignoring all the noisy cars (trying to use a radio was challenging!), I remember one day one of the spectator stands - scaffold construction things - was a risk of collapse (maybe we had heavy rain?) and getting involved trying to ‘quietly’ evacuate it. No one was hurt and I think it just got shut off for the duration.
I have found a couple of photos I took of the racing, standing just inside the Armco, so seeing the barrier points in the pavement brought back memories.
Great series.
I've been through "Halfords Corner" many times and I've always wondered why part of the roundabout is paved, very good video!
I went to two SuperPrix and loved them. They were really good and not ony did I see some great racing like Martin Donnelly doing his thing, but it was a thoroughly enjoyable time. One really lovely Indian guy used to have his own little stall offering prathas cheaply. They were suitably great. Wish we had more like this.
Yes see all them cozzies, back when Touring car was on another level
It's 2023, I have lived in Birmingham since 2008 and I had absolutely ZERO idea that this had been a thing. Heck, I know those roads really, really well because I drove them daily for about a decade! This is why I love the channel.
Went to all of them. Absolutely brilliant!
The depth and accuracy of your research does you proud. Well done mate. Impressed!
Just copy/paste from Wiki, easy really :D
Odd link, The final music is the theme to Red Dwarf. Craig Charles used to Play Dave Lister in Red Dwarf, he also presents The Gadget Show which is recorded in The Custard Factory, Digbeth which is a stone's throw from the circuit.
Thanks for this - I remember watching the Superprix back in the 80s (on TV). I think another factor in its demise may have been the weather! Seem to remember it peed down two years a row? Most drivers around Birmingham still think they are in the Superprix...... :-)
Most drivers in the country think that. Big chunks of brums drivers think they are in a demolition derby. Except Sparkhill, small heath....they are in Death Race 2022.
I don't think it was ever a driver's as the circuit, for understandable reasons, was very bumpy!
Awesome those rs500s absolutely ripped around there definitely one of the best races to watch from the best era of Motorsport
Excellent, loved the Crossroads intro 😃I'd totally forgotten about this circuit. I had a couple of free tickets and attended, I think it was in 1986. Was a great day out and going by train there and back was a brilliant way to avoid the traffic.
My first job was working in a factory on Sherlock Street in 1988. I used to get the Bus into town to Bull Street then walk across town, during the Superprix the Armco barriers made getting to and from work rather a challenge, even for my younger more nimble self. I never did get to see a race as I left the city latter that year, however I do recall you could hear it from our house in Ward End and it pissed it down in the first year on the back end of Hurricane Charlie.
I could hear it in Great Barr - admittedly high up near Bar Beacon, but still could hear the roar of the engines. I used to open the bedroom window and listen as a kid.
@@markymark2819 I bet that was magic but such a torture too
@@Dan23_7 Yes I wish I could have gone :-( since then I have been to most the circuits in the UK, and le Mans, but really regret missing seeing the BSP!
@@markymark2819 Every cloud and all that I suppose
They recently (last ten years lol) redid the roads and got rid of all the old street stuff that really showed it off. Inc removable traffic lights. Back in the early 90s the boy racers used to use “the circuit” 😈
I still smile every time I drive around Birmingham and see the remaining evidence of the circuit. I didn't know about those Armco mounts though
“The Monaco of the Midlands”…Just brilliant 🤣😂😅
Intriguing tale. I must confess, I had no idea this existed and clearly completely missed it when it was on. Shame it didn’t survive, but I guess Halfords Curve just doesn’t evoke the same romanticism as Casino Square 🤷🏻♂️😊😉
Brilliant vid , i remember those Sierra Cosworths racing around there on tv. It was mesmerising
I had forgotten about this racing event. It was nice to hear the voice of the great Murray Walker again.
Thanks for this, I grew up in Brum in the 80s and saw the first race televised. It was quite something to see the race cars going along streets I actually knew. I thought everyone had forgotten about it...!
I was there. Brum 1986 streetrace. I still have a bunch of photos I took. There were protective fences by the street sides I remember. I didn't know they stopped the race, although I haven't been back there since..
Nice one John. I was there for this event in 1988 spectating from the multi story carpark. There was a thrash metal all dayer at the Powerhouse club on Hurst Street so I popped in to see Napalm Death. I wasn't really into thrash metal but I'd heard Napalm Death on John Peel so I thought I'd check them out. Good times.
I was there in 1986, I remember it pissing down most of the day and it stopped the F3 race. I also ate the best jacket potato ever down near Halfords corner.
I was working in and around Birmingham back then and it was incredible seeing all the barriers up around the city.
