The Eighth Wonder of the World
David Dewhurst
I have never visited the Great Pyramid in Giza or the Colossus of Rhodes, or for that matter, any of the five other great Wonders of the World. But I have visited Barber Motorsports Park, and I am now convinced that there are eight Wonders of the World.
To simply call Barber a motorcycle collection would be like calling the Great Pyramid a pile of rocks or the Colossus of Rhodes a shed. The sheer size and beauty of the museum has brought serious motorcycle people to tears. Even those with little enthusiasm for two wheels stand open-mouthed in complete disbelief, and small boys stare silently as they enter these hallowed halls.
Birmingham, Alabama, does not seem like the place where you would find the eighth Wonder of the World, but that’s where George Barber grew up working with his father at the Barber Pure Milk Company. George was a successful car racer in the sixties and seventies, and he always wanted to build the most extensive car museum his money could afford. Luckily, a friend, George Hooper, convinced George that he should think about creating a modest motorcycle museum instead. In 1988 that museum was launched in an old warehouse on the south side of Birmingham.
The museum grew quickly, and in 1998, it gained influential recognition when the Guggenheim Museum in New York asked Barber to provide 21 bikes for its exhibition, The Art of the Motorcycle. The huge success of that exhibition prompted Barber to rethink his plans, and with the huge family business now sold, George started thinking big. Really big. He purchased almost 900 acres of rolling wooded land just fourteen miles from Birmingham airport. Within days, famed circuit designer Alan Wilson was sketching ideas for a 16-turn, 2.38-mile racetrack that would snake through the tree-lined hillsides.e
Barber called on design help from racing heroes John Surtees, Dan Gurney, and Carroll Shelby, who would later be honored with exhibits in the museum. The former milk mogul also drew inspiration from his visit to the Guggenheim, and had a team of architects start designing a huge museum building that centered around large circular ramps mimicking how visitors gently descended through the famous New York museum.
When the audacious glass and steel structure, and the beautiful racetrack finally opened in September 2003, it is estimated that almost seventy million dollars of Barber’s milk money had already been spent, and a further forty million have gone into the ongoing development of this beautiful site.
Over one hundred million dollars might be a mind-blowing number, but the sheer spectacle of Barber Motorsports Park will blow the mind of even the most jaded visitor. It is epic and beautiful on a scale that is completely unmatched anywhere else in the world. Honda’s Twin Ring Motegi comes close with its huge Collection Hall and mountainside location, but even Honda’s might cannot match what the dairy salesman from Alabama has achieved. If there was any doubt, The Guinness Book of World Records recently declared Barber the biggest motorcycle museum in the world.
If you arrive in Birmingham thinking that the museum is just about some rich guy showing off the size of his wealth you’re in for a surprise. As soon as you drive up the curving 1.5-mile tree-lined entrance road you realize that this is something amazing. With its perfectly manicured grass and privately commissioned sculptures, there is little doubt that George Barber is more about perfection than sheer size. If there are any lingering doubts, one step inside the cavernous building reveals a scene of absolute beauty. Everywhere you turn, there are motorcycles. On the ground, on raised boxes, hanging from the ceiling, even stacked one above the other all the way to the ceiling. At any one time, there are approximately one thousand motorcycles basking in the warm glow of the spotlights. At the same time, a further one thousand are hidden away in storage, awaiting their turn for glory on the display floor.
There are five floors and two interconnected buildings to choose from, so figuring where to start can be a problem. Just to the left of the entrance is an area dedicated to roadracing. Here some of the most famous MV Agustas sit next to Mike Hailwood’s I.O.M. Ducati and Dick Mann’s Daytona Honda Four. Behind them are G.P. two-strokes, big and small, and a cutaway from Honda’s mighty NR500. If oval pistons do not excite you, maybe a few famous Superbikes will pique some interest.
If racing is not your thing, there are floors and floors of amazing street bikes to explore. Over two hundred manufacturers from 22 countries sit basking in the sun that streams through the floor-to-ceiling glass walls. Harley-Davidson, Indian, Triumph, or Ducati, think of a name, and you will find multiple examples of the best machines that each company has ever built. The amazing part is that all these bikes are not simply perfect-looking examples. Each and every one is mechanically complete and ready to ride.
To make all these bikes so perfect takes a dedicated in-house staff of restoration experts who toil away in the basement in full view of the visiting public. Many of the bikes are so old or rare that replacement parts are no longer available. That’s not a big problem for the Museum because in his quest for perfection, George Barber has invested heavily in equipment to produce exquisite replica parts in steel, aluminum or rubber.
Bringing two thousand bikes back to life is an epic achievement, but Barber Museum always goes beyond epic. That’s why Barber now has a fully staffed Advanced Design Center headed by famed Ducati designer Pierre Terblanche. On the airy upper floors of the museum Terblanche and his team the museum analyzes past and current design themes and studies possible future two-wheeled trends. The small design group then brings together old and new motorcycle designers to study all aspects of design and pass on their expertise to a new crop of young designers.
The design group is only a tiny part of the more than fifty full-time staff members who keep the vast 800-acre facility working smoothly. Just keeping the 800 acres of parkland perfectly manicured takes an army or gardeners. Unlike any of the racetracks I have visited around the world, Barber’s 2.38 miles of serpentine asphalt has more in common with a beautiful botanical garden than a racetrack. Runoff areas are wide swathes of dark green grass, and the red-and-white apex markers display not a single scuff mark. It’s as if the track was completed last night and is waiting patiently for its first race.
Of course, there have been many races since the track opened for both two and four-wheels. IndyCar and MotoAmerica are annual visitors to this beautiful site and many other two- and four-wheeled clubs keep the track busy almost every weekend of the year.
For those feeling the need for speed but who don’t own a race bike the track also hosts The Porsche Experience Driving School for anyone wanting a high-speed adrenaline rush in some very quick sports cars.
With so much going on deep in these Alabama woods, it’s not surprising that 368,000 people visited Barber Motorsports Park last year, including more than 3,000 visitors from other countries. That is not as many people as visited the Great Pyramid of Giza, but few people have heard about this eighth Wonder of the World.
Birmingham, Alabama USA 35094
Barber Motorsports Vintage Festival October 3-5th 2025
https://www.barbermuseum.org
