WHIZZ-BANG Issue 1

WHIZZ-BANG

Our guests are often surprised by the emotions that accompany their day with Aerial Collective. The astonishing views over the wing and the weightlessness of flight as you explore the British skies in a way that only a few have known. Over the years we have met those who laugh, and those who cry; those who touch back down with a tale to tell, and those whose smile utters everything they need you to know. Whether a lover of history, or a lover of adventure; an explorer or a dreamer. We look forward to welcoming you to Aerial Collective Duxford, and taking you on a journey… to a place we know.

WELCOME

WELCOME TO OUR FIRST FLYWHEEL EVENT

since 2018 here at Bicester Heritage, part of our wider Bicester Motion location. We do hope that you will take the opportunity to raise a glass to celebrate our ten-year anniversary at what is now the centre of excellence for the classic car industry in the United Kingdom, and our home.

I would like to welcome you along with several thousand other automotive and aviation lovers, their families and their four-legged friends, with whom we hope you will enjoy exploring our festival of wings, wheels and motion. Do take the opportunity to browse the ever-popular autojumble and art workshops from the REVS Community in Hangar 113, conveniently located next to the action on our Experience and Demonstration Track.

Our community of specialists will open its doors across the entire Technical Site, with plenty of fun on offer for younger attendees, too. Of course, Flywheel wouldn’t be complete without a fly-in from the sole surviving Bristol Blenheim, with other period aircraft scheduled to join us during the weekend.

While we are celebrating what has been achieved in the past decade, it’s worth adding that there is much more planned for our location. Work is well

underway on the delivery of our Bicester Motion masterplan, including the establishment of our exciting new development; Bicester Motion Innovation, into which we will encourage future-targeted businesses focused on ‘motion’.

We do hope you relish your visit across our Flywheel weekend, and we look forward to having you back at a variety of events planned throughout the summer months prior to our final Scramble of the year on October 8.

Daniel Geoghegan Chief executive Bicester Motion

WHIZZ-BANG

Bicester Motion

Building 123, Buckingham Rd, Bicester, Oxfordshire OX26 5HA

www.bicestermotion.com

www.bicesterheritage.co.uk hq@bicesterheritage.co.uk

CEO Daniel Geoghegan

Associate director – brand and marketing Philip White

Associate director – events Liz Pilling

Partnership lead Alicia White

PR and communications manager Charlotte Mackenzie

Event producer and operations Charlie Catling

Office manager Danielle Revill

Receptionist and office support assistant Kathryn Rush

Digital content specialist Jack Phillips

Produced by Hothouse Media

Castle Cottage, 25 High Street, Titchmarsh, Northants NN14 3DF info@hothousemedia.co.uk

Editorial director David Lillywhite

Managing director Geoff Love

Art director Peter Allen

Managing editor Sarah Bradley

Designer Debbie Nolan

Advertising sales Sue Farrow, Rob Schulp

Production Jonathan Ellis

Printed by Buxton Press

Palace Road, Buxton, Derbyshire SK17 6AE

Printed on FSC® certified and traceable pulp sources

Why ‘Whizz-Bang’?

Whizz-Bang, or Whiz-Bang, was the RAF Bicester magazine that launched in December 1944 and recalled an American publication from 1919, Capt Billy’s Whiz Bang. The name is slang for a high-velocity German bomb. “Resuscitating a corpse is equal to begetting a lusty infant,” said its pithy introduction in 1944. “So here goes.” Quite.

Whizz-Bang is published by Hothouse Publishing Ltd on behalf of Bicester Motion.

Great care has been taken throughout the magazine to be accurate, but the publisher cannot accept any responsibility for any errors or omissions that might occur. The editors and publishers of this magazine give no warranties, guarantees or assurances, and make no representations regarding any goods or services advertised in this edition.

THRIVING

It may have been established over a century ago, but in just ten years this historic site has been transformed. We look at the best of Bicester

Words David Lillywhite

Photography Matt Howell, Bicester Heritage, Charlie B

OPPOSITE Bentleys get a new lease of life at Kingsbury Racing. ABOVE The site’s expansion continues as new units complement RAF Bicester’s original buildings –including two huge C Type hangars.

IT’S IMPOSSIBLE TO DESCRIBE exactly why Bicester Heritage is so special – but all of us who’ve been there know it is, don’t we?

Maybe it’s the feeling of escape it gives as you enter the leafy avenues. Maybe it’s the time-warp buildings, cleverly restored to work for modern businesses while retaining both their charm and their listed status – even the toilet block (designated RAF Building 100, or ‘loo’) has been restored to high quality in the correct period service colours.

Or maybe it’s the many different cars, bikes and sometimes ’planes

that you’ll see on every visit. Even on a normal working day, you’ll come across sights that you just wouldn’t see anywhere else.

And it’s the people, too, whether part of the Bicester team or tenants or visitors. They’re all so full of enthusiasm and knowledge – and they prove that historic motoring brings together those of all ages, from all walks of life.

How to choose images that sum this up? It’s not actually possible, but here are a few at least from the past decade to remind you of this remarkable place while you’re away.

ABOVE Sky Wave Gin is an awardwinning boutique distillery. RIGHT Command Works ready to welcome new businesses.

OPPOSITE Allard is one of the many historic cars at Classic Performance Engineering.

LEFT Historic avenues and buildings of the former RAF Bicester provide an evocative backdrop. This is the Power House’s early days.

OPPOSITE AND RIGHT The Little Car Company works with elite vehicle marques to create small-scale electric cars. BELOW Aston Martins gather outside the Tanker Sheds during one of the Bicester site’s Scrambles.

THIS SPREAD From Jaguars at Classic Performance Engineering and Pendine to Porsches at Sports Purpose, the crème de la crème of collector cars are here.

ABOVE Command Works area houses Motorsport UK, HERO-ERA and many more. RIGHT On-site brewery the Wriggly Monkey puts on special events every Friday, Saturday and Sunday during the summer.

Words David Lillywhite

YOU MIGHT BE READING THIS having just wandered through the leafy avenues of Bicester Heritage, admiring the classic cars and bikes, and talking to the thriving specialists. It’s hard to imagine that ten years ago this was a derelict site, in danger of crumbling into oblivion.

Did anyone expect Bicester Heritage to grow as quickly in scale and popularity as it did? Sitting down with CEO Dan Geoghegan ten years after the deal to buy the site for £3.4m was signed, it’s clear that he had the vision from the start.

“I came to look at the site in 2012,”

he says. “So I had a nine-month lead-in, where I gave up my job and thought, this is it, this is the opportunity, so let’s get on with it… and 1000 hours later I got the tender into the Ministry of Defence (MoD). The rest is history.

“It was so sensitive within the MoD because it was the last and best untouched pre-war bomber station remaining. In 2008 it was described by Historic England as, of all the Defence Estates, the one most at risk of inappropriate development. I had to write a business plan to show we are good, upstanding members of

“It’s been a good ten years”

Co-founder and CEO Dan Geoghegan explains the original aims of the Bicester Heritage plan – and how they have been adapted over the past decade

the human race, we’ve got good intent and we can back this up both professionally and financially.”

And it worked. There are now over 50 companies incorporating around 100 separate enterprises on site –and Bicester Heritage has also become one of the UK’s most popular motoring-event locations.

“We have got people who still want to come, so that’s a very good thing,” says Dan. “Our original core businesses are still here. I think the greatest pleasure really is seeing those companies do well and achieve their goals. It’s been a good ten years – although it has not always been plain sailing.”

He continues: “The idea was to create a cluster of historic car businesses in order to help solve the challenge of knowledge capture and transfer, through education and apprenticeships, to create a cluster where the sum of the parts is greater than their individual components. And so that was all in the business plan, and that is where we are today.

“I remember being interviewed by the local press, and I was standing in the hangar that is now Historit (with

hundreds of vehicles in it), saying: ‘Wouldn’t it be nice if in ten years’ time there are 100 enterprises here?’ And that has come to fruition.

“But it’s not just the businesses, it’s the enthusiasts who come here as well. They’re the heroes, because without the enthusiasts you don’t have an industry. And isn’t it brilliant to see the apprenticeships flying out of the door here?

“We started off by saying it’s a business park for classic car companies, because that fit was understandable [to the MoD]. But in our heads, we were always thinking about events and education. The first Scramble was just amazing.

“In those first years, we were saying: ‘Well, you know, historic cars are often perceived to be an exclusive, rich man’s game. Actually, let’s make it inclusive, let’s lower the drawbridge. Let’s make it as welcoming as we possibly can.’

“I think we’ve done that. We’re not finished yet, but when I stand here on a Scramble day, it’s of course fantastic to see the dyed-in-thewool enthusiasts, but it’s also brilliant to provide an environment

for the pushchairs and the families. It’s demystified and made accessible something that risked looking like it was drifting, sleepwalking towards becoming very niche.

“I remember saying: ‘If you love it, we’ll love it,’ whether it’s a Fiat Panda or a Ferrari SWB.”

But of course, just as Bicester Heritage events were really taking off, along came Covid. For a relatively young business – and the many enterprises on site – that could have been absolutely disastrous.

“From a landlord’s point of view,

‘It’s full of interesting companies trying to forge a path and do business in a modern way that adds to the environment here’

I thought: ‘Crikey, what’s going to happen?’” says Dan. “Lockdown was really interesting, because on one side you’re obviously concerned for the –at that time – 40 businesses here. But there was also a sense of community and hopefully mutual respect of the people who are here with us. Everybody was very supportive. The income stream was uninterrupted other than events, which was really important to keep the ship sailing. We’re very grateful for that.

“After a while we were able to have outdoor events, but what also came

out of it was an opportunity to really support the Covid effort; the local doctors all got together, and they used our buildings to administer the jabs. By the end of it all, we’d had 30,000 people through.”

This adaptability has been crucial, and it’s also resulted in the creation of an area of new buildings, alongside the restored and converted historic buildings of the Bicester Heritage site, as Dan explains.

“The danger of having a script is you don’t adapt, and we’re all about adapting to the weight of the

ABOVE Dan is suitably passionate about classic motoring – his 1967 Austin Mini Cooper S is a cherished member of the family.

changes in the world. We’ve found ourselves trying to achieve something on a corporate level every year, whether that is establishing an events business or building a team or creating an organisation.

“What we hadn’t anticipated when we walked through the gate was the opportunity to do more than the built environment we inherited. And so, through demand, we were able to look at what was an old coal yard, behind the Station HQ, and think what might we do there, because we thought the cluster could grow.

“We also had a side issue, in that most of the units in the Heritage Quarter are 2000 to 5000 square feet. There’s just a single 10,000 square-footer – and because it was the only one, we had a lot of demand.

So I thought maybe we should erect more buildings of 10,000 square feet; not the typical units with a 25year lifespan, but buildings that would sit well and be here for another 100 years.

“We got a unanimous planning approval in December 2019. In

March 2020, we all went into lockdown. But we delivered 70,000 square feet of brand-new buildings virtually completed by July ’21. Our first two tenants were Motorsport UK and HERO-ERA.”

What’s fascinating now is that not all the businesses in the new buildings, known as The Command Works, are solely in the historic sector; Motorsport UK is one such example, but EV maker Polestar, Zero Petroleum, Zapp Electric Vehicles and HiSpeed, making inverters for EVs, are also now based at Bicester.

“It’s full of interesting companies trying to forge a path and do business

in a modern way that adds to the environment here. The unforeseen component, I think, for all of us in the sector is really legislation and the drive towards new technologies, so we have welcomed the opportunity to have technology businesses here.

“It has taken us into cutting-edge technology, and that’s important for a number of reasons. One is from an historical point of view; it’s an endorsement that technology still sees value in being co-located with historic technology. It provides new footfall. People who perhaps are really interested in the tech have come to try Polestar here. And they get to experience the historic cluster and they get that warm feeling of belonging to something. But also there were spin-off opportunities in terms of leading tech, and that sense of pride in being part of some new horizon.

“It’s an opportunity to reinvigorate the RAF DNA excitement around tech,” concludes Dan – and it’s also helping to keep the historic car and motorcycle worlds vibrant and alive.

www.bicesterheritage.co.uk

‘Bicester is an opportunity to reinvigorate the RAF DNA excitement around tech’

CAR CULTURE WITH REAL HERITAGE

Henry’s Car Barn is way more than just car storage. Established in the early 80s, we have grown into a destination for car culture. Find out more on our website.

WWW.HENRYSCARBARN.CO.UK

Back where it all began

In 2013, a consortium of enthusiasts and investors set out to breathe new life into a derelict RAF airbase. Here’s a reminder of how far they’ve come

Words David Lillywhite Photography Quintin Lake

PREVIOUS SPREAD

The Station House has since been tidied up, but still awaits restoration.

ABOVE Two vast Type C hangars were built in 1926 to house bombers. Constructed to withstand blasts, they boast ten-footthick concrete floors.

OPPOSITE Original RAF fittings were kept and renovated.

IT SEEMED LIKE MADNESS.

This 348-acre site of the former RAF Bicester airbase was overgrown, vandalised and crumbling in places. Nineteen of the 50-plus buildings were protected by Grade II listed status. As evocative as it felt even back then, how could all that possibly be turned into a centre of historic motoring excellence?

This was 2013, and a consortium of enthusiasts and investors, headed by Dan Geoghegan, had just finalised the deal that, for £3.4 million, secured them the former RAF Bicester site and working airfield. What would

have happened if they hadn’t been successful? There had been around a dozen other bidders when the site was initially put up for sale by the Ministry of Defence in 2009, but how many projects would have respected the location’s heritage? Or even been financially viable?

The Bicester Heritage proposal, which took around 1000 hours to prepare, persuaded the MoD and English Heritage that its plans were in keeping with what has been described as “one of the finest examples of an unmodified pre-war RAF station”. Lessons had been

TOP The Power House still retained its six-tonne overhead crane and part-tiled floor, both now restored. OPPOSITE The Works Service Building survived an attack by the ‘Bicester Arsonist’ in the 1980s – although it got off lightly, it seems.

learned over the previous decades; in the 1990s there had been the threat of a housing development, which was strongly opposed by the nearby community, prompting the local council to deem the site a conservation area.

It had lain mostly unused since the 1970s, except for the occupation of some offices and a hangar by the US Air Force as a potential emergency hospital in 1991. It had been a military airfield since 1916, turned into a bomber base in the 1920s, expanded in the 1930s and become a maintenance station in 1945.

When the Bicester Heritage team won the bid, they were handed a huge set of keys to the many buildings, and left to explore – and these images show what they found.

Vandals and graffiti artists had left their mark, but the buildings –over-engineered like only military structures of the time could be – had mostly survived, as had much of the old RAF signage and ephemera.

It wasn’t long before restoration commenced, using period-correct materials and colours, right down to the iron rainware and the Crittall windows that are still made today.

It’s not finished yet. Perhaps in ten years’ time there will be a ‘20 Years Ago’ article to be written...

ABOVE Local graffiti artists had found their way into the Inflammable Store, but the original wall tiles and the crane remained intact. There’s a bombproof wall with thick armoured doors right around this building.

ABOVE RIGHT The RAF Fire Station had long since been boarded up, but it became one of the first buildings to be restored. RIGHT Inside the Station House, with its many offices, right at the entrance to the site. From there, three tree-lined avenues head off in classic RAF ‘trident’ format.

Thestoryofaunique site, from its inception in 1916 toits presentandfutureattheforefrontofthe heritag

from its inception in 1916 to presentandfutureattheforefrontofthe heritag

Words and photographyBicesterHeritage

Words photographyBicesterHeritage

BICESTER AIRFIELD, WHICH –having been built in 1916 – has already celebrated its centenary, is described by English Heritage as the best-preserved World War Two aerodrome, with 19 Grade II-listed building and 16 Ancient Monuments.

In January 1917, the Royal Flying Corps moved into the then 180acre site with the arrival of the 118 night bomber squadron. Canvascovered Bessonneau hangars were temporarily utilised until more substantial aircraft sheds were built.

Military flying at Bicester commenced in 1918, when the new aerodrome was established as a three-squadron Training Depot Station. The station was closed in March 1920.

In 1923, the newly formed RAF Aerodrome board decided that Bicester was to be reopened. At this time only two of the World War One huts still existed – one on the aerodrome and one on the domestic site. All others had been removed, together with their foundations and drains. Many of the buildings standing today were built during this period of expansion, refurbishment and development of the existing site.