What a great episode, Jon. Excellent editing, cutting in and out of the past and present. Got my need for speed done, and I never left my room. Thank you.
Thank you very much for this, having attended all the Super Prix I have so many memories. Seeing how it is now has brought tears to my eyes, but you can’t change the passage of time.
nice.... i remember we used to live quite a ways away and we watched the first race on the tv with the sound down and listening to the engines in the back yard lol
My grandad used to work for a company whose offices were on the circuit. I remember the sound of the cars being biblical! Good video, thanks.
Wow, I was living in the West Midlands at the time and I actually remember this..! Didn't actually get to attend the racing, but I do remember trying to get to work around all the traffic problems 🤣
I went to the second one. Was at the roundabout at the top of The Middleway. It was a great afternoon. That year the weather was good. I think there were a couple of years which were washouts though! It wouldn’t have been good spectating in those conditions! At that time Birmingham was buzzing with motorsport- Brummie Nigel Mansell was winning Formula One races.
I lived in Birmingham for nearly 20 years now and never knew this was a thing. Thank you!
Watched from ‘Halfords’ corner with my dad in ‘87. I still think about it every time I drive round there myself.
One day the Coventry Motofest might get to use the whole ring road
Visited Birmingham the other day and couldn't help but think about this. Wish they would consider doing it again!
Have walked around the Monaco circuit and I would say it's probably narrower than most of this. You'd think with today's technology and organisation they could do this with a narrower window of disruption too. Would be cool if they extended it to take in a few of Birminghams landmarks in the center too maybe? Great video!
Great video been down these streets many times I attended one of the first races when I was very young.
The streets didn't fall totally silent for many years there was still racing on Saturday nights on the fringes of the track on sherlock street/Barford Street lovingly known as the esses. Though wasn't legal.
Been a petrolhead from knee high and don't remember this! Thanks for highlighting. This really becoming amongst my top 5 YT channels.
Nice video, who would have thought?! Interesting to see the barrier things still in the pavement. But...
Was that a red light you went through?! 😂
For those that want to drive the circuit as intended then there was a version of the track available for the GTR2 sim. It's not the worst track in the world to race on, but it is a bit stop, start, street circuit as you might image.
I remember rain stopping play during one of the Super Prix - I think it led to a shorter number of laps for the race on that day.
My very first Grand Prix in person. I had a t-shirt when I was little kid from the Birmingham Super Prix. At the time, my dad was working in F3000, though I must admit I'm far too young to remember anything except the t-shirt my parents bought as a souvenir.
I've only just found your channel but I've really enjoyed watching this series. Great videos, thank you!
As a Black Country lad, I went to an F3000 race there with my brother, someone in the family won tickets in a newspaper competition. We stood on the corner of Sherlock Street, by The Shakespeare pub and the Diskery. My first GP experience. I remember the support races - XR2i cars coming round on two wheels, never seen anything like it. The F3000 race was won by Roberto Morano, I think John Alesi was 2nd. I still have old Kodak pictures (most of are blurred or of the road!). Loved it.
Should do a video on the Crystal Palace track, another lost race track in the UK.
Excellent video mate, never knew about this racetrack.
A savage track I reckon... I'd like to see Hamilton and co give it a go.
Excellent , I do remember this race well. Well done Sir
Loved the Crossroads theme playing away n the background. I was there the first year, but the rising ticket costs & struggle getting there saw me heading elsewhere over that weekend instead.
Not so sure, that'll be an "earworm" for me all day, now. I'll have to go through a few of my favourites on Spotify to get rid of it. And is that Gymnopedie, trying to replace it? ;-)
Red Dwarf... not crossroads...
My dad won tickets with the local paper. It was a great day out. But the months and months of disruption to prepare the roads originally soured local support. It was seen as rich corporates coming into a poorer area and damaging local businesses.
it's the same in singapore on the Grand Prix... it's seen more of a government scheme for tourism that pays little to shite. at least the concert has some headline acts...
Me: can we go to the Monaco GP?
Dad: we have the Monaco GP at home.
And thus we went to the Birmingham Super Prix in 1989.
Birmingham >>> monaco anyway
Lots of bits i didnt know about and now do ! ... the cut out on hoursefair/bristol street for example .
Didnt mention the be-auty of the city ........
