We found an abandoned race track in the middle of London 

Someone should map it and stick it in a racing sim.

anyone want to get a couple of austin seven roadsters and ask the council to do a trackday around it for the sake of "history"?

Warning for headphone users at 5:25

“Should we explore more relics of the car world?” I thought that’s why you kept Jeremy, James and Richard around.

"We found..." they still hold sanctioned events there.

Surely if you did one complete lap then that is the 2019 record lap as it is the only lap!

There is another disused racetrack in a public park within London. Battersea Park, where Formula E season finale took place.

It's such a shame that tracks have to give in to the locals' complaints about noise. The track was there long before they were even born and they chose to live there.

I used to go there in the 60's to watch the racing through the fence.

0:14 That looks like a good jump! 😂

Yes, please more of these abandoned places! Those races with those (now) classic Ford Escorts would be epic to watch at that track. Could James May do more of these video's?

Vids with imagination make the best content. Might want to actually fix the sound on this, its badly done

Fake film noise laid over slow-panned static images. Bad sound. Embarrassing production!

Would really like to see the old part of Nordschleife.

anyone who thinks the Jaguar i pace is a good ev should‘nt be a show host on a car show.

Wow i should check this out! > takes car there > drives over 5 family's > kills 6 joggers > 2 granny's > 3 dogs " ... damn i was to slow "

In Germany near Stuttgart there’s an abandoned racetrack which is now a public road. It’s Called „Solitude Racetrack“ and I think it even hosted some F1 races in the 60s. Was mainly a motorcycle racetrack tho because it wasn’t all too wide. And nowadays there’s every two years a „Solitude Revival“ event, where the public roads, which were part the race track, get closed down and for example Porsche and Mercedes take out their old cars and racecars for a spin around the track and you’re able to watch them. Pretty amazing. Oh, and edit: it’s also named after the nearby castle Solitude.

My mum and dad took me there in the 50s to watch the racing, was a great track and some good racing went on there. I do remember the wooden fencing there for spectator safety. Lol and there was still a lot of the ruins left from the old crystal palace, great place to explore when I was a young boy and I always remember the smell of Castrol R put in these racing cars, better than any perfume.

Some of the saloon Car races that are on RU-vid are some of the best races you will see.

It's kind of criminal that a video like this had to be made on Crystal Palace, but it's barely known about at all today to anyone under the age of 40. While it could be argued that it was never going to survive the changes it would have had to go through regarding modern racing safety improvements, it was still a big part of British motorsport history. This should have been the place that Formula E was brought to, and it would have been a serious PR if it had been considered, but sadly London has never been kind to Motorsport.

Clickbait. Turns out to be an advertisement for Jaguar.

0:42 why does the jag have pc disc trays comin from the doors???

I was a race marshall here in the late sixties. Wonderful track but had plenty of tree hazards infield. Watched James Hunt in F3 and Roger Williamson in his Ford Anglia. A sad loss when it closed. Thanks for bringing back very warm memories.

Maybe if the ExCel London ePrix circuit falls through, Formula E could have a loot at this!

james needs to visit there with his massive scalextric set from his childhood toy series.

Crystal Palace has always reminded me of a track in Helsinki, Eläintarha ("Zoo"), where they raced for example sportscar races (Ferraris, D-type Jaguars etc.), Formula Junior and Formula 3 until 1963, when the Swedish driver Örjan Atterberg lost his life on the start-finish line in an F3 race. What is also similar to Crystal Palace is that the Eläintarha track went right behind the Olympic Stadium...

You can’t really claim to have “found” it.

I'll never understand people moving close to racetracks and then complaining about the noise and forcing authorities to shut it down. Ffs...

"You're only supposed to blow the bloody doors off" was filmed here I believe.

I rediscovered Crystal Palace Race Circuit via simracing soon 25 years ago via early mod for GPL. But could have rediscovered if I didn't turn pages of a splendid motorsports book too careless as a boy in early 80ies, but presume it was due to it was foreign language (English) of which I still wasn't familiar to. The latest mod versions for AC, rF1, GTR2 are all splendid for tight simracing in smaller grand touring cars. I reeealy need a time machine to to back there, just came from watching a race the year I was born - definitely born in the wrong time frame! Thanks for sharing. Greets from DK❤

I believe James hunt raced here if rush isn’t wrong

I used to spend a lot of my time as a kid in the 80s in that park. I used to love tearing my little bike around the place thinking I was a racing car driver, specially the top part near the lake, band stand and fishing lake.