The sale of additional land was completed in April 1925, including

the land needed to build the airfield’s own branch of the London and North Western Railway. Military flying resumed in January 1928.

Another period of development took place from 1935-39, when – after Germany began to rearm – the British Government introduced a number of schemes designed to increase air strength. Bicester continued to serve as an Operational Training Unit station until October 1944. Aircrews were trained here for the D-Day landings and Battle of Arnhem.

From 1940 an increasing emphasis was being put on night operations, but Bicester itself was unsuitable for flying after dark due to its vulnerable, compact layout of the ground and airfield perimeter, as well as the large amount of trees on the approaches. Additionally the airfield at Bicester, lacking concrete runways, was not adequate for regular use by the higher-performance, heavier aircraft that were now increasingly favoured. Therefore it was not used for any front-line bomber command, but instead acted as a training base.

This alternative role caused Bicester to be better preserved than many of its contemporaries. During World War Two, it was additionally

‘Aircrews were trained at RAF Bicester for the D-Day landings and Battle of Arnhem’

CaptainHRPReynoldslandsaBristolBoxkite onwhatwould becomeRAF Bicester Workbeginsonan aerodromejustoutside Bicester,and incorporatespartsoflandoffSkimmingdishLaneNo.116Squadron,RoyalFlyingCorps, established;temporary canvas-roof hangarsareinstalledRAFStationBicesterofficiallyformalised Unitsare disbandedand buildingsdemolishedDecisiontakentoredevelopBicester

1918 No. 116 Squadron, Royal Flying Corps

TechnicalSite constructedNo.100SquadronmovesintoRAFBicester equippedwithHawkerHorsleybiplanes; twohangarsopen,thefirstoftheir typeonaBritishbaseMilitaryflyingresumesTechnicalSiteexpands,includingcreationof CTypehangarsto accommodateupcoming BristolBlenheimaircraftBlenheimprototype,‘BritainFirst’,flies intoaidthetrainingofpersonnel FirstBlenheims delivered 1926-27

1937 Boulton Paul Overstrands

used as a glider base. During some raids, gliders full of troops and equipment were successfully towed from Bicester to land quietly in German fields. Meanwhile, in the autumn of 1943, Bicester became a Forward Equipment Unit, and the airfield was used to store vital equipment necessary for the invasion of northwest Europe.

Post-war, Bicester became a nonflying unit, used for maintenance and later as a Motor Transport depot. In 1953, No. 71 Maintenance Unit formed here as the principal aeroplane-salvage unit.

Crashed aircraft were brought to Bicester and reconstructed in one of the hangars for crash-investigation purposes. In 1976 the RAF ceased to use the airfield as a military base, but it still maintained staff here to run the glider-training operation as adventurous instruction for servicemen. This was intended to use unfamiliar situations to develop teamwork and self-sufficiency.

The USAF later briefly used the Technical and Domestic Area for storage. During Operation Desert Shield of the early 1990s, it deployed medical personnel and hospital equipment to the site in anticipation of the large numbers of casualties that were expected, although never materialised, during the 1991 first Persian Gulf War.

The RAF eventually moved out of Bicester in 2004. In April 2013 Bicester Heritage successfully bid for the 348-acre airfield, with the hope of bringing together the UK’s cottage industry of specialists in order to promote both the preservation and, specifically, the use of vintage ’planes and motor cars, in Britain’s first heritage motor and aviation business park. Time has proven that it has more than succeeded.

1939 Handley Page Halifax bomber prototype

1937 Bristol Blenheim

12Blenheims deliveredfrom BicestertotheFinnishAirForce–their swastikalogoswhitewashedoverforthe top-secretoperationLocalDefence Volunteers,latertheHome Guard,takesoverdefenceoftheairfieldHMKingGeorgeVIvisitsaspart ofamorale-boosttourJunkersJu88shotdownbyairfielddefenceStationchangesscopetoservicethe MiddleEastAirForceAirCommodorePrinceGeorge, DukeofKent,visits

1939 Bristol Blenheims

ABlenheimdepartsRAFBicesterforthefinaltimeinactiveserviceRAFBicesterbecomesReceiving,Storage andIssuingDepot,andflyingendsNo.71MaintenanceUnitisgiventhetaskofsalvageandrepairofallaircraftbetweenOxfordshireandKent;300,000milesclocked upinthefirstyearaloneGlidingclubformed,knownasTheWindrushersNorfolktoLeicestershireadded toNo.71MU’sregion

OxfordUniversityAirSquadron movesinfromKidlington

RAFBicesterdisbands,andNo.71MUtakesoverrunningofthesite

HMQueenElizabethIItoursBicester

No.71MUandOxfordUniversityAirSquadronmovetoRAFAbingdon;siteclosesoncemorebutforglidingThen-HRHPrinceCharlesfliesaglider forthefirsttime,fromBicester

RAFBicesterreturnsasastorageunitfor theUnitedStatesAirForcesinEurope

USAFEdeparts,havingpreparedthesiteasanemergencymilitaryhospital forcasualtiesoftheGulfWar FormerRAF Bicesteraddedto Historic England’sHeritageAtRiskRegister,anddesignatedasthemostatrisk ofallUK Defence Estates.

USAFEdeparts,havingpreparedthesiteasanemergencymilitaryhospital forcasualtiesoftheGulfWar FormerRAF Bicesteraddedto Historic England’sHeritageAtRiskRegister,anddesignatedasthemostatrisk ofallUK Defence Estates.

2013

DanielGeogheganwinsbid,BicesterHeritagepurchasesformerRAFBicester; TheImitationGame beginsfilming

DanielGeogheganwinsbid,BicesterHeritagepurchasesformerRAFBicester; TheImitationGame beginsfilming

2014

Firstspecialistsmovein;firstSundayScrambleheld

Firstspecialistsmovein;firstSundayScrambleheld

1978 HRH Prince Charles

2013 The Imitation Game filming

2015

ConservationareaofformerRAF Bicester removedfromHistoricEngland’sHeritage AtRiskRegister,andBicesterHeritage heldasNationalExemplarof Constructive ConservationInauguralFlywheelwelcomesBristolBlenheimbacktoBicester; DarkestHour beginsfilming CommandWorksopens; vaccination centreopensduringthepandemic, givingout70,000jabs

2015

2020

2022

NEOMMcLarenElectricRacingbecomes50thresidentspecialist BicesterMotion ‘Masterplan’ofadditional quartersduefor completion

2024-30

2014 Bicester Heritage

2015 Bristol Blenheim returns for first Flywheel

2

Driven at Goodwood and in the Mille Miglia in period, this 1952 Frazer Nash is still as at home on the circuit as it is on the road – as it proves at Bicester

Words James Mitchell, Pendine Historic Cars Photography Jonny Shears

BACK ON TRACK

I HAVE ALWAYS MAINTAINED that you can work out whether a particular car is a good or bad one in just two laps of the track at Bicester. The time-worn surface will soon elicit any knocks or rattles from the suspension, while if a vehicle is a bit ‘loose’ you’ll find out in the corners – because unless it’s well set up, the changes and undulations in surfaces will move the car around a lot.

What an honour, then, to be able to try out one of the greatest British sports machines of the 1950s on this hallowed Oxfordshire ground. Considered the most attractive of the post-war Frazer Nash models, the Fast Tourer – or the Mille Miglia, as it became known after the marque’s success in the 1950 Italian 1000-mile race – tended to be equipped for road touring, although most Frazer Nash owners viewed them at the time as a dual-purpose road and track car. Only 11 were built between 1949 and 1953.

Chassis no. 421/11/166 was one of two so-called ‘wide-bodied’ Mille

Miglias, with the spare wheel moved from the front wing to inside the boot. This gave much more space in the cockpit, and made the car a far more comfortable tourer.

Completed in July 1952 and registered YMC 81, the Frazer Nash was painted in Bristol Maroon, with brown leather upholstery and silver bolt-on wheels. It was also finished with the short-style air scoop on the bonnet. The first owner was a Mr Orr of Manchester, who bought it directly from maker AFN in July 1952 and sold it back to the company in May 1953.

AFN then sold it the following month to Jack Broadhead of Macclesfield. Broadhead entered a number of events, often with the car piloted by Peter Reece. These included the Goodwood Nine Hours in August that year, followed by the London Rally in September, the RAC Rally in March 1954, the British Empire Trophy in April, and finally the over-1500cc race at Silverstone in July. Centre-lock wire wheels were

‘Most Frazer Nash owners viewed the Mille Miglia as a dualpurpose road and track car’

fitted before the Silverstone event, and the air scoop was lengthened.

The Frazer Nash Car Club has detailed records of 421/11/166’s ownership. AW Wells jointly kept it with John Swift from 1958-1961, G Lowe of Wolverhampton had it in 1965, and Tony Mitchell advertised it in 1966. CW Thompson of York was the owner by 1980, John Lamb in 1984, before Frank Sytner bought the Mille Miglia in 1985. He sold it (now painted green) to Cedric Brierley in December 1987, before it left the UK – probably for the first time – to live in Germany with Hartmut Gagel in 1993.

In turn, Gagel sold it to fellow countryman Ernst Zahnweh in 1995,

who passed it to another German enthusiast in April 2003 via the Techno-Classica Essen auction. The Mille Miglia remained in Germany being actively campaigned until the summer of last year, and it is now repatriated in the UK, and back on its original registration number.

The original engine is recorded as having been fitted to a Bristol by the early 1960s, with the Mille Miglia currently powered by a period Bristol 100D six-cylinder motor, built by TT Workshops. Interestingly, the current engine number of 100D 716 correlates to an AC Ace Bristol, chassis no. BE 369, that reportedly competed in the 1958 RAC Rally. So both car and engine did the

ABOVE Peter Reece piloted the car in a number of events, including the Goodwood Nine Hours in August 1953. OPPOSITE

‘Half’ bucket seats are designed to hold the driver firm, while the controls are competition derived.

OPPOSITE Having given up its original engine by the early 1960s, the Mille Miglia now runs a period Bristol 100D six-cylinder built by TT Workshops. Nods to the Frazer Nash’s competition past and present are apparent throughout.

event, albeit four years apart.

Every Frazer Nash model has its own unique characteristics, but the one thing that binds them together is that they’re all drivers’ cars. The difference between the Mille Miglia and – say – a Le Mans Rep is that the Mille Miglia is far more civilised on the road. The Le Mans Rep is a Grand Prix car for the road, a race machine you can drive to events in. Whereas the Mille Miglia is a superb road car, in which you can compete if you wish. A subtle, but important, difference.

Stepping inside, you slip deep into the cockpit. The seats are ‘half’ buckets, not out-and-out racing seats, but they are still designed to hold the driver firm. The pedal layout is clearly competition derived, because they’re perfectly positioned for heeltoeing. Press the starter button, and the six-cylinder Bristol engine rasps into life; a slight adjustment on the

short-throw gearlever and you’re in first, and then off.

The Mille Miglia is a very easy 1950s sports car to drive – it’s direct, it’s light on the steering and it talks to you all the time. Up through the gears, and it doesn’t feel especially exciting if you are simply going through the motions. Unlike a Jaguar XK engine, you really have to rev a Bristol motor to get the best out of it. But when you do – it sings.

This is such a fabulous-handling car – I would say it’s the perfect sweet spot between an XK120 and a later, lighter Lotus Elite in terms of road handling. It inspires confidence, and it’s an easy machine to whistle along in at a fair lick of speed.

My favourite route around the track at Bicester is anticlockwise, because there’s more speed through the corners. So starting at the paddock, it’s straight into the long bottom curve, and then left onto the

‘The Mille Miglia is easy to drive – it’s direct, it’s light on the steering and it talks to you all the time’

main straight. The Frazer Nash will easily rev through to the top of second and into third.

The left at the end is very tight, coming back on itself, so heel-and-toe down to second again, and then back on the power. Aim straight for the hangar, and although there’s a kink in the track, this little sports car just drifts beautifully straight past it. Then the tight left, right flick, a little blast on the short straight down towards the bottom curve, keeping to the right to get as much track as possible for going into the horseshoe at the end.

Still in second, the Frazer Nash is

very forgiving – which means you can be a hooligan... Set the nose in early, bring the rear round on the throttle in one big slide – the car makes this terrible racer look heroic.

The Frazer Nash marque is often forgotten by all but those who have a deep understanding of British automotive history. It was hugely successful in period considering the low production numbers, and those who own them are fanatical about the name – and rightly so. Running even the mighty Jaguar C-type close, the Mille Miglia is up there with the great British sports cars of the 1950s.

‘The Frazer Nash Mille Miglia is up there with the great British sports cars of the 1950s’

ABOVE BARC plaque celebrates the car’s Goodwood race debut.

KEEPING IT CLASSIC

Imagine an E-Type that never goes out of tune. Imagine a Jensen Interceptor that starts every time. Imagine jumping into your classic car and knowing you’re going to get home again. Imagine exciting, troublefree motoring that is still completely classic.

Electrogenic develops and delivers technology to help you create the EV of your dreams. There are two routes to making your dream EV a reality.

ELECTROGENIC BESPOKE

Electrogenic sympathetically converts your chosen classic into the bespoke EV of your dreams. We do this by installing our latest technology and by working with specialists in bodywork and interiors to deliver you the electric classic that you want. How do we do it?

We start with your vision of how you want to drive your car.

We guide you through your options – motors, range, gears or no gears, charging and what you see on the dashboard.

Then we design it, build it and test it, consulting you along the way.

We then invite you to drive it for the first time at Bicester Heritage, where you decide the final adjustments to tailor it to your driving style.

What is the result? A car that is completely classic, exciting to drive, fit for the modern world and a pleasure to own.

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LITTLE SLICE OF FERRARI HEAVEN

The Little Car Company’s 75 percentscale electrically powered Ferrari Testa Rossa J has been sharpened up – we (just about) get behind the wheel

Words Nathan Chadwick

Photography The Little Car Company

GOOD THINGS COME IN SMALL packages, they say – and The Little Car Company’s Ferrari Testa Rossa J is both small and very, very good. However, it’s recently been updated to go-faster Pacco Gara specification – so I just had to have a go at the firm’s Bicester Heritage HQ.

For the uninitiated, the Testa Rossa J is a 75 percent-scale reproduction of a real 250 Testa Rossa, developed from the original drawings kept at Ferrari Classiche; just 299 are being made. Around five leave the building every week, with each taking seven days to finish. It is all designed and assembled in-house, although the

aluminium body – which takes 400 hours’ work – is fabricated elsewhere. Instead of a miniature Colombo V12, propulsion comes from a 48V motor and three 12kWh batteries custom-made in the Netherlands using Samsung or Panasonic cells. They can be charged fully in four to six hours, be swapped out in a few minutes and give 90km of range.

I won’t be going that far on my test drive, but I’m still champing at the bit. I first have a go in the normal Testa Rossa J. I’m 6ft 6in, yet I manage to make myself comfortable, although my knees do start an argument with the bulkhead that the

THIS SPREAD

The Pacco Gara boasts 14kW, a quicker-ratio steering rack, drilled brake discs, adjustable dampers and four drive modes.

mini Ferrari will probably count as a victory. The standard car may have ‘only’ 12kW, but trust me, wearing an open-face helmet and sitting far above the Perspex windscreen, it feels so much quicker.

The Pacco Gara, however, is even faster. Not only is there a boost to 14kW, equivalent to 19bhp, there’s also quicker-ratio steering, adjustable dampers, drilled discs, brake bias and more. There are four drive modes: Novice (1kW), Comfort (4kW for up to 40km/h), Sport (10kW power and 80km/h top speed) and Race, which delivers the full 14kW and the fastest acceleration. Worried parents can set the pace remotely, and there’s a new roll hoop for the Pacco Gara.