Use to work at the rover a few mile down the bristol road ... the races made it a pain in the arse to get to work 🙂
Was awesome watching the TVRTuscans,Honda CRXs ,touring cars and single seaters -My mates were students in Birmingham and lived within 1/4 mile from the roundabout hairpin(Halfords corner)
I have vague memories of somehow being in the paddock at one of the Brum Superprix events and sitting in a team motorhome alongside Bertrand Gachot, who was minding his own business and trying to eat his lunch. We said hello, he shrugged politely and carried on eating. I have no idea why I was there, I think it was to do with a friend of my dad's, probably a sponsor or something. I was about 16, I think. A year or two later Gachot was driving in F1.
Great vid, by the way! I'm working my way through your back catalogue, having enjoyed all the SOTM series so far.
I never even realized this went on ...what a place to pick. :)
Be cool to see it happen again as I think we all missed out first time around!
Best video I've found for this circuit
I’m guessing the agreement was that the car dealership had to vacate the premises each year whilst the pits were put in there, then for the next 11 months it was a car dealership again?
That’s similar to what they planned to do with the failed New Jersey F1 circuit, where shops would be located in the main pit building but would be moved out temporarily for the race weekend so it could be used as a pitlane
I hope you have Crystal Palace scheduled for a video. That was a rather interesting any quirky little track, although is it really completely dead? There have been a few, one-off sprint events in recent decades since racing proper stopped in 1972.
I vaguely remember attending one of these events as a very small child (born in 83 so it would have been around 87) was open wheel cars, i dont remember the race, i remember being in the area where cars were on display, i suppose the paddock area. Crazy to think they raced those streets having used them for many years, they do not lend themselves well to racing lol
Went to all of them, it was a fantastic sight and sound.
at the right time of year, you can still see the crocus flowers spelling out birmingham super prix opposite bristol street motors.
Ever since I watched Aidan Millward's video on it a couple of days ago, UA-cam has been recommending videos about it.
The A55 will always be the "Chester Southerly Bypass" to me, as that is what it was called when I was a kid living in Chester in the 70s and 80s. Fun fact, for when you do your A55 videos: The A55 was planned as long ago as 1952, because it appears on the Bartholomew map of that year that we had at home.
It was ace. But the locals hated it and it never made enough money. I think they really wanted the British Grand Prix.
The locals did hate it :( The GP could have happened but the SuperPrix wasn't a great success.
I remember that, only just, but I wish that was something that managed to survive, but tracks that get used once a year need a king to pay for it. See Monaco, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain and only one of them is a street circuit. Not a slow way of spending cash.
I remember the yellow ear plugs they gave out 😂 much needed as a child as the niose off the engines was lethal 😂
Sick channel instant sub
Nice one, thanks for watching mate.
I never knew this happened - I love that someone tried to make this happen!
A popular venue on an evening in your Metro Turbo, Uno turbo and XR's. Cars that looked like the scrapyard rejected it racing cars that look like they had every accessory known to Halfords thrown at it side by side away from the lights.... (allegedly) :)
My old friend Martin Hone. What a great guy
Spirit of Meg Mortimer playing in the background
I remember the unofficial races down Barford Street
Turn left at the mosque.
I worked at the accident hospital in Birmingham , close to the circuit , I remember working the weekend of the superprix
Nice Saab.
I worked at Monaco house for a few months in the early 2000s. It was pretty decrepit then. I'm glad it's been flattened.
Very interesting, thank you :)
I have no memory of that at all, maybe Birmingham was too far from the family home in Wolverhampton for me in 1984!
And there are some nice bits to Brum these days, just not on that circuit apparently.
It's weird how it just disappeared and no one really mentions it much.
@@AutoShenanigans Nobody ever mentions Birmingham through choice!!!!
0:05 Crossroads
5:58 Red Dwarf 😄
Wish I could have seen that in person.
I lived in Balsall Heath, Birmingham at the time. It was noisy as hell.
5:33 and I reckon the start/finish line and lights was where the traffic lights actually are today
You're probably right. It used to be marked out I believe but after resurfacing and works, its gone.
No....they were by Morocco House by the petrol station adjacent what is now the Ford Garage.....
The garage and paddock area was provided in the Wholesale Market...
The grid markings were still in place in the late 1990s.
The run off and track kerbing still exists on the corner of Sherlock St and Pershore St and the last in-situ section of track Armco was also here until it was finally removed about 6 years ago.
What a damn shame... An actual reason to visit Birmingham and they let it go
It's not that bad. But I did legit nearly get mugged during filming.
@@AutoShenanigans I worked in Birmingham for more years than I care to remember, some of them as a bus driver. It's a hellhole, glad I'm out of the place. Actually, I think a lot of my colleagues thought they were in the races the way they used to belt along missing out all the stops, leaving me to pick up all their bloody passengers 🙄
3:57 - is the car in the distance going backwards
☮
Very possible, to give the impression of driving the "correct" way on the race track involves reversing some footage.
