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A world-renowned Grand Prix racing car museum is to close down after more than 40 years in business, it has been announced.

Motor racing enthusiasts will be able to visit the Donington Collection Museum at Castle Donington for the very last time on Monday, November 5.

It has been open for 45 years and attracted more than two million visitors in its history but will close down in the coming weeks due to the current manager's "family responsibilities".

Situated at the Donington Park motor racing circuit, the museum has housed the world’s largest display of purebred Grand Prix racing cars - including many rated as being amongst the most historically and financially valuable of their kind.

The venue, which attracts thousands of visitors each month, was the brainchild of Leicester-based builder Tom Wheatcroft.

A lifelong motor sports enthusiast, he had first visited Donington Park in 1935 to watch motorcycle racing on the British mainland’s very first true road-racing circuit.

Mr Wheatcroft then developed a bug for collecting racing cars due to his wealth from his successful building business and opened the museum in March 1973. Initially the cars were housed in a cramped garage in Leicester before purchasing the circuit section of Donington Park in 1971.

Mr Wheatcroft's long-term plan was to restore the old circuit – unused since 1939 - for modern racing, but first he built the museum there to house his fabulous fleet of purebred competition cars.

Among the world renowned items of display were three groups of the racing world’s rarest and most valuable treasures.

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These included the British Racing Motor team cars including the legendary 1950-55 V16-cylinder design with Rolls-Royce supercharging, the Vanwall group of cars which won Britain’s first Formula 1 Constructors’ World Championship title in 1958 and a stunning group of historic cars such as the Ferrari in which the sport’s first double-World Champion Alberto Ascari scored the majority of his eleven title-qualifying Grand Prix wins in the early 1950s.

It also housed the Lotus 18 which racing legend Sir Stirling Moss drove to win both the 1961 Monaco and German GPs against vastly superior opposition – and the very first Formula 1 car built and raced by triple-World Champion Driver, Jack Brabham.

A statement from its management team said: "The Donington Collection became an absolute magnet for a global audience. Over its 45 year career more than 2.5-million visitors have viewed its treasures."

Since Mr Wheatcroft passed away in October, 2009, the Museum has been run by his son Kevin.

Kevin Wheatcroft said: “Closing the Museum after 45 years has been a really difficult decision, but family responsibilities simply make it the right thing to do.”

A decision on what will happen to the museum's existing cars has yet to be made.

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