The newcomer rides on periodcorrect Pirelli tyres, and while they’re skinny, not once do I lose grip. The boost in acceleration and top speed

is noticeable, but not quite as much as the revised steering rack – the car feels as darty and sharp as a full-size Ferrari. I am soon tackling corners with more commitment than I would have in much bigger cars – and just as quickly I’m beaming from ear to ear. The punch of instant torque makes up for the lack of V12 music, while the superb steering feel allows me to place the car with precision. It really is big fun in a small package. I love it, yet to describe the Pacco Gara merely as ‘fun’ would be to undersell the engineering nous and craftsmanship that have gone into each one – it genuinely feels like a miniature car. There are already plans for a race series, but the most important thing is that it provides a tangible gateway step for the next generation of enthusiasts.

www.thelittlecar.co

‘It provides a tangible gateway step for the next generation of enthusiasts’

Blenheim

Words

Jack Phillips

Photography

George Romain

Meeting the man who sits at the helm of the world’s only flying Bristol

THE BRISTOL BLENHEIM shaped this once 180-acre corner of Oxfordshire. Hyperbolic, perhaps; unequivocal, certainly.

Bicester, home in 1927 to the first A Type hangars on any RAF base in the world, in 1937 opened two of the air force’s 155 C Type Hangars, specifically designed to house Blenheims. Yet that aircraft also quickly and inadvertently restricted RAF Bicester’s role in World War Two to one of supporting rather than one of going on the offensive,

because the world moved at such a pace that the fast and nimble light bomber became a slow and easy target within only a few years.

Early in 1937 the prototype Blenheim ‘Britain First’ flew in to Bicester, dramatically fast and spectacularly low, to gear new pilots up for the ground-breaking ’plane. It had been at least three years in the works; when the Daily Mail’s nationalistic owner Lord Rothermere let out a rallying cry in 1934 for the fastest ’plane in the

PREVIOUS SPREAD

Bristol Blenheim is the glory of the skies – and you can see it in action at Flywheel. THIS SPREAD Skilled engineers and craftspeople at Duxford’s Aircraft Restoration Company keep the warbird in the air.

‘As with an old car, it requires mechanical sympathy. Rush it or force it, and it won’t respond’

world to be British, Bristol’s Type 142 was that vision of the future. Plans for such a Bristol were already underway even before the call to arms, with a semi-monocoque shell shrouded in sheet metal rather than a wooden frame beneath canvas – but to appease Lord Rothermere a powerful Bristol Mercury engine was used on each wing to push the top speed to 300mph.

Nothing in the world could touch it, and the Royal Air Force needed it. An order of 150-200 bore fruit in 1936, just as the renewed expansion of the RAF set in motion the C Type hangars at RAF Bicester.

The Blenheims eventually took up station in May 1937, but Bristol had been busy developing as well as building, and it very soon welcomed the MkIV. Such a rate of progress came at a cost – the currency was often the lives of those pilots with fresh memories of comparatively slow biplanes having to wrestle hugely powerful aircraft.

When the original Blenheims were converted to ‘long-nose’ MkIVs, the ‘short-noses’ were discarded to storage, and the role of the aircraft switched routinely from bomber to fighter to reconnaissance. It should therefore be deemed the first multipurpose ’plane of the RAF.

Its theatres of war switched to the far reaches of the air force, too, because the constant stream of newer and faster aircraft left the Blenheim behind. It slipped away into history, rarely seen even in books, overlooked. With no time for sentimentality, it all but disappeared when it stopped flying. Few MkIVs survived the war; no MkIs did.

Until, that is, the nose of one was rediscovered, and the impressive team of artisans at the Aircraft Restoration Company at Duxford

PREVIOUS SPREAD

The view out of the Blenheim’s cockpit is “staggering”, according to its pilot John Romain. THIS SPREAD The twin-engined set-up took a lot of getting used to for wartime pilots.

set about putting that straight. As the Blenheim had altered Bicester for good, so its return would do the same for Duxford – although, just like the Blenheim’s working life, it was a journey touched by heartbreak.

The mainstay since those early days of the 1970s has been John Romain, a man who exudes calm and who knows the Blenheim better than anyone alive today.

“[Aerobatic display pilot] Ormond Haydon-Baillie brought them to Duxford in the early ’70s from Canada. They went into Building 66, which was where we built all of our Blenheims. We were kids, 12 or 13; we never got into restoring because he –and we – were too busy looking after his Sea Fury and a couple of jets.

“He bought a Mustang, which he sadly crashed in Germany and was killed, so the whole collection was

gradually sold off. Graham Warner from London’s Chequered Flag Garage bought the Blenheims because he wanted to have one restored to fly in memory of his brother, who lost his life in a Halifax.” Ironically, the prototype of that large bomber took its first tentative flight from Bicester in 1939, adding another nail in the coffin of the site’s most famous resident aircraft.

Before work could begin on the Blenheims, Building 66 was turned into ‘Blenheim Palace’, as it is known by those at ARCo; a space dedicated to the restoration. But just six weeks after a Blenheim returned to the skies for the first time in decades in 1987, an accident undid tens of thousands of hours of work.

The aircraft preservation and restoration sector spawned by that first creation was an unintended

consequence, much against the expectations of the biggest powers; Rolls-Royce, the Civil Aviation Authority and more told the team that reviving the Blenheim couldn’t be done in the first place.

When Warner resolved to try again, Romain was working the commercial airlines but ready to return to Duxford: “I decided that instead of working for somebody else, I wanted to engineer for myself. Quite a lot of collectors here wanted my engineering skills, and Graham got his insurance money and said: ‘Actually, I want to build another one. That was sort of stolen from us.’ And so that’s what we did. Doing a lot of other work enabled us to pretty much pay for doing the Blenheim. We finished it in ’93.”

It lasted a decade before an accident outside the Aircraft Restoration Company’s hangar – the building a sign of the fledgling business’s success. “Graham then decided he’d had enough,” adds Romain.

“I took the wreck, with the intention that we’d rebuild it again. But we’d do it ourselves and make it a MkI. We’d been given a MkI nose, which had been converted into an electric car at the end of the war by

an ex-Bristol engineer, due to the shortage of fuel. He got an Austin Seven chassis, electric motors and batteries, and for the body he spoke to Bristol. In the backyard were a lot of MkI noses, where aircraft had come in for repair as MkIs and had their noses changed. He drove it around Bristol for about 12 years.”

With welcome foresight and diligence, he stored the ancillaries and miscellaneous parts that would allow it to easily be reconnected to an aeroplane – a stroke of luck for the Aircraft Restoration Company.

“The actual nose still had the build plates in it,” Romain recalls, “so we could trace the ’plane it came from, which is the one it now wears the markings of. That aeroplane actually did fly during the Battle of Britain. We finished it in 2016, and here it is now.”

Having been bitten before by others, L6739 is flown today only by Romain and Lee Proudfoot, but it originally entered service directly into the Phoney War on September 2, 1939. Given to No. 23 Squadron at RAF Wittering, it acted as a night fighter – and its black undercarriage honours those days in the dark.

Some 70 miles away from that

Peterborough base, 90 Sqn at RAF Bicester was already well on its way converting MkIs to MkIVs as a precursor to the Operational Conversion Units. Blenheims of either type had been a familiar sight, flying majestically high and perilously low in the skies above Bicester for two years.

“It is probably the most prominent place in the history of the aeroplane,” says Romain. “It was the Blenheim base where all the pilots went through before being posted to Norfolk and Suffolk, which were covered in Blenheim squadrons. A lot of the famous, or infamous, raids flew out of Norfolk, such as the Aalborg Raid. It was devastating. They lost the whole squadron except one, which never flew. They were taxiing out, and for some reason the pilot put his hand out of the cockpit to clean the ’screen and his fingertips hit the propeller, which shattered his hand. He stayed on the ground; not one of the others came back.”

Even today, the Blenheim still carries that exposed sensation, that precariousness. The thinness of the gauge of metal enveloping its frame, the double-edged sword of vision in the cockpit – a spectacular view of the world beneath you, but also of the foe sharing your sky. Climbing into the cockpit is easier than scrambling out, for better or worse, and the machine-gun turret at the back is an unenviable place to be. Again,

getting in is simple. Getting out, even through the escape hatch, less so even without a parachute.

Glance left from the pilot seat and the proximity of the propeller is startling. So too is the lack of protection for the two fuel tanks, exposed to any shrapnel or bullet.

“Armoured plates started to be bolted in,” explains Romain, “but that made the ’planes heavier and heavier. We are so light operating ours compared to a war-time machine. To get airborne with a full crew, full bombs and armoured plates? Christ!”

The attrition rate from the Bicester training runs alone is astonishing. But that goes some way to underlining just what a technological tour de force the Blenheim was when it first took over from biplanes.

“It was the first high-powered twin-engined aircraft of the RAF, and was quicker and more agile than a lot of the fighters,” Romain says. “These guys had been used to flying Mercurys, perhaps, but they weren’t used to the twin-engine aspect and the asymmetrics of losing an engine.

“Many accidents were caused by single-engine failure and not coping with the fact that the other engine was going to yaw that aeroplane dramatically. Unless you stopped that, you would just spiral into the ground. That was particularly prevalent on take-off, when you’ve got the undercarriage down, you’re heavy – a lot of the aircraft going out of Bicester were heavy because it was the operational training unit. Then, the only thing to do was close the other engine and crash, level wings.”

Six were killed in the fortnight before Christmas 1941 alone due to crashing on take-off. Some managed to wrestle a falling ’plane back to earth, like HT Bichard on June 17, 1942. According to records, the port

‘Even today, the Blenheim still carries that exposed sensation, that precariousness’

engine burst into flames on take-off from satellite airfield Hinton-in-theHedges, but he successfully coaxed what was now a fireball safely onto the airfield, the cockpit ablaze. Between September 3, 1939 and June 1942, 105 airmen lost their lives on training runs.

“In many cases, the pilot thought: ‘I’ve got another engine, I’ll keep flying,’” says Romain. “There’s an old saying that the Blenheim Boys started to use: ‘The only good thing about the second engine once you have lost the first is that it will take you to the crash site.’

“A lot flew into high ground, lost orientation or crashed at night, sometimes while training to land with one engine throttled out at night. Every now and then they’d get it wrong. The other thing is that ergonomically it’s a disaster. The propeller-pitch control and fuel cutoff are buried beside the pilot, and they are identical.”

As with an old car, the Blenheim requires mechanical sympathy. Rush it or force it, and it won’t respond – as many found when being told to abort a landing, lift and go round again.

“That’s where the Blenheim is an issue,” Romain explains, still with that air of calm unique to high-pressure fliers and drivers. “If you don’t ginger those throttles, the engines will lean cut. If you hit the throttles too hard, the accelerator pump will pump in a load of fuel – but it may not be enough and so you get a big backfire. It will keep backfiring until you’ve pulled the throttle back and advanced it slowly again; then it will pick up.

“But if you’re on a go round, and it barks at you to pull the throttles closed, that takes a lot of mental processing. It’s not what you want to do – your brain is saying ‘I need loads of power now, which means

throttles are open’. But the engines are not going to respond to that.”

The stack of dials also need almost constant monitoring, although they’d have been largely familiar to most WW2 pilots. One particularly stands out, however: the 24-hour clock.

“A friend of my father’s gave it to us for the ’plane. The clocks were really sought after, because they were Swiss made and beautiful. They were always being nicked, so they used to be kept in the station clock store until the aeroplane flew. One of the Blenheims was lost on a raid and presumably went into the sea, but for some reason the clock didn’t go that day. It was in the stores with no aeroplane against it, so this chap thought ‘well, they won’t miss this one’ and took it. It’s now in this aeroplane.”

Such things only add to the aura of this unique machine. And, despite existing in the shadow of, say, the Spitfire and Lancaster, it still has a magnetism that draws onlookers with every fire-up – even if, when the ’plane has been standing a while, it can take

up to eight hours to warm through.

“When you’re in it, you’re conscious that it is the only one,” Romain admits. “We take a lot of care with it. But it’s interesting – you see the Spitfires, Hurricanes and Mustangs... but as soon as the Blenheim comes out? We were taxiing out the other day for the first time since last year, and people were literally running. We were wondering what was happening, but they just had to see it.

“If you’re on a simple route, where you’re not getting hassled from air traffic control, you can actually sit back and just monitor the engines. You sit in the aeroplane and think ‘wow, this is really cool’, you know? And the view out of it is staggering.”

The Blenheim’s return to Bicester is undoubtedly a stirring one, but also for Romain because it gives him a rare insight into period airstrips: “The lovely thing about Bicester is that the hangars in all the photos are still there. It’s fantastic. There’s no designated runway, so you really get the feel for what it would have been like as an operational base: ‘What way’s the wind blowing? Right, that way then!’ That’s not common; very few airfields survive that.

“It’s a lovely aeroplane to fly, a privilege. When you walk out to it, and you fly it, you know that no one else in the world has done that. There’s not many things you can do in life and say that. It is very special.”

‘When you walk out to it, and you fly it, you know that no one else in the world has done that’

“THIS IS WHERE I WANT TO BE”

‘Early adopters’ explain why they based their businesses at Bicester Heritage

WE MAY BE SLIGHTLY BIASED, but we do feel that our Bicester Heritage location is a unique site to be based on. That’s not only due to its unique structure and ecosystem that remains in place from the RAF’s former occupation, but also because it is now home to a community of businesses that celebrate Bicester Heritage and have been a key part of its creation to date.

Yet the green and salubrious settings that you find yourself in today are a far cry from how the

site was received ten years ago, with many of our now longer-term residents having chosen to set up their workshops in buildings that offered ‘potential’ – even if the windows were boarded up or rainwater was pouring in through a roof that was full of holes.

So, as we celebrate ten years of our Bicester Heritage site, it’s time to hear from the great and the good that continue to form part of our specialist community – we wouldn’t be the same without them.

OPPOSITE Ewen Getley of early Bentley specialist Kingsbury Racing loves working from the Bicester Heritage site.

Words Charlotte Mackenzie

Photography Matt Howell, Bicester Heritage

Ewen Getley business founder, Kingsbury Racing

I LIVE LOCALLY, AND I WAS DOING CARS one at a time in a shed, with just enough money to put food on the table and pay the school fees. Then the chap wanted the shed back, and I thought, where am I going to go? I Googled places to rent, and Bicester Heritage came up. I called the number and met Dan Geoghegan by the gate.

I started when they just had a bunch of keys. I looked in this building when it was all boarded up with rain coming through the roof, and said “this is where I want to be”. I canvassed my family, and everyone said “don’t do it” – so I decided to do it.

Everyone knows about Bicester. If you attach yourself to a brand, it gives you credibility because you’re part of something. When someone important comes along and they’ve heard of the brand, you must be okay. Bentley is the only car I’ve ever known. Mine is there in the corner – as soon as I could touch the pedals aged 13, I was driving it around the field. It’s just luck that it happened to be a Bentley.

Everything we do is a series of small problems to solve – we just work our way through them. It’s baby steps all the time, and having a plan. With a Bentley engine, for example, we make a list of parts; there’s 2500 parts, but you’ve got to have a list. Then you work out how you’re going to make those parts, where you’re going to get them from or which bits you’ll get someone else to make… It’s lots of little challenges that you break into its constituent parts.

www.kingsburyracing.com

I CAME HERE TO BE PART OF BICESTER Heritage, and the Historit storage business followed. I had a tenuous connection to Dan, and engineered a visit soon after the site was acquired. He was bouncing with enthusiasm. I handed my notice in, moved house, jumped in with both feet.

We were a fresh start in 2013, we had a vision and 48,000sq ft… Myself and Charlie (Morgan) operating from a wrinkly tin hut alongside the finance and marketing departments… which was basically two people. When we walked into the building, we had no concept that we could ever fill it – it was vast. By the fourth winter we were full – nearly 300 cars of all eras. We’ve stayed comfortably full ever since. The ongoing success is through feeding off the vision of the site; always looking forward, developing, pushing standards, while having a clear vision and sticking to it. You can see the value and the power of that.

The town of Bicester is really open and supportive to the site being regenerated – at both the council level and with local residents. I’ve never met anyone who isn’t pleasantly surprised to hear where I work.

Our building has been in varied use since 1936. It was where they bolted together the prototype Halifax, the RAF’s first four-engine bomber. There’s also the fact that a lot of the history is recorded, and I get to meet people who worked here years ago because of the site receiving so much interest. I get to talk to them about what we do, and share their own experiences. Just being a part of the building and securing it for the future – if you could go back in time and show them what the building was being used for in 30, 40 years’ time, you wonder what they would make of it. www.historit.co.uk

Andrew ‘Ferg’ Ferguson co-founder, Historit

‘Dan was bouncing with enthusiasm; I handed my notice in, moved house, jumped in...’