You say "found" it's not like you're time team and discovered something buried 3000 years ago, it's a track that was on TV ! 🤪🤣

@1m10s and other examples: Why the fake film flaws on gentle pans across historical black-and-white still images? Your video editor needs a reboot, and I'm referring to the person. Bad decision making.

Electric car races would eliminate noise and smell complaints.

Can you do the Birmingham Superprix, its almost as pretty and it starts/ends at a ford garage...

I raced at the RC track a few times in the past. I had no idea it used to be a track, very interesting to watch!

Laid out and made are two different things, for me and many others Brooklands was the first properly built race track in 1907. (On British soil)

it's more than a couple of miles from central London!

Now that you have more than one million subscribers, your production needs to be above bar. Therefore an audio mistake like the one 5:25 is not acceptable.

When I next in London I'll have to take my RC car around the track.

I enjoyed this video and I would appreciate more like it

5:25 lol

THIS TRACK WAS IN THE MOVIE RUSH, in the beginning when James Hunt and Niki Lauda encountered each other in Formula 3.

In answer to your questions at the end, my answers are :- yes, YES & YES !!!!!!!!!!!

I live not far Crystal Palace park. I've walked around that track dozens of times and should therefore be the current lap time holder.

You may probably be unaware that since at least 2010 the Seven Oaks & District Motor club have run sprint events there at an event called "Motorsport at the Palace". They were invited by Bromley Council to stage such an event. The event can be found on facebook and of course on RU-vid, even the last race was televised in I think 1974. So discovering a race circuit is certainly no surprise to me. If you are nearby go to the event this year on the 24th&25th May 2020. I have been to every event so far and have enjoyed it each time.

Never knew Crystal Palace racing track existed. Great film 🎥🙂

My granddad used to race there! It was one of his favourites. Thank you so much for making this video.

We all love those people that move next to an historic track and then complain about the noise

Better than the videos of Hammond advertising the Ford pick up

Nice track! Lovely I-Pace too!

I can remember watching the racing with my older sister, we walked up from Sydenham, and the atmosphere and noise was fantastic. Thank you for your stirring those memories.

WOW, thanks! I lived close by as a young child (around 1973). I would 'explore' there including the dinosaurs models, and at 6.53 I fished in the lake behind you. Being not long abandoned it was great. They did have an exhibition race there when I saw the crowd protection - stacked sandbags at the corner where spectators gathered. Ah, Thanks again :)

Yea please. More exploring abandoned race tracks

Maybe formula E should take a look... More history there than most of the other tracks? they use.

This is too cool! Old school tracks and vintage f1 pics tickle my neck. Please more content like this!

Should explore Ulster TT circuit soon between Newtownards and Dundonald 👍 Huge history on that circuit and the greats of the day all raced there👍👍👍

I was interested until the Jaguar turned up. 🙄😴😴😴

Yes I would love to see some more abandoned tracks. Great video 😃👍

And what relevance does that jaguar have to this video other then as undisclosed paid promotion/sponsor?

I clicked the video and thought it was Mike Boyd

I didn't think "Crystal Palace Raceway'' was built in the heart of London. I always believed it was like every other British racetrack, in countryside with the local village being near by.

shouldn't this feature one of those "paid promotion" tags?

Car enthusiasts who fear the electric future, there is a potential upside: perhaps the return of city center race tracks that can run without being killed by noise complaints?? Would be great!

I have lived adjacent to the park since the early 60's and remember the racing well, you could actually smell the exhaust from my house and clutch and it was quite loud but as a child it was amazing. I remember being taken in to the pits by my Dad where you see the legends actually working on their own cars! They were so approachable and genuinely friendly toward a star struck child... Happy days! Great video... !

