Event: The Classic Car Drive In Weekend BY THOMAS HARRISON-LORD Just off the A4421 in Oxfordshire, near a rather nondescript looking housing estate, is a field – but not just any field, this is Bicester Aerodrome, formerly RAF Bicester. Planes started flying from here in 1911 and during World War II the location was used to train pilots in such imposing beasts as Bristol Blenheim bombers and Spitfires. It was used by the RAF all the way up until 2004 for gliding. After a failed attempt to reinvigorate the area into new housing, in 2013 the decision was taken to try and develop the site into the UK’s first dedicated business park for historic motoring.
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With 2020 being such a ‘unique’ year, many events have been cancelled. As we approach the end of the year, it looks as if attempts to try and get further events off the ground may be met with further challenges. But, just at the end of September, there was a slim window of opportunity to hold a few gatherings. The organisers of the London Classic Car show decided to create a show at the Bicester Heritage site.
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I must admit, I got extremely distracted in the car park. Such events, of course, draw fellow car enthusiasts – on one side of me was a McLaren and on the other, a Mitsubishi GTO. The walk into the event was lined by a row of delightful classic cars, including multiple Jaguar E-Types and even a Daimler SP250 in British racing green. A lineup befitting of an entire event, never mind just a small display near the entrance.
Once inside, I was further distracted by an original Fiat 500, by a gaggle of Alpine sports cars, a BMW Z1 and a new Aston Martin DBX. Not forgetting a Triumph TR7. Or the MGB. I may have spent too long looking at a Rolls-Royce from 1913 too. When I’d finally pulled myself away from this glorious collection, I stumbled across a small section of asphalt that had been turned into a racetrack for the weekend. While being up close to a collection of ex-Colin McRae rally cars was a sight to behold, at this event they also get thrashed around the track at high speed. There is nothing, nothing, like the deep burble of a flatfour boxer engine racing towards you before it’s flung at a 90-degree angle to the left in a cloud of tyre smoke. I was weak at the knees by the time a rally-spec Mk2 Escort arrived at full chat…