Harry Fraser owner, Harry Fraser Vehicle Upholstery

I JOINED BICESTER HERITAGE TEN YEARS ago; I was number three on the site. I had already started playing around with upholstery, and I had a conversation with Dan, whom I knew through the Alvis Register. I thought it sounded like a really good place to start, because it was an amazing idea – and it has turned out to be a great, thriving place to work.

We do see a lot of our original customers, mainly because a lot of them are now friends or they have come along to one of the events on site. A number of my family members work on site, too: Emily works at Motor Spirit, and Camilla has worked with me and more recently begun working with domestic upholstery. Abigail, my wife, has recently started to take on a larger role within the firm, and the small blonde girl is our daughter Annabelle, who takes pride wearing our branding on Scramble days.

If I could offer some final words of wisdom and advice about business or life that I live by, it would be to enjoy yourself – otherwise, what’s the point?

www.harryfraservehicleupholstery.com

Guy Lachlan managing director, Motor Spirit

I WAS ONE OF THE FIRST HALF-A-DOZEN customers of Historit, because I always had more cars than I had garage space. The site was still in disarray. The running joke with Dan was “we’ve got a Lubricant Store – when are you going to move in?” We were on a nondescript industrial estate in Aylesbury, so I thought “if we don’t do it, somebody else will, and I will regret it”.

What attracted us to the site? We get the idea, I think – we understand the benefit of being with like-minded firms. There’s also the fact that retail is changing, not just to be online but also to be experiential rather than just transactional. We thought if we are here, we can make the most of everything else that happens on site, especially the events. Key to the success of the business is connections, and that’s always been my experience. Being here is a massive benefit for opening doors.

That it was the Lubricant Store is relevant, and also the fact that we’re at the centre of the site. We’re going to use the stage as well; my business partner is a famous musician, so we have the ability to do some music for Flywheel. I’m learning how to play the steel drums, and we hope to have some Motor Spirit-branded drums for a future event. You can’t hear that music without smiling. Don’t overlook the liquids in your cars. People say, do I really need to change the engine oil every year? Most people don’t, but the key thing is that you don’t forget altogether. Get a routine, and think of it from the liquids’ point of view.

www.motorspirit.co.uk

‘It sounded like a really good place to start – and it has turned out to be a great, thriving place to work’

John Pitchforth managing director, Heritage Skills Academy

HSA MOVED INTO BICESTER HERITAGE IN 2018 after being invited to visit by Francis Galashan, via the FBHCV. They had heard about what we were doing with classic vehicle apprenticeships with heritage RollsRoyce and Bentley specialist P & A Wood. Gradually, the rest of the industry began to hear what we were doing, and asked if we would work with them. We needed a place to go, and Francis suggested Building 90.

Here apprentices are taught in a unique environment, surrounded by specialists. They are embedded in the heart of the industry – one minute you may see a Morris Minor going by, the next, a multi-million-pound vehicle. It’s the ‘Bicester Bubble’: you come through the gate and are immediately in a safe zone, everyone knows what we do and supports us – so it’s very important to us.

All applicants have to come here for an interview, to prove they’re committed. The rigorous process takes most of a day – there are practical tests, tests for learning style, tool knowledge... They might then be shortlisted for a garage to interview and trial them. If that’s a success, they’ll be employed. Then they can come onto the apprenticeship.

The industry has an ageing population and numerous successful firms, so if there is no one to take them over, they can fade away. If you are clever and have got passion and that interest, the career progression is far quicker within our industry than within any other automotive sector. If you show the right commitment, it’s a brilliant career. www.heritageskillsacademy.co.uk

Martin Greaves owner, Classic Performance Engineering

SOME MUTUAL FRIENDS HAD ALREADY been to visit the site, and I was fortunate enough to be invited to Historit’s first open day. It was in November, and cold – the hangar had about 30 cars in it, so looked quite sparse. But then Dan walked me around the site, and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up – it was such an atmospheric place. It was just dusk, quite misty, and as we walked around I really felt that it was going to be the right place to move the business to. I was sold!

They are beautiful buildings, and when I first saw them they were restored on the outside but not the inside. You had to have vision as to how you wanted things to work.

Coming to Bicester Heritage was the ‘marketing budget’ for me. It’s a fabulous site to work from – I love the buildings, I love the whole ambiance of the place – but it’s more about the visibility, and that is what has driven some of the current client base. We’ve also kept all of our existing clients; geographically we haven’t moved too far, none of our customers are too specific in terms of the location of our work. That has all helped to retain existing business.

I am lucky that I’m able to be doing something that I love to do. When you turn a hobby into a business, it can be quite a challenge so that you don’t spoil your hobby. Ultimately, I think be kind to yourself, be kind to people around you. It’s not a cut-throat business, but it is hard work. If you love the cars, and you love what you are doing, then ultimately you are going in the right direction.

www.classicperformanceengineering.co.uk

SWEET MEMORIES

RAF Bicester’s crucial role in the history of British warfare is cemented in the reminiscences of the men and women who worked and served here

THE LEGACY OF THE RAF, AND its very workings, lives on at Bicester Heritage today – even if the quick march of a cadet has been replaced by the rumble of a classic car engine.

The airfield’s first military occupier was the Royal Flying Corps, which became part of the new Royal Air Force in 1918 – at which point RAF Bicester officially became a training base. General Sir Hugh Trenchard, the RAF’s founding father, began his development and redesign of airfields in the south and southeast, part of his Home Defence Expansion Scheme.

Anticipating that warfare would be fought in the skies, he was key to the drive to expand and modernise the RAF. Following his experiences

in World War One, he led the charge to initiate plans for the development of the ‘aircraft estate’. From 1925 RAF Bicester was transformed into a stateof-the-art bomber station, prior to the site expanding in 1936 as the country prepared for war with Germany. Trenchard’s Offensive Deterrence principles saw sites planned and laid out to minimise damage and fatalities in the event of an attack.

RAF Bicester is noted as being the most structurally representative of the bomber stations built along these lines. As Britain went to war, the site was home to the Hawker Hart, Bristol Blenheim and the first flight of the Handley Page Halifax fourengined bomber – the RAF’s first heavy bomber to enter production.

The Glider Pilot Regiment trained at Bicester prior to setting off for D-Day, Arnhem and, eventually, the Rhine Crossing. As the battle moved towards Berlin, RAF Bicester was transformed into a maintenance unit for ’planes and motor transport, home to more than 1000 personnel in ’43.

Post-war, the site was used for the aircraft breakdown and redistribution, prior to briefly becoming a medicalstorage facility for the US Air Forces in Europe in the 1970s. RAF Bicester has woven itself into thousands of ex-servicepeople’s lives, with many still holding close ties to the town of Bicester, long after the RAF departed.

Here we meet some of the amazing characters whose dedicated service has added to the magic of this former bomber station over the years.

Words Charlotte Mackenzie

PREVIOUS PAGE

The then Phyllis Cooper served with the WAF. THIS SPREAD

Michael Shepard’s work with the 71 Maintenance Unit was wide and varied.

MICHAEL SHEPARD

I WAS BORN IN DEVIZES IN Wiltshire, and I joined the RAF as a boy entrant aged 15 in 1952 – the same time as the Queen started her job. I’d go on to do 47 years of service. I went to Cosford in Shropshire for 18 months’ training, then got posted to Chivenor in North Devon as part of ‘Hunters and Sabres’. I then got posted to Raydon in Suffolk just before Suez in ’56, spent two years there, came back and went to Lyneham, Wiltshire – I now live on Lyneham Road, Bicester – and spent seven years there, which is unusual… Lyneham is close to my hometown, so I was basically living at home.

I got married, went out to Germany in ’65 for three years, and then got posted back to here in ’68. It was a bit of a shock coming back – moving out of a heated quarter in Germany to a quarter with an open fire over the road on Elderfield Road in Caversfield.

When I was posted at Bicester under the 71 Maintenance Unit, there were two elements as part of ‘Smash and Crash’. What we term ‘aircraft recovery’ was when we picked up crashed aircraft and then transported any that were being disposed of, so they went off for fire training or disposal.

We also worked with the CAA (Civil Aviation Authority), if it was investigating any civil aircraft and the wreckage needed to be moved to the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough. It was work where

you spent all your life away – you were travelling all around the country doing different jobs… The other side was the repair side; if an aircraft got damaged by a bird strike or in an incident, teams went out and repaired the aircraft. If it was too big a job, then it usually ended up with us. It was a job of various elements – you never knew what you were going to get, particularly at a crash site. We also had an element called an ‘exhibition flight’. We’d support the RAF recruitment drive at the big shows – we had a Spitfire that we used to take out, a Hurricane, cockpits from a Lightning and Vulcan… There must have been about 80 people on our flight, and usually we were divided up into teams. They used to know where all the stops were on the motorway for transport caffs. You could have been sent anywhere that they wanted you to go.

I was at Bicester from 1968 to 1975. At the end of your service, the last three years, you can ask for a posting to an area that you would like to be in. Because we had bought a house in Bicester rather than living in a freezing quarter, we kept the house and rented it out to the Americans in Upper Heyford when we weren’t at home. It meant we had a guaranteed income – they were always looking for houses. I ended up at Abingdon for my final three years, before retiring.

‘It was a bit of a shock moving out of a heated quarter in Germany to one with an open fire’

KEN HARPER AND PHYLLIS HARPER NÉE COOPER, FROM SON CLIVE HARPER

MUM PHYLLIS (1923-2019)

was originally from Ely in Cambridgeshire, and she enlisted in the RAF in 1941-42 aged 18. She was initially based in Cambridge, because her father was ill so she had to go home to Ely. Her basic training was in Morecambe in Lancashire – she had to march up and down the seafront, which killed her feet. She was what was known as a GD WAF, and she spent her time cycling around Cambridge with a dipping stick, checking the fuel levels on transport vehicles and aircraft. Her billet was in one of the universities, so she was staying in one of the colleges.

1944. She’d seen the build-up for D-Day – they were still flying Mosquito operations here at that time. She was GD in the stores, with a fairly unpleasant task – when the pilots didn’t come back from operations, they had to reissue the kit, and they often found personal effects. She said the girls she worked with were fantastic. Her billet was in Nissen huts. She said the mice could climb the inside of the hut and get into the kit bags hanging from the ceiling. She got to know the tailors, which meant her uniforms were the best on the base.

OPPOSITE The newly engaged Ken and Phyllis enjoy a break in Norfolk in 1946. BELOW Phyllis in 1942, outside her billet in a college in Cambridge.

While Mum was from a very wellto-do background, dad (1924-2020) was from Bow in London. His upbringing was pretty tough – I can still remember his road with cobblestones and terraced houses, with a factory at the end backing onto the Grand Union Canal. He joined the Air Training Corps and finished school at 16. War was declared, but nothing happened until September 1940, when the Blitz started – Black Friday.

All the workers at his dad’s mortuary quit, so my father ended up helping my grandfather there. That hardened him up! On his 18th birthday he signed up and he was off. He did his basic training with Tiger Moths and Miles Magisters, on Smith’s Lawn at the Guard’s Polo Club. He qualified as Flight Sergeant Observer/Bomb Aimer. He did his type conversion onto Wellington Bombers at RAF Westcott in Bucks before moving onto Aberdeen’s RAF Dyce for heavy conversion onto Short Stirlings.

Mum was at Bicester from early

Dad served at Bicester from early January 1945, having returned from instructing bomber crews in South Africa. He was a WO1 (Senior Warrant Officer), and he was put in charge of MT. By the time he arrived, the airfield was filling up with materials to go to Europe. He described the airfield as being so busy that you had to land aircraft between lorries.

Mum and dad met because dad’s friend Ken was keen on mum’s friend Sally, and you couldn’t go out unattended. Initially, mum was not keen. Ken could get petrol; dad purloined a Jeep as well as passes and flying kit from the stores –because it was absolutely freezing – and the four of them drove into London on a 24-hour pass.

Dad would cycle all the way to Cambridge when Mum was off on a weekend pass, or else they would go down to London because, despite rationing, my grandma could always get bacon and eggs. They got engaged on a train on the way back to Bicester on a 48-hour pass.

BENJAMIN JOHN JACKSON, FROM GRANDSON BEN JACKSON

MY GRANDFATHER WAS A LOCAL building contractor – he was site agent for the main contractor both here at Bicester and at Heyford. He was born in Bicester, served in World War One and was over in Africa. I never knew him; he died in 1940. He was looking after Bicester during the Trenchard expansion period, ordering materials in.

At the same time, he was building all the red-brick semi-detached houses up the Buckingham Road – and if you looked closely, you might be able to spot some War Departmentmarked materials in those properties, because materials that were left over ‘disappeared’. When the guys worked out in Upper Heyford, they’d bike there every day regardless of the weather. They’d have little trailers on their bikes with their tools in – they probably did the same here up at Bicester.

During the war, as with most local building contractors, my grandfather was also a joiner – they were undertakers. They were given the contract for Bicester, and had to come up and recover the bodies from the Blenheims and make them reasonably presentable, put them

in a casket and return them to the RAF. There was one particularly messy incident, and my granddad turned to my dad and said: “That’s it, I’m done with this. We are not going to be undertakers any longer.” With that, they stopped.

After the site was completely constructed, granddad became the first maintenance term contractor, so he was doing the repairs and patching up. We found the box that he had kept that contained paint colours, time sheets, information about local surveyors… but it nearly broke him. Payments were always queried and delayed, but he had to pay his workforce.

My grandfather was close to my cousin Ben by marriage – who also looked after the business when my dad was conscripted for war – and Ben used to come over from Wycombe and see them. One day all three went up to the site and came across a wagon full of coal – that was when the railway tracks were still here. For some reason, they had the bright idea of trying to move it – so they got it started, but then realised they didn’t know how to stop this 20-tonne wagon. In the end, they had to scramble on it and jump on the brakes.

RIGHT Benjamin John Jackson worked at RAF Bicester during the inter-war years, witnessing its expansion into a major bomber base.

‘They

got it started, but then realised they didn’t know how to stop this 20-tonne wagon’

RECREATING ICONS OF THE PAST IN ELECTRIC FORM

DIAMOND DAYS

A perfect storm of 12 months saw the world outside RAF

Words Jack Phillips

Bicester’s perimeter fence leave a lasting impression that still endures today

Bicester’s perimeter fence leave a lasting impression that still endures today

BACK IN JANUARY 1963, RAF Bicester was well and truly out of action. Planes were grounded due to the weather, and only one arrived during the entire month – because, being a de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver, it had the benefit of skis.

That first, slow month rather set the tone for 1963 for the site, although it was hoped to be a year of expansion, what with new Married Quarters expected at a time when other units were routinely being disbanded at worst, or merged at best. However, the world outside the perimeter fence was about to leave an impression so long lasting that it endures today.

Gerry and the Pacemakers were inadvertently about to turn Rodgers and Hammerstein into the writers of the world’s most famous football song, and that city’s most famous sons were about to take over the world.

A humble Kiwi set about making a name for himself from a lock-up in West London, and just up the road the Mini was about to get another shot of Grand Prix-derived power. Jaguar’s saloon gained independence, Morgan broke from tradition and Rover pushed the envelope.

Across the Channel, Ferdinand would perfect his Porsche family recipe, and a tractor maker in Sant’Agata Bolognese had Ferrari in his sights. The boom was a decade old and still blooming, and the shadow of war over Europe was well and truly fading, although it was ensconced once again Stateside.

It wasn’t until Cliff Richard’s London bus was moved on from the top of the charts in March that 1963 really kicked in. He and The Shadows spent eight weeks at number one with various hits from his Summer Holiday movie, with only brief intermissions off top spot.

During that time, as early as

January, Lotus gave the automotive year a bolt when it officially announced that its not-so-secret work hotting up the Ford Cortina was complete. “Introducing the Consul Cortina Special developed by Lotus” stumbled Walter Hayes’ press release, adding that Colin Chapman would be taking the car racing via the talents of Jim Clark, Peter Arundell and Trevor Taylor. “Three of Britain’s top racing men,” Ford said.

Jimmy spoke straight to the target market when he added: “I reckon she’ll be a real hairy smoker by the time Chapman has finished with her.” Teething problems meant it’d be nine months until the Lotus Cortina could be homologated to go racing in any meaningful capacity.

