Brands Hatch Track Map Poster

Brands Hatch was a grassy hollow shaped like an amphitheater long before it was a racetrack, and it still works like one: from almost anywhere on its banks, you can see a third, sometimes half, of the circuit. Its full Grand Prix loop runs 3.916 km (2.43 miles) clockwise through nine turns in the Kent countryside.

The first race here, in 1926, pitted cyclists against cross-country runners over 6.4 km (4 miles). Motorcycles raced on the grass in the 1930s, and in 1950 the hollow was paved as the first purpose-built racing circuit in England after the war. In 1954 the direction was reversed, and the climb that had ended each lap became a plunge: Paddock Hill Bend.

It is one of the most feared corners in Britain. The approach crests blind, the apex hides beyond the summit, and the road falls 11 meters (36 ft), more than three stories, in under 200 meters, four or five seconds at racing speed, before slamming the car into a compression and climbing straight back up at 11 percent to Druids. Almost no corner here is flat: the whole lap is crests, dips and changing cambers.

The poster numbers all nine turns and letters in the names of the full loop, from Paddock Hill Bend and Druids to Clearways, with the pit lane and the short Indy link in muted lines. Heritage, the vintage clubhouse edition, suits a circuit that began on the grass. On the wall, you finally get what its grassy banks only half promise: the whole circuit at once.