You gotta run that at 3am to get a good test lap time

I learnt something here⚠️😁👍😎

More of this with before and after

North corner has post 'racing days' landscaping; it looked nothing like it does now. If you came a cropper on that bend you would have slammed into 4' high 'railway sleeper wall'. Deaths were a regular occurance and the noise on race days was criminal.

After watching your video, I went to the site of the people that ran the hill climb. It seems since the pandemic, hill climbing has ceased. I did not know that Crystal Palace had a race track, even though I had been to the park many times in the 1970s. I was actually looking for abandoned London speedway tracks. Do you think that there is enough of the old track to create a speedway oval?

Yes, more please, but sort your sound out.

I must be getting old! Back in the 60’s I remember going to Crystal Palace racetrack with my cousin, his dad, my uncle, who worked for a local garage company called SG Smith and they supplied a towtruck for dragging broken race cars back to pits. Happy days!. See clip below watch out for the mini crashing and the recovery! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-bWp-0TuY4Sk.html

Well at least there’s more of it left that at Brooklands.

So, let me get this straight in my mind... You found an "abandoned race track in the middle of London" that holds racing events every year... How exactly do you define the word A B A N D O N E D ?

I remember it well. Even saw Jim Clark race there although I was about 4 at the time. There is a great video of a 60's saloon car race featuring Mike Crabtree and Gerry Marshall on RU-vid.

Amazing video, nice cinematography nicely explained but please you guys need to work on the audio

But why is the presenter dressed as a caretaker?

Hopefully Electric racing will bring competition back to the Palace.

Why animate film artifacts over static photos? Goofy as frig

My late father took me to Crystal Palace car and motorcycle race meetings as a four year old in the early 1950's and started a love affair for me that has lasted ever since.

Love the channel but for such professionally produced video's what is wrong with your sound levels? They are all over the place going from near silent to over-modulated on nearly all of them.

This was 'my local race track', I live about five miles away. Some of my fondest motor racing memories come from Crystal Palace. I'm really not sure they ever held a F1 race here? They certainly always had a F2 race in the programme and we regularly saw all the F! drivers, Clark, Hill, Surtees, Hulme, Brabham, Ginther, Gurney, Ickx, Rindt, Maas, Hailwood and so on. I even saw Moss driving sports racing cars (Lola, Lotus, Elva and so on.) But my favourite was always the Saloon Car racing and saw one of the first races in the UK where the American 'Big Iron' came to thrill us. Imagine a race where the front row of the grid was Dan Gurney in a Chevy II, a Ford Galaxie, and Sir Gwaine Bailey in a Mk 2 Jaguar? Second row was probably more Jags with Jack Sears and other notables (including, I think, Roy Salvadori) Then rows of miscellaneous British saloon cars like Austin A40, A35 (John Sprinzle.) In later years, the Galaxies where surrounded by Minis - 'works' Cooper Car Company Mini Coopers, driver by John Miles and John Love, Christobel Carlisle in her red Mini and many others, all being led round by the flying 'works' MkI Lotus Cortina's driven by none other than Jim Clark and Jochen Rindt. Clear memory of Clark and Rindt, way in the lead, nose to tail, rounding Ramp Bend on three wheels, as the inside rear would lift on the apex. Fabulous. From time to time I walk the dog up there and I can't help thinking how good the racing was then, but another part of me is amazed that it lasted so long. And I'm also amazed at how few actual casualties there were. It is 1.3 miles round and no straight is longer than about three hundred yards, yet the lap record was well over 100 mph! Extraordinary. Great memories.

Remember it well. I lived just down the road in Penge. I used to enjoy the motorbikes. I beleive it was Peter Butler, from Boyer of Bromley, on a Triumph that closed this circuit. 1970?

You guys should come here to Vancouver B.C. And check out the old C.A.R.T. circuit. There was two layouts of the track the first which was in service from 1990-1997 which went under GM Place and the second layout from 1999-2004 where they went flying down Quebec street.