A footnote was added to Bicester’s history on February 28 – by which point the airstrip was just about back in action – when the chairman of Bicester council and the station commander, Wing Commander DK Kempston, traded plaques for each others’ officers in a special ceremony in the Officers’ Mess.

Rather more newsworthy was Ferrari’s latest sports car challenger, although it was not yet for public consumption; the pretty new 250P lapped Monza in front of the press, ready for Ludovico Scarfiotti and Lorenzo Bandini to take one to victory at Le Mans in the summer.

The annual start of the car-launch season at the Geneva Motor Show in March gave Mercedes-Benz the chance to unveil the latest model to assume the fabled SL moniker, and Lancia its brilliant V4 Fulvia in initial Berlina form.

If the best of the Fulvia was yet to come, the 230SL was a stepchange from the softer 190, a model that struggled to shake off the shackles of its bigger and more exclusive 300

ABOVE 230SL a stepchange from the 190, which struggled to shake off the shackles of its 300 big brother.

ABOVE Ludovico Scarfiotti and Lorenzo Bandini took the Ferrari 250P to victory at Le Mans.

‘The boom was still blooming, and the shadow of war over Europe was well and truly fading’

brother. The Mercedes stole the Geneva show mere weeks after the final 190 and 300 were built.

Known as the ‘Pagoda’ thanks to the roofline of its hard-top, the car’s capacious boot was one of the headlines – a salesman spent the week loading and unloading various suitcases to show off its continentcrossing potential. Only just a little late for Cliff’s Summer Holiday, which was enjoying the first of its three stints at number one.

Two rapid little gems broke out in April, homologation specials aimed squarely at sporting motorists onand off-track. At Monza, Alfa Romeo

revealed the Ti Super and took the quadrifoglio mainstream. Until now only the race teams wore the fourleaf clover, but the lightweight, pepped-up and stripped-out Ti Super was worthy of the honour.

In the UK, with less fanfare, John Cooper won his battle to give the Mini more power, and so was born the S. The extra 80-odd cubic centimetres helped Sir John Whitmore to a class win on its debut, at the International Trophy round at Silverstone.

Jim Clark won the Formula 1 race that weekend, but one famous name was still missing with injury from the entry list: ‘The Boy’ Stirling

Moss. There was movement on that front, though, and George Harrison’s hero would have heard a breakingout band called The Beatles on the radio on the way down to Goodwood from London on May 1. With From Me To You, the Liverpudlians had gone one better than their previous single, Love Me Do, to their first sales-chart number one. This despite the New Musical Express calling the single “below par”.

In Sussex, Moss slipped back into a racing car for the first time since his near-fatal crash almost a year ago to the day, in May 1962 – and a few laps later on the same circuit, in

ABOVE Ferry Porsche (right) and nephew Ferdinand Piëch examine Hans Mezger’s flat-six masterpiece.

a Lotus 19 rather than an 18 as he’d been 12 months before, he would inadvertently create another part of his legacy. He decided he had to retire, and, despite all those wins, he would do so without a Formula 1 World Championship title to his name. That immortalised him as undoubtedly the greatest driver never to win the World title.

“I had to think,” he told his engineers. “I had to give orders to myself; here I’ll brake, here I must change down. I used to look at the rev counter without taking my eyes off the road – not only that, I could see the rev counter and the road

and a friend waving to me, all at the same time. I’ve lost that. It’s gone.”

And so was Moss from competitive racing; his old mate Graham Hill would end the month with his first of five Monaco Grand Prix wins.

Eusébio’s opening goal for Benfica at Wembley couldn’t deny AC Milan its first European Cup, while Rootes finally released the rear-engined pocket-rocket Imp, the corporation’s take on the ‘little car’, into the wake of Mini mania.

The focus for the staff at RAF Bicester was to try (and ultimately fail) to work out how to stop birds from taking up lodging in the hangars;

BELOW Seminal artist’s second album The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan took a while to truly be appreciated.

not even the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries had the answer.

With the racing season in full swing there was respite from new cars, but in Stuttgart something remarkable was happening. The 356’s replacement had been under development since 1960, and the twoseater had just become a 2+2 with an extra pair of cylinders – targeting, ambitiously, the summer of 1963.

A prototype, known as The Bat, had been running, and Ferdinand Porsche began formulating his plan: the 901 and 902, a four-pot, with three variants of roof from hard-top to cabriolet via what would

‘America would look less fondly on these bizarre 12 months... JFK was assassinated’

BELOW Rootes’ rear-engined Imp was the corporation’s take on the ‘little car’, in the wake of Mini mania.

BELOW The Mini received more power thanks to Cooper, while the Porsche 911 made its epochdefining debut.

‘Prototype 5, its “Type 901” plate slightly askew, introduced the 356’s replacement to the world’

eventually be christened the Targa.

Mechanically, Hans Mezger reset the Porsche engine lineage and jumped from the 821 engine to the 901, with a dry sump to reduce its size. It wouldn’t be running for another 12 months, however, and would require the ruthless projectmanagement skills of a young Ferdinand Piëch.

Prototype 5, its ‘Type 901’ plate slightly askew, had the honour of introducing the 356’s replacement to the world, and rather stole the limelight from Stuttgart competitor Mercedes-Benz’s new 600 at the Frankfurt Motor Show on September 13 – just nine days after Bruce inaugurated McLaren Motor Racing Ltd back in the UK. Suits bustled around the 901, being careful to mind the Mezger engine on a stand rather than in the tail, and the orders poured in by the book-load.

A month later, Peugeot took umbrage following the Paris Salon, and Porsche buckled to the pressure that only Peugeots could have a zero in the middle of their name in France. The 911 became de rigueur in late 1964 and for ever more.

The Le Mans-winning 250P’s hard-top iteration also took its bow at the Paris show. Ferrari’s 250LM was expected to replace the GTO and run with the GTs to give the Prancing Horse the chance of outright victories with the P and class wins with the LM the world over – only for the FIA to homologate it as another prototype and scupper those well laid plans.

Jaguar got the jump on the next slew of remarkable cars to launch in this remarkable 12 months, by rolling out the S-type in advance of London’s marquee car show at Earls Court. The solid-axle Mk2 had run its course, both with buyers

and developmentally, and the vast MkX had made it look outdated because of its independent rear suspension. The answer was a refined cut-and-shut: the Mk2’s front end melded with a trimmeddown MkX rear. It might not be as complete a design as the Mk2, but it had the desired effect upon launch, and shifted around 25,000 units over the course of a few years.

With such an array of cars under covers at Earls Court, there was only so much thunder it could steal – not least from Rover’s dream team of designers. Auntie Rover’s homely P4 was consigned to history by the sharp styling of the 2000 P6, and clever front suspension created a driving feel like nothing else on the road and fed into the Rover range – indeed Range Rover – for decades. Full synchromesh gears meant no more double declutching, so changing was a breeze; more economical than the bigger-engined saloons at a time when fuel prices were edging up, it was a smash.

Oddly, that same day Triumph revealed its take on the smaller luxury car, and landed upon an identical name. Penned by Triumph’s own star, Giovanni Michelotti, that maker’s 2000 fell uncomfortably between the sharp suits of the 1960s and outdated, rounder cars of what came before, but unlike the Rover it could boast a monocoque and two extra engine cylinders. For some, the latter was the clincher.

Boosted power also underpinned the new Aston Martin, with Tadek Marek’s 4.0-litre engine fitted as standard in what was otherwise a DB4. Still, it is the model that has shaped, and in many ways saved, Aston Martin from falling by the wayside like many other perennially ailing marques. After all, only James

Bond can make Astons disappear. In truth, the DB5 was little more than standardising the Vantage-spec DB4, but more than 1000 were sold.

Less successful was Morgan’s plastic +4+, a Lotus Elan-like sports car that on paper looked fine enough. Two Weber carburettors produced a rorty 105bhp, but three years on from Earls Court, Morgan called it a day midway through the intended production run of 50.

There was a brief flurry of activity at RAF Bicester as autumn took hold, too, and You’ll Never Walk Alone topped the charts to Bill Shankly’s delight. Wing Commander SM Russell took over as station commander after Wing Commander Kempston’s posting to Biggin Hill, becoming the 32nd person to take the position in the site’s history. He lasted a month shy of three years in charge, and his tenure began by

taking ownership of the first of the promised new Married Quarters. It was he who hosted HRH Queen Elizabeth II’s visit in 1965.

The automotive year of years was still not done, mind, and when the specialist press moved onto the centre of Italy’s universe, Turin, Iso showed a glimpse of what was to come with a prototype by Giotto Bizzarrini. Aggressive styling was matched by a voluminous V8, and in 1965 it was eventually unleashed as the Grifo.

Former Ferrari designer Bizzarrini, a key player in the Palace Revolt when staff downed pencils and left Enzo, had certainly been busy, not least helping Ferruccio Lamborghini make a departure from producing tractors. The prototype of his first foray into GT cars, the 350GTV, had a heavy Bizzarrini influence, including the chassis and 3.5-litre V8, while Franco Scaglione designed

the body. Such was the response at the Turin Motor Show that tractors gave way to supercars.

America would look less fondly on these bizarre 12 months. The Vietnam War showed no signs of letting up, and JFK was assassinated, yet there is a lasting legacy – that of Martin Luther King’s speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. In cars, the new Corvette hit showrooms and the Jeep Wagoneer took the 4x4 upmarket, but most importantly African-American Wendell Scott won in NASCAR –despite the worst attempts of the authorities to deny it. Beatlemania arrived on Boxing Day with I Want To Hold Your Hand at number one in the Billboard charts, and Bob Dylan coasted into the headlines.

The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan took months to truly be appreciated – far quicker than the 60 years 1963 has taken to bask in its own glory.

ABOVE Franco Scaglionedesigned Lamborghini 350GTV had a heavy Bizzarrini influence.

‘Such was the response at the Turin Motor Show that tractors gave way to supercars’

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Building 94-1, Bicester Heritage

NO ONE WOULD CALL BICESTER

Heritage small, but it occupies only a fraction of the site that was bought ten years ago – about 20 acres of a 444-acre total. Some of this is the active airfield, but around that are other, currently unused areas. With the formation of Bicester Motion, which encompasses the entire site, all that could change.

“We now have consents for an extra million square feet around the site,” says CEO Dan Geoghegan. “We have the [existing] Heritage Quarter, plus the Innovation Quarter, Experience Quarter, Wilderness Quarter and airfield – five quarters, as we like to say. We can create a leading location for anything that moves.”

The Wilderness Quarter will have an off-roading area, but will be mostly about walking, cycling and nature – it already has three lakes. This area was part of the original RAF Bicester, but when the M40 was being built the site was dug for gravel, which have since formed lakes.

The plan for the Innovation Quarter is for it to be the base for yet more cutting-edge businesses. “We

are just revisiting how that quarter works,” says Dan, “and giving it more of an embrace and sense of identity, which was what the RAF did here a century ago.

“Here, we’re in close proximity to the Oxford-Cambridge corridor, to Oxford itself and to Motorsport Valley components. There are a lot of innovative, exciting, well funded businesses in the area that need a home to crack this problem – the problem of the environment. If we’d started 20 years ago with a plot of land in the middle of Oxfordshire, we’d be saying ‘let’s kill cancer and do life sciences’, and that’s still happening – but the window that we are in at the moment, the focus, quite rightly is about the environment. It’s about saving the planet.

“Saving the planet is all about CO2… CO2 solutions are all about technology and innovation. Clearly, a central focus of that issue is around mobility, whether that’s flight, whether it’s motoring, and we find ourselves with a blank-canvas opportunity to create a home for all those exciting things. Let’s try to

ABOVE The new Experience Quarter will sit in 40 acres, while plans for a hotel are set to be revisited at a later date. RIGHT Bicester Motion will use the site to its utmost advantage.

THE FUTURE Bicester Motion

CEO

Words David Lillywhite

Heritage

Dan Geoghegan explains why Bicester Heritage is just the first part of an exciting future for this site

solve a problem, where we can still travel safely, quietly, environmentally friendly, user friendly but responsibly. That’s what we can do here.”

And then there’s the Experience Quarter, which Dan likens to a first visit to an Apple Store, but for car sales: “Apple really stood out on the high street – intriguing without being overly pushy. And you’d go to hang out and look at what it had to offer, try a few things, meet your friends there and become absorbed in a demonstration – an opportunity to touch and feel what was happening. That’s how we envisage the Experience Quarter working.

“With cars, there is a lack of interest by the customer to go to a showroom. At the same time, the makers are faced with having a load of new products – electric cars. And if you’re trying to launch something new, at a time when customers aren’t going to your distribution channels, how do you talk to them directly? Where would the manufacturers go to talk to their customers?”

He goes on: “That’s the Experience Quarter, sat in 40 acres where you could go for a walk and look at the 4x4s through the Wilderness Quarter. But it might be anything from whatever the next hoverboard is, or electric Harleys or hydrogen garden machinery… We are very interested in it being a showcase where people come and hang out for fun – but it sows the seed, as with Apple.”

Planning consent has been received for the Innovation Quarter, with the aim to start works in 2024. The

Wilderness Quarter application will go in this summer – and the Experience Quarter’s outline planning permission came in earlier this year.

There have also been plans for a hotel for several years, but these are now on hold, as Dan explains: “We realised as we saw these other opportunities in innovation and experience that the hotel we would have built in, say, 2018 would have been very different from the hotel we’d build today. So we have said, let’s see how the rest of the site is going to look, and then we’ll know how the hotel should function.

“We’re very much looking forward to doing it, but it’ll be on the basis of a much more informed usage pattern – business and commercial and consumer. Because if the Experience Quarter is, say, half a million people a year, and it goes in

that direction, then that’s a different hotel, too, and a site that is perhaps leading in a different direction.”

With all this going on, it’s now time for a second round of equity raising. The Innovation Quarter will cost around £40m and the hotel £30m-40m. The Experience Quarter will be £50m; including the Wilderness Quarter, Dan currently estimates investment of £200m. Is that do-able? He is confident it is.

“We’ve always been systematic and methodical. We might enthuse about all the businesses here and really enjoy it, but at the end of the day it’s got to be professionally run. The numbers have to add up, because that is how you make something survive and be sustainable.

“It’s something we’re very focused on, but with regards to the future development, they’re bigger buildings, there are economies of scale building, we own the land. Our model is slightly different to that of a normal developer, who’d buy the land and then layer on building costs and staff and consultants. At Bicester Motion we have a lot of that in house anyway.

“There are plenty of exciting things happening here – and the potential for a lot more.”

www.bicestermotion.com

‘There are plenty of exciting things happening here – and the potential for a lot more’

RIGHT The new Innovation Quarter will be the base for yet more cuttingedge businesses.

Colin Murrell

WHY ZERO IS A HERO Boss of top E-fuel specialist on powering the future

Words Nathan Chadwick

BICESTER HERITAGE

IS

HOME to many innovative companies, but one that’s currently at the razorsharp end of the political, ecological and cultural debate is Zero Petroleum.

Its aim is to provide sustainable synthetic fuel to the aviation, military, agricultural and automotive sectors, and it is among several businesses developing synthetic or E-fuels. Zero is different, however, says CEO Paddy Lowe: “We make fuel from air and water using renewable energy –it’s chemistry, not alchemy. When your car burns fuel, what comes out of the tailpipe is carbon dioxide (CO2) and water, the products of combusting hydrogen and carbon.

“We recirculate that CO2 and water from the environment, converting it into hydrocarbons with new energy. It’s a fully circular system, just like the biological carbon cycle.”

Zero E-fuels will be intended to simply drop into existing engines, rather than be mixed with other ingredients, and Bicester Heritage is at the centre of development. Building 148’s solar roof panels will provide the energy to split water via electrolysis, making green hydrogen. Carbon will be captured from the air, and synthesised to make the fuel.

“We’ve already shown the ability to make a fuel of the necessary quality, by flying an RAF ’plane with our sustainable fuels; we got a Guinness

World Record for that,” Paddy says. “The chemistry’s proven. At Bicester we’ll be working at the engineering scale, making sufficient fuel to gain certification and undertake further research to optimise the process.”

The next step is commercial-scale production, which is due to begin in 2025. “It’ll be more expensive than fossil fuels to start with – all new tech is – but we expect to see price parity within ten years,” claims Paddy.

But what about the naysayers of synthetic fuels, who say that electric propulsion is the only way forward?