Road racing still happens at Scarborough a few times a year!
Wednesday next week... ;)
@@AutoShenanigans looking forward to that one!
I was in Sherlock street today. Very exciting 🤣
It's not is it. :D
0:53 Cars casually driving backwards xD
I went in 1989 and sat on halfords corner, which was great becasue they had a big tv opposite (1st time id seen one) so you could see the whole race.
Hilariously someone in the tower block behind had massive speakers on the balcony and kept playing "french kiss" by L'il Louis, which basically featured sex moaning instead of lyrics! Yhe kids in the crowd were giggling and the parents were lookin sheepish 😂😂 happy days.
Oh, Stefano Moderna won the F3 and the Metro 6R4s were epic!
What an experience that was... 6R4 would have been amazing!
Imagine the traffic chaos it would cause nowadays shutting that area off 😂
Ahhhh Red Dwarf, NODNOL 😂
Such a shame Brum lost the SuperPrix.😢
Obligitary David Hunt demolishing a wall comment...
To be fair the BTCC put on some great races, and the history doesn't start in the 80s, Stirling Moss was keen to get a race there for ages. It wasn't a bad layout (Looking at you, Meadowlands in the US or that, and/or the Ceasar's Palace F1/CART races. Kind of reminds me of the Denver tracks CART ran in the late 80s/90s and 2000s. There's a version out for quite a few sims, GTR2, RACE 07 and rFactor 1 and I believe 2, as well if anyone wants to take a lap or ten virtually
The thing I remember most is the controversy over Oliver Gruillard, he crashed, went for the spare car and Simon Taylor and the crowd figured he'd start from pole. He wasn't allowed to. Then David Hunt tried taking his F3000 car and turning it into a plane and that overshadowed the controversy. And the weather, too. Seems like in the 80s if you had a high profile street race...somewhere in the world, it got rained on. Except Long Beach which has dodged the rain for decades at this point.
I remember going to the first GP there It was a bank Holiday/Sunday and the Pubs were open all day which was not like it is now. So i got Shit faced and missed the race LOL
I would rather watch that racing that any tv today , mate I love everything about the 80s and 90s and even 70s why has everything gone to complete shit since 2010
As a child I frequently visit the Chinese Quarters and could hear the racing.
Didn't they also try something like this Coventry?
As part of the Coventry Motofest, they close a section of road and run a time trial style road circuit. I'm hoping to drive it later in the year but it's not quite the same thing.
@@AutoShenanigans I enjoyed the event. A celebration of the car and the motorcycle: a small motorshow on top of classic car displays and various entertainment. The Transport Museum is worth a good look too. Hopefully I'll be there for this year's one.
@@EdgyNumber1 Yeah I went to Motofest in 2019... for a free day out, it was excellent. I'm hoping to get the car on "track" this year.
nice video, shame its gone
Having been to both Brum and Monaco i can confirm there are no similarities between the two places, Monaco, nice place and very sunny, Brum, a dump where it rains a lot
Yeah but Birmingham gave us Mansell, Monaco gave us le Clerc ;-)
The Brum Grand (Super) Prix could have been great, but many in the Birmingham Council were against it.
what is the song called at the start?
It's the theme tune to Crossroads.
Went in 87, great day
were you actually driving down the wrong side of the road there after halfords corner?????
Clever camera trickery. (Reversed)
@@AutoShenanigans it thought so. I was guessing 50/50. But I'm surprised I found the circuit just by looking at an old photo
It's a Clean Air Zone now FFS :)
Yeah I was awarded with the opportunity to pay £60 to find that out.
We now have a fresh air tax and I’ve not bothered going in to the city centre, I refused to pay to get into the city centre back in the days of the Birmingham stupid prix because as a tax paying Birmingham resident I refused to have to pay to … your getting it now aren’t you ….🥴 , there an underground storage tunnel on Bristol street close to the pagoda island, they stored the armaco barrier there for years until : A they used it on local road ways .. or : B they scrapped it all actually paying some company to remove it
… . If you voted A then your as thick as Birmingham city council .
Not quite right on your circuit as from Bristol St start they went left wrong side of Belgrave Middleway .......indeed, the sculpted traffic Islands into the turn still existed until 18 months ago when they were ripped up for a cycle lane no one uses......
........there was an attempt to reserect the circuit in the late 1990s but it was discovered thst all the barriers for the track, which had been stored in a council yard, had been illegally sold for scrap by a private company when the council were forced by government to dispose their road depots to private contractors.....
The cost of replacing them scuppered the plan.....