It appears that the museum is due to close for good on November 5 2018. Kevin Wheatcroft had lost interest a long time ago, and concentrated on his collection of WW2 memorabilia which had deterred a lot of genuine enthusiasts from visiting the place. News that Jonathan Palmer had bought the place to add to his business empire was apparently premature.
Not long to go, so anyone who wants to visit the collection will need to do so in the next few weeks. Even though a good number of important cars have been sold since Tom's death, it was still a mighty impressive assembly of GP cars and displayed the evolution of the racing machine in style. Goodness knows what will happen to the cars, but a mass auction will devalue cars the world over.
Tom was a real enthusiast in every way. He must be turning in his grave. Sad news.
PS I misunderstood part of the reason for sale - Jonathan Palmer's business was offered the museum but it didn't fit in with their plans (it was very definitely a loss maker!). Many of the cars were of course on loan from manufacturers - Williams and McLaren for example, so these will be returned, but there's still a lot of historically important stuff which will presumably be put up for sale.