“I’m a big fan of EVs, and I hope they will find a better solution than lithium cobalt for the batteries,” he says. “But there are certain sectors where you

simply can’t use electricity – a battery aircraft is not a meaningful solution for carrying payload and going distances. Agriculture is another area; combine harvesters are already on the weight limit, and need to do long shifts without stopping to recharge.”

However, motor sport is an area close to Paddy’s heart – he’s notched up championship wins at Williams, McLaren and Mercedes-Benz – and this sector, alongside classic cars, is set to become a prime beneficiary of synthetic fuels, he believes.

“It’s an area where you need dense energy – Formula 1 with batteries simply wouldn’t provide a spectacle,” he says. “Motor sport and collector cars are things people are passionate about – and that’s where synthetic fuels will be a great solution.”

www.zero.co

Paddy is confident the future looks bright for synthetic fuels.

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We deliver Mechanical and Coachbuilding apprenAceships from Academies located locaAons at Bicester Heritage and Brooklands Museum.

If you are interested in an engineering career within a thriving sector, visit our workshop at Bicester Heritage opposite the Wrigley Monkey Brewery, and talk to our apprenAceship team about apprenAceships. Visit www.heritageskillsacademy.co.uk

Multiple victories. One reason. Preparation.

Another 1st place finish in our class on the Flying Scotsman Rally for our 1936 Riley Sprite. 4th place overall out of a field of 100 cars.

01823 490 429

info@blue-diamond-services.co.uk Restoring. Reviving. Rediscovering.

Photo: Will Broadhead Photography

RALLYING FORCES HERO-ERA

Words Nathan Chadwick

MUCH LIKE BICESTER ITSELF, HERO – the Historic Endurance Rallying Organisation – has seen big changes over the past decade. Fifteen years ago it was run by talented volunteers, but it had come to a crossroads. In stepped Tomas De Vargas Machuca and Patrick Burke to bring a more professional element, and since 2013 it’s also acquired CRA and ERA. It now runs a series of events across the year, for all levels of ability, experience and bank balance.

However, building for the future has been a key part of HERO-ERA’s mission, as Tomas explains. “Once we had consolidated everything, we looked at how we could engineer the situation so that the next generation of enthusiasts could access rallying.”

He says the key thing is to get youngsters away from their screens. “I had to be kicked into going back into the house,” he says. “My friends’ children need to be kicked outdoors – we are fighting with screens. The best education is to give people a life experience – if you are able to get them into a car with their brother, mother or a friend, suddenly the screen no longer has a monopoly.”

Tomas puts this down to the

visceral feeling that gaming simply can’t provide. “Screens allow for great visuals and sounds, but when you’re in a car you use the other senses, too.”

To aid this, HERO-ERA launched the free Rally for the Ages, which saw 90 cars embark on a 100-mile route around Oxon, with four regularity runs plus four tests at Bicester Heritage. Each crew had to have a combined age of less than 70; 18 members were aged 15 and under, and more than half were new to rallying.

“The usual barriers to rallying are the costs, so via the philanthropic part of our organisation we ran the event for free,” Tomas explains. “But what really made it popular was that young people like to be around other young people; it was also good for Bicester’s Heritage Skills Academy

Rally for the Ages has brought in younger, more diverse classic fans

apprentices to see people their own age benefit from their work.”

The event also proved popular with women too: “We had a number of all-female crews taking part.”

HERO-ERA continues to innovate by supporting projects to encourage young people. From a picture alone The Classic Valuer provides both an instant valuation and a history of a car. Hangar 136, meanwhile, offers vehicles for sale and financing aimed at younger enthusiasts. “We’re also building up a bespoke service for those who want to drive a classic but don’t necessarily resonate with the rally world – if you want to go to the Atlas Mountains in an old Riley, we can organise it for you,” Tomas says.

Add in the inaugural Badawi Trail rally in the Middle East, plus next year’s Peking to Paris rally, and it’s a busy time for HERO-ERA. However, Tomas says encouraging the next generation remains a big priority: “It’d be a huge loss not to offer the next generation what we’ve been so lucky and are grateful to be able to enjoy.”

www.hero-era.com

‘It would be a huge loss not to offer the next generation what we’ve been so lucky to enjoy’

and the future of classics on and off road

Even better on the right rubber

Even better on the right rubber

Even better on the right rubber

Even better on the right rubber

The best classic car experience is just a new set of tyres away. We stock new tyres in period-correct patterns for cars from the 1890s through to the 1990s. On road, off-road, rallying or racing – itʼs even better on the right rubber and thatʼs all we sell at Vintage Tyres.

The best classic car experience is just a new set of tyres away. We stock new tyres in period-correct patterns for cars from the 1890s through to the 1990s. On road, off-road, rallying or racing – itʼs even better on the right rubber and thatʼs all we sell at Vintage Tyres.

The best classic car experience is just a new set of tyres away. We stock new tyres in period-correct patterns for cars from the 1890s through to the 1990s. On road, off-road, rallying or racing – itʼs even better on the right rubber and thatʼs all we sell at Vintage Tyres.

Even better on the right rubber

The best classic car experience is just a new set of tyres away. We stock new tyres in period-correct patterns for cars from the 1890s through to the 1990s. On road, off-road, rallying or racing – itʼs even better on the right rubber and thatʼs all we sell at Vintage Tyres.

Branches at Beaulieu and Bicester Heritage.

Branches at Beaulieu and Bicester Heritage.

The best classic car experience is just a new set of tyres away. We stock new tyres in period-correct patterns for cars from the 1890s through to the 1990s. On road, off-road, rallying or racing – itʼs even better on the right rubber and thatʼs all we sell at Vintage Tyres.

Branches at Beaulieu and Bicester Heritage.

01590 612261

Branches at Beaulieu and Bicester Heritage.

01590 612261

sales@vintagetyres.com

Branches at Beaulieu and Bicester Heritage.

01590 612261

sales@vintagetyres.com

01590 612261

vintagetyres.com

sales@vintagetyres.com

sales@vintagetyres.com

vintagetyres.com

01590 612261

vintagetyres.com

sales@vintagetyres.com

vintagetyres.com

Alfa Romeo RL Super Sport 1925-1927

Pendine is proud to offer…

Completely restored by P&K Thornton, this is a superb example of the highly sought-after 3.8 S Drophead Coupe, the most advanced of the Jaguar XKs

Drophead

A good value, UK supplied example in one of the best colour combinations of Pearl Grey with blue trim. With a really super touring specification and recent service by Guy Broad it’s ready for whatever the next custodian throws at it

Drophead

Fitted with a 5 speed gearbox, larger carbs, louvered bonnet, disc brakes – a much loved, touring Jaguar that has just had an extensive service and fresh MOT to get it ready for this summer

1955 JAGUAR XK140

Coupe

1953 JAGUAR XK120

Coupe

1960 JAGUAR XK150

3.8 S Drophead Coupe

YOUR 2023 GUIDE

THE TECHNICAL SITE HAS taken on a special role this weekend, hosting a moving concours of cars firing up, warming up and cooling down between laps of the Experience & Demonstration Track.

Those grouped on track are also grouped together on the Technical Site, giving you another, more leisurely chance to get up close to some very special machinery. By Building 123, where at each Scramble the curated themed display sprawls out, is the 1963 Diamond Collection. NEOM McLaren Electric Racing has

provided the perfect backdrop – a giant papaya ‘60’ covering its entrance to mark founder Bruce McLaren’s bold move in September 1963 to go it alone. Among the cars only on static display are a very early 911 and an Iso Grifo – two of the headline machines from a headline year.

On the other side of Building 123 are The Pioneers, arranged around a Sherman tank, and across the Main Drive is the Le Mans Centenary Celebration cars near to Classic Performance Engineering. There’s a bonus of one of the well remembered

CAMPUS OF ELEGANCE

Incredible vehicle displays and demonstrations, flying warbirds, auctions, art and a big autojumble – there’s plenty happening at the all-action Flywheel 2023

fire tender Jaguars from Silverstone events gone by, and a faithful replica of a Capri that would have flown by ‘Silverstone Sid’ in the 1980s.

The Fiat Topolino once owned by Lord Howe could grace either category. He won Le Mans in 1931 in his own Alfa Romeo 8C partnering a certain Henry ‘Tim’ Birkin – yes, he who supercharged the Bentley 4½ Litre to such devastating effect, the result of which is also on display.

Among The Pioneers is also the unique 1936 Alvis 4.3-litre Sports Coupé by Bertelli. Just one was

Charlie B

made, bought by Swedish racer Per Lars Henrik ‘Henken’ Widengren, and brought back the UK as a wreck to be restored. It is a rare appearance for the 17ft-long airline coupé.

Rally cars proliferate from John Lomas’ Blue Diamond, regular victor on endurance rallies and preparer for many more – Riley or otherwise. Nearby you’ll stumble upon a trio of 911s reimagined by Singer. Magneto to Electric is across the Main Drive, down towards The Command Works, home to Polestar and The Little Car Company. Electric pioneers, both.

Outside Motor Spirit is BTCC hero John Cleland’s first Cavalier Super Tourer, which raced in 1990 in Group 2 – Super Touring in all but name. The car remains in action today, with Jim Pocklington contesting the Motor Spirit-supported CTCRC Super Tourers championship.

But just like at a Scramble, the real joy is never knowing what might be around the next corner. And today the Technical Site is no different.

THE PORSCHE SALE - THE FINAL COUNTDOWN

OPPOSITE It’s 60 years since McLaren was established, and NEOM McLaren Electric Racing will be celebrating. BELOW Unique Bertelli Alvis 4.3litre Sports Coupé is one of The Pioneers.

STARTING WITH JUST THREE people in 2019, online marketplace Collecting Cars now has a team of more than 90 specialists across four continents. It is the leading curated platform globally for collectable cars, bikes and automobilia, and is proud to be the official auction partner of Bicester Heritage.

The business recently surpassed its 11,000th sale milestone, and to date it has completed over £440 million in sales via professionally presented seven-day auctions. The marketplace has more than 100,000 registered members worldwide.

Its ‘sell for free’ business model with a buyer’s premium far lower than that of traditional auctions has disrupted the industry – and made collectors, enthusiasts and market commentators sit up. Simply, it takes less, so you get more.

This weekend sees the platform’s first Porsche-only auction come to a close, with online bidding for some of the rarest and most collectable sports cars set to end on Sunday 18 June, including a 996 GT3 RS, 964 Carrera RS and 356 Speedster. Visit www.collectingcars.com to see the consignments and register for free.

Words Jack Phillips

Charlie B

JOIN THE 'BIRTHDAY BRITS' IN OCTOBER

This year’s many British milestones will be marked on the Scramble’s central display on October 8 – and you can guarantee your tickets by booking before general sale opens.

We’ll mark Lotus at 75, MG and Triumph at 100, seven decades of Jaguar’s final Le Mans win with the C-type, 75 years of the Morris Minor, half a century of Caterham, 120 years of Vauxhall, and many more. It should be as eclectic as ever.

To unlock your tickets, scan the QR code and enter the code ‘Flywheel2023’.

HERO-ERA WORLDEXCLUSIVE LAUNCH

WITNESS A WORLD FIRST from 1:30pm at HERO-ERA as the leading rally organisation takes the wraps off a special project created in partnership with Prodrive.

The Banbury-based World Rally Championship, Le Mans 24 Hours and World Endurance Championship victor has been working with HEROERA on the secret collaboration for the past few months, and the results should be spectacular.

Visit HERO-ERA in The Command Works for 1:30pm on Saturday to join the international debut. Missed it? The project will be on display all day and hitting the track at 3:00pm.

Charlie B

Charlie B

WARBIRDS RETURN

A TRIO OF AIRCRAFT WITH strong links to the airfield at Bicester return with dynamic appearances throughout the weekend. Most famous, and most indelibly linked, is the Bristol Blenheim. Not only did the site act as a home to many, requiring the creation of the two vast hangars in the lead-up to Word War Two, but the prototype of the innovative newcomer spent time here as a means to train military personnel.

The Blenheim will arrive from the Aircraft Restoration Company at Duxford at 10:30am on Saturday, and depart at 3:30pm on Sunday. As if

that was not evocative enough, it will fly in with a Spitfire – another plane that spent some time working out of RAF Bicester during the war. Rather earlier is the Avro 504, which flew from here before our site was even RAF Bicester. The Royal Flying Corps’ No. 116 Squadron operated these biplanes in 1918, a year before the RAF moved in. The Avro 504 will fly in on both Saturday and Sunday at 11:30am, before departing at 4:30pm each day.

A variety of other aircraft will be landing and on display at the Bicester Aerodrome Company.

FAMILY FUN AT FLYWHEEL

AWAY FROM THE CARS AND ’planes, there’s all manner of family entertainment around the site. In Hangar 113, the bustling autojumble is back and bigger than ever, offering parts, spares and automobilia. An art gallery has been laid on, too, and it

Bicester Heritage resident and leading EV maker Polestar is providing this weekend’s course car. It is not just any Polestar 2, but a BST Edition, which leverages decades of tuning experience to deliver the brand’s most dynamic electric driver’s car yet. It is one of only 270 examples, and one of just 40 in the UK.

The BST lends supercar performance to what’s already a world-leading award winner. An impressive 476bhp powers the BST from 0-60mph in 4.4 seconds, and adjustable Öhlins dampers and a raft of other chassis enhancements make it ideal for circuit driving.

will be growing all weekend because you can have a go at sketching a car or plane yourself. The subjects are in place, help is at hand and there are artists in situ for you to try to replicate. Elsewhere you will find electric karts and pedal planes, plus militaryvehicle rides and an immersive Memory Lane that’ll transport you back to the ’20s. See the map on p159.

Blenheim will fly in from Duxford with a Spitfire escort.

Charlie B

Amy Shore

PAY LESS THAN THE PRICE OF THIS MAGAZINE TO SELL YOUR COLLECTIBLE CAR

At Collecting Cars we’ve built the best online marketplace for enthusiasts, where your treasured car can be seen by a truly international audience.

collectingcars.com is Europe’s leading collector car auction platform, with more than 11,000 sales concluded.

What’s more, we don’t charge any seller fees, so you’ll receive 100% of the winning bid, every time you sell.

SATURDAY JUNE 17

9AM GATES OPEN! KARTS, FUNFAIR RIDES, 1920S CINEMA, THE LITTLE TOP, AUTOJUMBLE AND VINTAGE AND TRADE VILLAGE, AERODROME AND CAR ART IN HANGAR 113 OPEN

10AM GREEN FLAG ON TRACK

10AM-10:30AM RALLY CARS

10:30AM BRISTOL BLENHEIM AND SPITFIRE FLY IN

10:30AM-10:50AM 1963 DIAMOND COLLECTION

10:50AM-11AM AERO CARS

11AM-11:30AM THE PIONEERS

11:30AM GREAT WAR DISPLAY TEAM FLIES IN

11:30AM-11:50AM SPIRIT OF AMERICA

11:50AM HISTORIC KARTS

12PM-12:20PM LE MANS CENTENARY CELEBRATION

12:20PM-12:30PM TEAM JARROTT DE DION-BOUTON TRIKES

12:30PM-12:40PM MAGNETO TO ELECTRIC

12:40PM-1PM MOTORCYCLES

1PM STARTERMOTOR PARADE LAPS

1:10PM-1:30PM THE BRITS

1:30PM HERO-ERA AND PRODRIVE WORLD EXCLUSIVE

1:30PM-2PM RALLY CARS

2PM-2:15PM 1963 DIAMOND COLLECTION

2:15PM-2:30PM AERO CARS

2:30PM-2:50PM THE PIONEERS

2:50PM-3:15PM SPIRIT OF AMERICA

3PM HERO-ERA DEMO

3:15PM-3:40PM LE MANS CENTENARY CELEBRATION

3:40PM HISTORIC KARTS

3:50PM-4:10PM MOTORCYCLES

4PM LAST PUBLIC ENTRY

4:10PM-4:20PM TEAM JARROTT DE DION-BOUTON TRIKES

4:20PM-4:30PM MAGNETO TO ELECTRIC

4:30PM GREAT WAR DISPLAY TEAM DEPARTS

4:30PM-4:50PM THE BRITS

4:50PM STARTERMOTOR PARADE LAPS

5PM TRACK CLOSES

6PM EVENT CLOSES

SUNDAY JUNE 18

9AM GATES OPEN!

