Downsview Park to be new home for Canadian motorsport museum

Downsview Park to be new home for Canadian motorsport museum. Organizers are in the process of setting up a Motorsport Hall of Fame at Downsview Park early next year. Artist rendition

The Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame, which has been housed in Halton Hills for the past three years after relocating five times since 1993, will find a permanent home in the museum, which will also showcase the automotive collection and Canadian motorsport archives at 39 Carl Hall Rd.

"It's not just a move, it's a reinvention of Canadian motorsport," said Bradley Brown, executive director of the Canadian Motorsport Heritage Museum. "The hall of fame was not doing it justice. It's now in Halton Hills in a small facility and we can't celebrate Canadian motorsport the way we should."

Construction started in late October on the 13,000-square foot Keele Street and Sheppard Avenue facility and is scheduled for completion in late winter or early spring 2010.

Brown said the decision to permanently move to Downsview Park from the 2,500-square foot facility in Halton Region was due to the centralized location in the Greater Toronto Area, close proximity to major roadways, access to a more populated area, easy access by public transit and ample parking spaces.

"Right now in Halton Hills we have a few cars and memorabilia," Brown said. "What we will have in Downsview will be a rotating showcase of cars each month so someone can't say they've been there, done that, because each month it will change. We will also have a race experience centre with simulators so people can feel what it's like to drive race cars. It will be as realistic as you can get."

A 40-seat theatre will play non-stop vintage racing footage and a mezzanine level, which will look out into the museum, will house the digital archive library.

Brown said about 75 per cent of the $1 million in funding needed to renovate the new Canadian Motorsport Heritage Museum facility has been secured, with the remaining dollars expected to come from corporations and the government.

"It's not just a car racing museum," he said. "It's motorsport. If it has a motor in it and it races - boats, airplanes, Ski-Doos - it will be part of the museum."