Pendine Museum of Speed

The Pendine Museum of Land Speed stands on the south coast of Wales in the village of Pendine. It tells the story of Pendine Sands, a stretch of beach used for land speed record attempts. The museum opened in 1996 and is run by Carmarthenshire County Council. In 2009 it welcomed 33,522 visitors. The building was rebuilt in 2023 after the old one was demolished. The museum’s most famous exhibit is Babs, the car in which J. G. Parry-Thomas died in 1927. Babs was buried on Pendine Sands for 42 years before being dug up in 1969. Owen Wyn Owen restored the car over the next 16 years. After being shown at Beaulieu Motor Museum, Babs returned to Pendine for the reopening in 2023. Visitors find a modern museum with displays about land speed records. Babs sits in a central space where people can walk around it. The building overlooks the beach where record attempts once took place. Exhibits explain how cars like Babs pushed the limits of speed. The museum also shows how the sands shaped Pendine’s history.