KARTS, FUNFAIR RIDES, 1920S CINEMA, THE LITTLE TOP, AUTOJUMBLE AND VINTAGE AND TRADE VILLAGE, AERODROME AND CAR ART IN HANGAR 113 OPEN

10AM GREEN FLAG ON TRACK

10AM-10:30AM RALLY CARS

10:30AM-10:50AM 1963 DIAMOND COLLECTION

10:50AM-11AM AERO CARS

11AM-11:30AM THE PIONEERS

11:30AM GREAT WAR DISPLAY TEAM FLIES IN

11:30AM-11:50AM SPIRIT OF AMERICA

11:50AM HISTORIC KARTS

12PM-12:20PM

12:20PM-12:30PM

12:30PM-12:40PM

LE MANS CENTENARY CELEBRATION

TEAM JARROTT DE DION-BOUTON TRIKES

MAGNETO TO ELECTRIC

12:40PM-1PM MOTORCYCLES

1PM

STARTERMOTOR PARADE LAPS

1:10PM-1:30PM THE BRITS

1:30PM-2PM RALLY CARS

2PM-2:30PM HERO-ERA TOUR DEPARTS

2PM-2:15PM 1963 DIAMOND COLLECTION

2:15PM-2:30PM AERO CARS

2:30PM-2:50PM THE PIONEERS

2:50PM-3:15PM SPIRIT OF AMERICA

3:15PM-3:40PM

LE MANS CENTENARY CELEBRATION

3:30PM BRISTOL BLENHEIM AND SPITFIRE DEPART

3:40PM HISTORIC KARTS

3:50PM-4:10PM MOTORCYCLES

4PM LAST PUBLIC ENTRY

4:10PM-4:20PM TEAM JARROTT DE DION-BOUTON TRIKES

4:20PM-4:30PM MAGNETO TO ELECTRIC

4:30PM

GREAT WAR DISPLAY TEAM DEPARTS

4:30PM-4:50PM THE BRITS

4:50PM

STARTERMOTOR PARADE LAPS

5PM TRACK CLOSES

6PM EVENT CLOSES

■ SEE INSIDE BACK COVER FOR MAP

RALLY CARS

Whether it’s local events pitching classics head-to-head, or WRC stage heroes, we celebrate the wonderful world of rallying with an action-packed itinerary

Words Jack Phillips Photography Charlie B

CAST YOUR MIND WIDER THAN

Colin McRae and Paddy Hopkirk; rallying encapsulates far more than the stage stars that were prime-time TV names and PlayStation heroes. In fact, the many specialists around the Bicester Heritage site open up the wide world of rallying.

HERO-ERA, as an example, is perhaps the world’s premier organiser of endurance rallies. Its events sprawl across continents and beyond, or can be contained to expanses such as the Bicester Heritage airfield.

Often in the thick of it at the UK events is John Lomas of Blue Diamond Riley Services, whose expertise will be a feature of this rally category in more ways than one at 10:00am and 1:30pm each day. His usual steed is Riley Sprite BAH 900, veteran of the 1937 RAC Rally, which just this year claimed fourth place overall on the gruelling Flying Scotsman. The 1.5-litre four-cylinder Sprites punched above their weight in

period, and in the right hands (such as John’s) continue to do so today.

Blue Diamond also looks after the works Riley prototype, KV 5694, which swore in the MPH models and which will also hit the Experience & Demonstration Track. More than simply a Riley specialist, Blue Diamond’s roster also includes the bounding Lagonda Rapier, BYL 548, which will also slip in some laps with a raucous soundtrack.

Roll forward half a century and the world of rallying had become a very different beast, and included the spectacular Renault 5. The humble hatch gained an edge thanks to Marcello Gandini, and is one of the most evocative cars in WRC history – as Andrew Cooper’s Turbo should prove. Although the R5’s legend outpromised its actual results…

Group B’s too-fast and toofearsome nature meant things were turned down a notch into the 1990s, but rallying was still a fairly blank

OPPOSITE You can see Mäkinen’s World Rally Championship challenger in action on the Experience & Demonstration Track twice a day at the Bicester event.

canvas for those brave enough to get stuck in. Nick Boaz of Tolman Motorsport was one of them, and today can claim to have the hottest Peugeot 205 this side of Group B rallying. The competition-spec Talbot Sport-liveried replica is the spiritual forebear to the universally approved Tolman Edition 205 GTI.

But for many there has been just one name in rallying in recent years (indeed, decades…) and that is Prodrive. The local heroes will be unveiling something very special at HERO-ERA at 1:30pm on Saturday, but Steve Rockingham has an enviable collection of Banbury-built rally machinery. The experienced pedaller will slide round the Experience & Demonstration Track in Tommi Mäkinen’s final World Rally Championship challenger as part of this grouping.

The Rally Cars category will kick off each day’s action on the Experience & Demonstration Track.

THE ENTRANTS

1936 Riley ERA

MPH Prototype

2003 Subaru Impreza

1936 Riley Sprite

N/A Riley Sprite

1934 Lagonda Rapier-Zagato

N/A Riley TT

Ulster Imp

1985 Peugeot 205

1977 Escort RS1800

1975 Escort RS Grp4

1981 Renault 5 Turbo

‘Tour de Corse’

1979 Escort RS

1971 Escort

1978 Escort

1975 Escort

1972 Escort RS1600

1963 DIAMOND COLLECTION

Sixty years ago the automotive world was very different to today – but as is celebrated in this category, it was full of trend-setters, motor sport stars and budding legends

Words Jack Phillips

THE YEAR 1963 WAS AN unseasonably good one for cars. Pages and pages have been filled in the automotive press about the launch of the 911, née 901, that happened in September at the Frankfurt Motor Show.

The rear-engined sports machine transformed the genre and has been almost untouchable ever since. Few cars survive 60 years in such an unaltered state, or so clearly recall their lineage, but this Porsche has done it almost to a fault. The early 911 on track, and the later, newest, model, underline that: decades may split them, but more than simply three numbers connects them.

Among the Porsches is something special from nearby Tuthill. The SCRS is a limited-run 911 based on the 993 generation, calling on the technicolour liveries of the IROC race series and paying homage to the SCRS rally car Tuthill created for Prodrive’s David Richards. The

result is something far away from the 1990s car underneath.

Another name that has endured, although not in quite the same way, is McLaren. Around the time Porsche unveiled the 911, Bruce McLaren was making an administrative decision that stretches to today: he created Bruce McLaren Motor Racing Ltd and started running his own cars.

Making his own models followed, and reached a zenith in the early 1990s with the F1. The car delivered to Michael Andretti, briefly McLaren team-mate to Ayrton Senna in Formula 1, takes to the track on Saturday alongside a GT and Artura. While the F1 was the first McLaren road car (although the 1960s M6GT came close) the Artura is the first hybrid McLaren ever made – Grand Prix racing aside.

The year 1963 was also a big one for Alfa Romeo’s 105 Series coupés. The line began the year prior in saloon form, and the 105 Series

OPPOSITE The Cooper S arrived in 1963, and proved a plucky little fighter that was rewarded with many victories. The 911 story also started that year.

spawned all manner of models. One of the most sought after of them all is the 2000 GTV, launched eight years after the first and boosting the outgoing 1750. It is surely the sweet spot, the perfect package.

The Mini Cooper S – the car’s factory peak from a power point of view – joined the fray in 1963, and went on to slide around tracks in the British Saloon Car Championship and on the roads to Monaco and the Rallye Monte-Carlo. It won the famous event three times in four years – just don’t mention the other… Rule-makers disqualified the victorious Minis in 1966, denying them a hat-trick. The example on track is a road car, owned by Bicester Motion CEO Daniel Geoghegan.

Autocar’s Matt Prior provides another of 1963’s pocket rockets, the Hillman Imp, while an Iso Grifo is on static display by RH45 in Building 123. It was revealed late in 1963, and went into production in ’65.

Photography Charlie B, Tuthill Porsche

THE ENTRANTS

1995 McLaren F1

2023 Aston Martin

DB5

1996 Porsche 911 993 SCRS

1965 Hillman Imp

2023 McLaren Artura

2023 McLaren GT

1967 Austin Cooper S

1971 Alfa Romeo

2000 GTV

AERO CARS

Whether it’s the power source or the aerodynamics, aircraft and automobile technology entwines to create this category’s unique machinery

Words Jack Phillips

THE WORD ‘AERO’ MEANS A lot of things to a lot of people. In the early days it meant bolting an aircraft engine into a car and hoping to tame it. In the 1950s it meant aircraft manufacturers trying their hand at racing – and in Matra’s case, winning in Formula 1 and at Le Mans.

A decade later wings were trialled – often in error – but this R&D work set single-seater racing, sports cars and road-car manufacturers on a course for going ever faster.

In the 1980s aero flipped, to pull cars onto the floor rather than push

them along. Today it is a delicate mix of both – all of which is being marked in the Aero category.

Among the cars is Robin Tuluie’s Menasco Pirate, a Riley-based special powered by an aeroplane racing engine. On a similar theme is the prop-driven Leyat Hélica, known in period as ‘the plane without wings’.

Also running is Penny Howat’s remarkable 1926/30 Hispano-Suiza/ Delage, which combines an early racer with a 27-litre Hispano-Suiza engine, like those being used by the Great War Display Team aircraft.

BELOW Leyat’s propeller-powered Hélica was once a vision of the future.

THE ENTRANTS

2023 Porsche Cayman GT4 RS

1926/30 HispanoSuiza/Delage 27 Litre

1929 Menasco Pirate

1925 Jappic Cyclecar recreation

1921 Leyat Hélica

1923 Delage 2 LCV

‘The Bequet’

Photography Amy Shore

THE PIONEERS

From vehicles born at the dawn of motoring to a 1970s rotary-engined cult machine, these cars each started a revolution in their own unique ways

Words Jack Phillips

Photography Charlie B, Alex Shore

WHEN RAF BICESTER WAS created in 1927, it was at the very forefront of military technology. The two A Type hangars were the first on any British base in the world. The prototype Handley Page Halifax first flew from this very runway on October 25, 1939, and the Blenheim prototype spent time in Bicester as a vehicle to train scores of airmen.

The Pioneers category of demo and display cars honours those traditions in all sorts of ways, and will be on track at 11:00am and 2:30pm on Saturday and Sunday. The selection goes far beyond the usual interpretation of the word in an automotive sense, but motoring’s most pioneering time of all – the earliest days – are accounted for.

Sir George White, Harry Fraser and Dan Cogger will each climb aboard cars more than 100 years old: a Panhard et Levassor, Overland and Knox respectively. The White family, founder of Bristol Aeroplane

Company and later Bristol Cars, has owned the Panhard since new, when firm co-founder Stanley collected it from Paris and sped back to the UK. Bicester Heritage resident Hagerty owns the 1903 Knox Model C, while the Overland commands the frontage of Harry’s trim business on the Technical Site. All three are London to Brighton Veteran Car Run regulars.

Perhaps the most celebrated car is Jaguar C-type XKC 005, the first of any brand to win an international race with disc brakes, when Stirling Moss cruised home in 1952 at Reims.

The pioneering credentials of Robert Hassall-Gibson’s Ford Model T, which earned its keep on the US’s dusty oval dirt tracks, should need no introduction. The T took motoring to the masses and effectively gave rise to the production line. Britain’s equivalent is the Austin Seven, and Angus Forsyth’s rally-ready roadster is its representative here.

Another T, a Dry Lakes Roadster,

OPPOSITE Model T special honours one of Britain’s most forward-thinking car designers, Peter Stevens, while the RX-3 championed the rotary engine.

honours its maker – not Henry Ford, but Peter Stevens, one of Britain’s finest designers. His resumé includes the Le Mans-winning McLaren F1, the Jaguar XJR-15, the redesigned Lotus Esprit and more – including this Ford Alexander Special, having assembled it in the early 2000s.

The RX-3’s small but mighty rotary unit takes up little space in the engine bay but certainly makes its presence felt, and the Mazda was a key model in the 1970s rotary cult. Ultimately it failed to truly break into the mainstream, but that the company is revisiting the tech today underlines just how pioneering the Wankel was. The RX-3 itself is a rarity in the UK, but enjoyed success racing Stateside – keep an ear out for its unique, enthralling sound.

The Pioneers can be found on static display on the Main Drive by Building 123 on the Technical Site, and will take to the Experience & Demonstration Track each day.

THE ENTRANTS

1918/1932 Ford Model

T/B Dry Lakes hot rod

1960 Aston Martin

DB4GT

1973 Mazda RX-3

1903 Knox Model C

1903 Panhard et Levassor 10HP

1952 Jaguar C-type

1916 Ford T Racer

1910 Overland Model

38 Speedster

1930 Austin Ulster

EA Sports

1996 Ferrari F50

N/A Porsche 356

1965 Land Rover Series IIA

1929 Bentley 41/2 Litre Supercharged

SPIRIT OF AMERICA

Bicester has an indelible link with the US, to which we pay tribute with our collection of cars that have made their mark on the other side of the Atlantic

OPPOSITE Bentley Continental GT set a new production record at Pikes Peak. Classic Performance Engineering’s Corvette honours Roger Penske.

Words Jack Phillips

Photography Richard Pardon, Jack Phillips

RAF BICESTER BRIEFLY TOOK

on a renewed active life in the 1980s, when the United States Air Force used the site for storage, and later as a back-up military hospital during the first Gulf War.

Its use was limited, but the Spirit of America category of demonstration cars is a nod to that relatively recent chapter. Not all of the vehicles are American, such as the Turner 950S being driven by Mark Elder of The Motor Shed, based in The Special Repair Shop on the Technical Site.

The Turner was one of many little British sports cars that were sucked into the controversial Export or Die period, when car manufacturers had to forgo their stronghold market of the UK and focus on selling abroad – not least in America, whose drivers fell in love with British sports cars.

Exact numbers have been lost to history, but the little Wolverhamptonbased Turner made around 170 examples of the 950S, and fewer

than half remain today. It was based on the Austin A30 and later the A35 – the latter’s increase to 950cc giving the Turner its name. Many went to America, including this example. It’s raced all of its life, and has continued to do so since returning to the UK.

The Bentley Continental GT is world famous for its exploits in the States, in Colorado in particular. Each year the Pikes Peak Hill Climb attracts hundreds of brave drivers, and in 2019 Bentley celebrated its 100th birthday by setting a new production record of ten minutes 18 seconds in this very car. That’s an average of 70mph up the 5000ft, 12-mile course.

Other cars are full-on American heroes, such as the Corvette C2 prepared by Classic Performance Engineering. It honours The Captain, Roger Penske, whose all-conquering team is one of the biggest in not only US racing but all over the world.

Then there is the Model T, a car that transcends automotive history

let alone the Atlantic. This particular Ford is a sister to that in the Pioneers category and it, too, spent its early days on the US’s oval dirt tracks. Good for 60mph today, it hillclimbs and sprints – a marked change from its time in American ‘pig racing’ and car polo… The former would require the driver to catch the pig after a few laps, pick it up and continue racing.

The Cobra (running on Saturday) has an interesting history, too. CSX 2038 was used in the Elvis film Viva Las Vegas and Lee Marvin’s The Killers in 1964, before being packed off to the Carroll Shelby School of Performance Driving at California’s Riverside circuit, where Peter Brock taught people how to win races. Harvey Blake-Jones, an apprentice at the Heritage Skills Academy, will be racing the car all season.

This category’s name is a nod to Land Speed Record pioneer and first man to exceed 500mph and 600mph, Craig Breedlove, who died this year.

THE ENTRANTS

1954 HWM Cadillac N/A Chevrolet Corvette C2

2018 Bentley Continental GT Pikes Peak

1917 Ford T Racer

1962 Shelby American AC Cobra 260

1958 Turner 950S

1968 KAMM 912c

1958 Allard Farellac

LE MANS CENTENARY CELEBRATION

As the legendary French 24-hour endurance race marks its 100th anniversary, so we celebrate some of the most iconic cars ever to race there

Words Jack Phillips Photography Charlie B, Mark Fagelson Photography

LAST WEEKEND, LE MANS

hosted more race fans than ever before, for a celebration like no other; the grand race was turning 100. In 1923, a fair field of mainly French drivers sought to test their cars and their own mettle for a 24-hour race in central France.

