Barber Motorsports Park & Museum
If you like motorcycles and motorcycle events as much as I do, then the Barber Motorsports Park and Museum is a place you must visit. I was fortunate enough to make the trip during the 4th annual Vintage Festival at Barber Motorsports Park and the experience was well worth the travel time. The ride was punctuated by beautiful pine forests and gentle rolling landscapes so even though it is an eleven hour drive from Dallas, it is not a boring trip. The Barber Motorsports Park is composed of a world class road race course and one of the best collections of classic, modern, vintage and racing motorcycles ever assembled. The race track itself consists of large grassy spectator areas set in a terraced bowl around the road race course. The raceway is 2.7 miles long and offers spectacular views at just about every vantage point. There were many vintage Hondas lining up on the racing grid from vintage CB160s and CB350 to even a tiny MT125R Honda. For those of you unfamiliar with this bike it was a full on road race production bike offered by Honda in the 1970s that used the proven CR125 engine for power in a delicate road race rolling chassis.
After spending the day taking in the road races and other events, the Barber Motorcycle museum offers a unique retrospective on the history of two wheeled transport. There is not another motorcycle museum in the world that can match the Barber Museum for quality of exhibits, sheer numbers of pioneer, veteran, classic and modern bikes on display and absolutely breathtaking surroundings. The whole back wall of the museum is glass and overlooks the race track and surrounding grounds. You may find 
yourself examining rare and unusual machines against a back drop of real road racing. The museum is five levels, connected with a large glass elevator in the center and a spiral ramp around that connects all floors. The lowest level houses the shops, parts room and is home to a number of daily riders and drivers. These include such rare beauties as a pair of exotic Honda 250 four cylinder race bikes. Honda was well represented at the museum. There were iconic Hondas of all types to be found including the CBX six cylinder, the Gold Wing and a VFRs both for the street and full race versions. There were a couple of humble CT90s which to this day are among the most ubiquitous motorcycles on the planet.
The back of the shop area opens out onto the race track were machines can be ridden and tested. The upper levels contain motorcycle and some car exhibits arranged around the age of the bikes or in some cases special sections like the Daytona display or the John Surtees exhibit. I think I was the most fascinated by the board track racer display complete with a piece of reconstructed board track. The museum also featured a selection of formula one cars and a number of interesting boat motors, a number of which were made by motorcycle manufacturers. It is impossible to properly convey the fantastic detail and care involved in displaying each exhibit. The Barber museum and Motorsports Park are a must see for any motorcycle enthusiast.
