Speed and Suburbia

We regard London's suburbs as a quiet retreat from its bustling city centre where life is slower and relatively uninspired. Speed and Suburbia challenges this lazy stereotype by telling three heritage stories about motorsport and speed, originating straight out of the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames.

It was Surbiton - sometimes dismissively nicknamed 'Suburbiton' - where the 1964 Monte Carlo Rally-winning Mini Cooper was designed. It was Chessington where Bernie Ecclestone chose to base the offices of his multiple World Championship-winning Brabham F1 team. And it was at the Cox Lane industrial estate where Donald Campbell's record-breaking Bluebird K7 hydroplane was tested in the deep water tanks of Siebe Gorman.

This local history includes a contribution from the British Motor Museum with their take on what modern-day revolutionary thinkers - akin to John Cooper, Jack Brabham and Donald Campbell - might gift humanity in the new era of the motor car