A couple of interesting factoids regarding the Crystal Palace circuit - The first ever live TV of a motor race was from this circuit in 1937 or 1938. The famous sequence involving the classic line "You were only supposed to blow the bloody doors off" in the original "The Italian Job" movie was shot at the Crystal Palace circuit. The circuit was closed in 1972 partly due to local objections but mainly so the Crystal Palace athletics stadium could be built. Sprints are still sometimes held on the remaining part of the circuit And here's some action from the circuit from 1971- [url]ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-cawBXWWgqCI.html[/url]

Interesting, but here’s the true history if .British motor racing. When the Crystal Palace track opened in 1927, Brooklands had been open 20 years. The record lap of 100moh in 1970 at Crystal Palace pales into insignificance when you learn that the first driver in the world to achieve over 100 miles in one hour (36+ laps) did so at Brooklands in, wait for it, 1913. Fifty seven years earlier.

Plenty of pre-WWII Grand Prix tracks. Phoenix Park Dublin - Limerick City - Cork City, all staged Grand Prix where people like Fangio / Nuvolari etc all raced. Shame it is so under-appreciated.

Jaguar i-pace the best EV sold....are you joking....then mentions the Taycan..omg.. Do a little research and you will find the best EV sold is the Tesla. No arguments....

Hi everyone! I'm KC, and this is my new petrolhead channel, about everything with an engine and wheels. Come and check out 'The Braking Point', maybe you'll enjoy my videos, but who knows unless you watch a few. I welcome your feedback and video suggestions. Enjoy!

How about Aintree racing circuit? (edit: Damon Hills' already done it.) Also, for those who haven't seen the glory days of Crystal Palace have a look at this. Saloon car racing before it became the BTCC with commentary by Murray Walker. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-cawBXWWgqCI.html

Is no one going to mention his hat? the "only to be worn by a "GJAAAAG" owner hat. Shameless Jag plug, yes. Too bad it's not a world motorsports track, yes. But please show more of the grassroots racing stuff! Show car-guys some racing! hill climbs, formula ford, sedans. actual racing.. Not just "this guy learns to drive" or 2 seconds of a racer.. How about this: fastest lap attempts by a fast driver in a "it doesn't matter, just something" car at all the circuits you can get into ?

Where's Rodney Del Boy ?

If you want to check out another ex circuit, check out what was RAF Tarrant Rushton. It`s still there, i live not far from it. The main runways have been dug up, but the perimiter tracks are mostly still there, with a vehical width section of the North / South runway still there. The public ARE allowed to walk and cycle round the peri track, and i believe the remaining section of the North / South runway. I think there may have been Motorcycle GPs held there at some time?. Tarrant Rushton is down here in Dorset. Have a look on google maps.

Used to cycle to watch all the race meetings as a kid. Jim Clark in a Lotus Cortina, think it was J Rindt first UK race. Saw Ford Galaxy race for the 1st time big car with a v8 but only had drum brakes. No escape roads just railway sleepers on the outside. H&S would be having fits.

Jaguar commercial? Sorry just felt like a bit of placement there at one point, maybe I’m just internet jaded...

I used to go there in the 1950's. I saw Sterling Moss in Cooper Climax sports cars and John Surtees riding bikes. In my late teens I marshalled for BRMCC and rode Velocette road bikes round the circuit, believe me Ramp Bend was lethal with a concrete wall and trees. It was very dangerous with few run offs. Two friends of mine crashed their kneeler sidecar outfit into the sleepers at the exit from the Glade. They ended up some distance away with the bike on the track. Very nostalgic. When a child I got there on the 137 bus from Streatham!

Now this brings back such memories. As a kid, on race days, I'd sneak onto the race track through the park and spend hours watching the racing. In my day car racing had pretty much finished at the Palace but motorcycle racing was still going strong, I can still hear the scream of engines and the smell of Castro R, such memories.

You need to take a trip around the Birmingham GP circuit. Unfortunately Monaco House (the old pits) has just been demolished, but if you look closely in spring at the flowers opposite the former pits, you can still make out the wording Birmingham GP. Bring back street racing to the UK.

If anybody is interested.. you can watch my full sprint run featured at 5:55 here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-8jJycEyyyx4.html It’s a fantastic weekend of club Motorsport and will be happening again in May 2020. More info at www.motorsportatthepalace.co.uk Thanks Drivetribe for featuring!