Fortunately for the organisers, the sole Bentley – which had only begrudging support from the factory – fell out of contention, but WO Bentley was a convert. More help would be offered for 1924, and the drivers were rewarded with victory – although still not as an official Works team. Come 1930, when the very car seen at Bicester today raced with a supercharger (also against WO’s intentions), the marque was dominant, with four wins in four.

This supercharged 4½ Litre was a key reason for the final victory, because ‘Bentley Boy’ Sir Henry ‘Tim’ Birkin swapped the lead with Mercedes-Benz’s Rudi Caracciola

for so many hours at such a pace that neither car could cut it any longer, leaving Bentley’s remaining racers to cruise to a 1-2. Known as the ‘Birkin Blower’ after its creator, it is arguably the most famous racing Bentley of them all, and is the jewel in the marque’s heritage collection.

The Bentley Continental GT Le Mans Collection also seen on track this weekend has been created to celebrate the 2003 win, 20 years on, with a ‘7’ on the grille recalling the winning Speed 8, along with myriad more touches. It’s powered by the W12 engine, with the run of 48 cars among the last to use the 6.0-litre unit.

The other British coupé seen in Flywheel’s Le Mans Centenary Celebration collection is a genuine rarity. The TWR R9R was created by Tom Walkinshaw Racing to bring the thrill of Group C racing to the road, and beneath the Peter Stevensdesigned body is an XJR-9. Once the project reached its final stages,

OPPOSITE From one of the earliest Bentley racing cars to one of the brand’s latest models, our collection features Le Mans legends live on track.

Jaguar succumbed to its brilliance and told TWR to put a Jaguar badge on the nose. This R9R, owned by Andy Maynard, pre-dates that. While it never raced at La Sarthe, the chassis has Le Mans-winning pedigree.

As does the AC Cobra 39 PH being driven here by Kevin Kivlochan. In 1963, Ninian Sanderson shared the slippery hard-top-wearing Cobra to seventh overall and a class win with Peter Bolton – the best result of any open-top Cobra at Le Mans.

Jack Sears won just about everything in it in 1964 as well, taking class victories at prestigious meetings at both Goodwood and Silverstone – among others with J Willment Racing, which became JW Automotive when he combined with John Wyer.

The GTD40 – one of the best GT40 replicas made – of Paddock Speedshop honours the Le Manswinning squad with its iconic blue and orange Gulf livery.

THE ENTRANTS

2023 Bentley

Continental GT Le Mans Collection

1929 Bentley

41/2 Litre ‘Blower’

N/A Ford GTD40

1990 TWR

JaguarSport R9R

1963 AC Cobra

2023 Ferrari Testa Rossa J

1961 Morgan Plus 4

SuperSports

1966 Bizzarrini P538

MAGNETO TO ELECTRIC

Electric power was one of the earliest avenues open to automobile manufacturers – and, as celebrated in this category, it’s come full circle today

Words Jack Phillips

ELECTRIC MOTORING IS ALL

the rage today, but it’s been a long time coming. The earliest Land Speed Record runs were conducted under electric power, which was one of the three avenues for automobiles in the fledgling years of the car, along with steam and petrol.

The latter won out – but the mastering of electricity was still vital to momentum, because without the magneto no pre-war car would run. The Bugatti Type 35 and 37 that were so prevalent in racing, such as the 37 in action today from the Picardie

Grand Prix, needed a bolt to get going. Today, manufacturers such as Bicester Heritage resident Polestar are leaning on electricity more than ever, and the results are spectacular. The Polestar 2 BST Edition, on track as the course car and during the demo runs, can hit 0-60mph in 4.2 seconds. That’s exactly the same as a Ferrari F40, one of the greatest-ever supercars – yet the 2 carries a family and luggage with it. It is performance that Bugatti greats Tazio Nuvolari, W Williams, Louis Chiron and the likes could never even dream of.

BELOW Polestar 2

BST Edition is the latest in a long history of EVs.

THE ENTRANTS

1926 Bugatti Type 37

2020 Polestar 1

2023 Polestar 2

BST Edition

2023 Bugatti Baby II

1925 GN Anzani

Photography Charlie B

MOTORCYCLES

Bravery, dedication and a zest for danger – motorcycle racers are a breed apart. Our two-wheeled category pays tribute to both them and their historic machinery

Words Jack Phillips

Photography Mathieu Bonnevie

MOTORCYCLE RIDERS ARE

made of a different kind of stuff, and the sternest of it is reserved for racers. Especially those who rode the sort of bikes being showcased during this weekend’s four track sessions.

Even among the riders there are various levels of fearlessness, topped by those road-racers who scream around the Isle of Man TT, threading through stone wall-lined roads with millimetres to spare.

Northern Irishman Tom Herron was among the fastest of them, and one of his former bikes is in the lineup being ridden by Richard Duffin. The Yamaha TZ350, known as The Bass Special, was his mount at the 1974 Senior TT. With 350cc and liquid cooling that aided reliability –something key to the health of both motorbike and rider – the TZ series was the bike to be on in the 1970s. Two years after that appearance on The Bass Special, Herron made history by winning the last TT that

had World Championship status.

Another 350 on track is that of Andy Barrett, whose family firm gained an enviable reputation with Velocettes to the point where the factory would often call on its assistance. RF Seymour raced this 348cc Velocette KTT MkVIII at the TT and Manx GP between 1946 and 1952, and it’s never left the family stable since it was bought new in 1939. The engine was transplanted into a Rickman for the TT for a time – 35 years! – before being reunited with its original frame in 1990.

The bike category encapsulates the restless development of racing machines of the post-war years, too, with a 500cc Matchless G45 and Moto Guzzi Dondolino pairing. Matchless won the first TT, a full four-hour endurance event in those days, and the G45 was designed solely for GP racing between 1951 and 1957.

Meanwhile, the Don’s horizontally mounted single-pot overhead-valve

OPPOSITE A golden age for motorcycles – and riders – is celebrated at Flywheel, with bikes from Britain, Europe and the US.

unit is packed with innovation, with the external ‘bacon slicer’ flywheel that allows for a smaller crankcase and more compact engine.

Rather less nimble is the HarleyDavidson WLC, an ex-Canadian Army bike with a rumbling 750cc side-valve V-twin. Frank Chapman has carefully restored it, sourcing original parts that had been lost in the intervening years.

Frank will also be riding a rare Excelsior Manxman four-valve 250cc, one of only three overheadcam single-cylinder engines made by the factory for the 1936 season. In 1938 the units were split, but 40 years later a programme began to rebuild those original engines.

The earliest of the set is provided by Terry Wilson, and celebrates the low-slung pre-war racing days. Pioneering maker Douglas led from the front in the nascent speedway days with its SW5 Speed Model, a 500cc ohv twin-cylinder from 1928.

THE ENTRANTS

1975 Yamaha TZ350

1928 Douglas SW5 Speed Model

1947 Moto Guzzi Dondolino

1953 Matchless G45

1936 Excelsior Manxman

1939/44 HarleyDavidson WLC

1939 Velocette

KTT MkVIII

N/A Norton Manx

1926 Flying Millyard

5-litre V-twin

1959 Norton Manx

1968 Honda RC174

1985 Toyota Supra, ex-Barry Sheene

THE BRITS

Cars from Jaguar, Land Rover, Austin, Caterham, Frazer Nash and Morgan are among the home-grown legends you can see in action at Bicester

Words Jack Phillips

Photography Amy Shore, JLR Classic

WHILE FRANCE AND GERMANY could both claim to be the original home of the motor car, no country quite has the same love affair or sprawling back catalogue as plucky old Britain. We can make anything – whether in a shed, as part of a cottage-industry company or in a huge manufacturing organisation.

The Owen Jaguar is an example of the former category, created by Brooklands racer Freddie Owen and once owned by record producer Pete Waterman. Up front is a six-cylinder 3.4-litre Jaguar engine shrouded by a homemade space-frame chassis and hand-rolled alloy body.

Jaguar itself is represented in the Flywheel Brits demo by Pendine’s Guy Broad-fettled Mk1, which is piloted by Rev Adam Gompertz, while the wider Jaguar group is unleashing the remarkable 1965 Land Rover Series IIA-inspired Islay Edition of the Works V8, boasting a huge 405bhp and a sub-six-second

0-60mph time. The car it honours, Spencer Wilks’ own, is in Pioneers.

Then there is the Caterham, the benchmark for many kit-car makers. The Surrey-based brand’s range starts with the brilliant low-power, low-grip Classic, all the way up to what will scream around Bicester today: the 620R. No Caterham is faster, despite sharing the 2.0-litre Duratec with much of the range. The difference is a supercharger, helping produce 310bhp in a car weighing half a tonne. Hence the model’s name – you do the maths...

Other examples in this category are from what were once major manufacturers that sadly lacked the powers of endurance – but these machines have taken on a renewed vigour. The Austin A40, driven by Kerry Wilson, is enjoying a moment in the sun thanks to a thriving Historic racing scene.

The Frazer Nash Mille Miglia, meanwhile, has an enviable history

OPPOSITE The distinctive Morgan 3 Wheeler roadster gets added bite at Bicester, as does the 405bhp V8-powered Land Rover Islay Edition.

and ease of drive that belies its 1950s origin. The Goodwood Nine Hours and London Rally in 1953 must have been a breeze. One of a mere 11 made, it is a true rarity.

But if Frazer Nash and Austin have been lost, Morgan remains and is using the same family recipe it always has. Only safety regulations, as well as engine and ’box availability, have required certain shifts. Today BMW has that covered, while the auto transmission is becoming an increasingly popular option courtesy of race-bred ZFs. Today’s Plus range comes with four- or six-cylinder power, the latter a 335bhp twinturbo borrowed from the Z4. The package combines tradition and innovation – traits that have helped Morgan carve its special niche.

Another Morgan to appear in the Brits category on Sunday is both traditional and unconventional: the 3 Wheeler of Alex Goy. Complete with shark-teeth decals…

THE ENTRANTS

2023 Land Rover Classic Defender Works V8

Islay Edition

2013 Caterham 620R

1934 Frazer Nash

Norris Special

1958 Owen

Jaguar GTS

2023 Morgan Plus Six

1963 Austin A40

1933 MG K3

1958 Jaguar Mk1

1953 Frazer Nash

Mille Miglia

2016 Morgan

3 Wheeler

BICESTER HERITAGE SPECIALISTS

AUTO-HISTORICA

Artisan coachbuilder experienced in prototypes, bespoke body recreation and historic racing cars, across all marques from pre-war Bentleys and Rolls-Royce to Porsches. Auto-Historica offers services including body recreation, brass work, panel replacement and repairing battle damage to historic race cars. Auto-Historica works in all metals including aluminium, steel and brass. Special projects include prototype design and creation, artisan furniture and historic aircraft fabrication and repair.

■ Building 103, Flight Simulator

■ 07973 425276

■ mt@auto-historica.co.uk

■ www.auto-historica.co.uk

BICESTER AERODROME COMPANY

The Bicester Aerodrome Company is the proud operator of Bicester Motion’s airfield. The Bicester Aerodrome Company was founded in 2020 to manage the airfield at Bicester Motion and ensure diverse aviation activity continues into the future. The aerodrome has a long history, dating back to the pioneering years of flight, and is open to all types of aviation.

■ Hangar 137

■ 01869 254841

■ cm@bicesteraero.com

■ www.bicesteraero.com

AUTO WAX WORKS

Automotive detailer, paintcorrection and protection specialist – with a side in coffee and homemade cakes. Auto Wax Works is the place where both you and your car’s paintwork leave refreshed, with dedicated detailing bays and specialist baristas working side by side. Auto Wax Works offers expert paint protection with experience of working on some of the finest and most valuable cars in the world.

■ Building 129, The Motor Transport Wash

■ 01869 320571

■ autowaxworks@gmail.com

■ www.autowaxworks.co.uk

BLUE DIAMOND RILEY SERVICES LIMITED

Specialist in restoring, reviving and rediscovering Rileys for more than 40 years.

Rarely without a gaggle of Rileys queueing up for attention, there is no better place in the world to send your Riley than Blue Diamond Riley Services. From servicing to sourcing parts, and event preparation to event support, the company has worked on every Riley that matters.

■ Building 90, The Main Stores

■ 01823 490429

■ info@blue-diamondservices.co.uk

■ www.blue-diamondservices.co.uk

Our leading automotive site is home to everything from classic car services to high-tech EV companies

BRABHAM GROUP LIMITED

Brabham is a brand that stands for 70 years of innovation across motor sport, with Sir Jack’s legacy of pioneering thinking at its core. Brabham Group limited was established by Jack’s son David in 2014, to help accelerate pioneering businesses to market who are driving both performance and efficiency in sustainable mobility and green tech, to make the world a cleaner and more sustainable place.

■ Building 123, The Station Armoury

■ 0845 053 6821

■ enquiries@brabham.co.uk

■ www.brabham.co.uk

BURLEN

Carburettor specialist and classic vehicle enthusiast Burlen is very much ‘in the family’, with brothers Mark, Andy and Jamie setting up their Burlen and J40 Motor Company as a showroom and space to showcase their passion. While all carbs and associated parts will continue to be made in Salisbury, as will the products of the J40 Motor Company, the Bicester Heritage site will be used as a brand showcase and entertaining area, both regularly open to visitors. There will also be a permanent display of Austin J40 pedal cars, spares and accessories to view and buy.

■ Building 129, The Motor Transport Yard

■ 01722 334221

■ www.burlen.co.uk

ELECTROGENIC

The Electrogenic team takes beautiful classic cars and converts them to 100 percent electric. With technology, craftsmanship and a love of beautiful cars, Electrogenic creates clean, green classic vehicles. The team can convert an old family friend, or source your dream car for conversion. What its customers drive away is a reborn classic with spirit, flair and another 50 years of classic motoring ahead.

■ Building 118

■ 01865 604343

■ enquiries@electrogenic.co.uk

■ www.electrogenic.co.uk

FINEST HOUR EXPERIENCES

The best way to capture breathtaking views of Bicester Heritage. Finest Hour Experiences provides unforgettable memories with a fleet of historic aircraft. Two Tiger Moths are joined by a Stearman, with high-octane flights in a CAP10 for those wanting more thrills and spills. Take a lesson or simply sit back and enjoy the views as a passenger.

■ Hangar 137

■ 07415 735683

■ info@finesthour experiences.co.uk

■ www.finesthour experiences.co.uk

CLASSIC PERFORMANCE ENGINEERING

A leading specialist in servicing, restoration and race preparation of classic and historic sports cars.

The Classic Performance Engineering workshop is usually packed with super-rare exotica, unique racing cars, priceless heirlooms and a growing number of more modern collector cars. The team also prepares race cars and offers trackside support, making it a one-stop shop for many classic car owners and racers.

■ Building 90, The Main Stores

■ 01869 322913

■ info@cp-eng.co.uk

■ www.classicperformance engineering.co.uk

HAGERTY

A Clubhouse for events and much more.

The Hagerty Clubhouse features member lounges, a sociable bar area and an exhibition space for curated vehicle displays. Hagerty hosts regular events at the venue, including industry presentations, celebrity talks and car culture-inspired activities for all types of classic and enthusiast vehicle enthusiasts.

■ Building 141b, The Command Works

■ 0333 323 1138

■ enquiries@hagerty insurance.co.uk

■ www.hagerty.co.uk

HANGAR 136

Hangar 136 offers a young, enthusiastic experience for customers looking to buy or sell a classic car.

Established to help bring the wonders of classic motoring to the next generation of classic car owners, Hangar 136 works with classic car finance specialist Charles & Dean and warranty provider Warrantywise. Hangar 136 offers bespoke finance packages, as well as three-, six- or 12-month warranty options for each car.

■ Tanker Shed 136

■ 020 4548 3275

■ info@hangar136.com

■ www.hangar136.com

HERITAGE SKILLS ACADEMY

Delivering classic vehicle restoration apprenticeships on behalf of the UK’s leading vehicle specialists. Few companies can claim to be keeping heritage skills alive quite like the Heritage Skills Academy. It has a long history of award-winning apprentices, with graduates beginning their careers all over the country and industry. HSA is supported by the FHBVC, and recruits for employers across the UK.

■ Building 90, The Main Stores

■ 01438 718224

■ apprenticeships@heritage skillsacademy.co.uk

■ www.heritageskills academy.co.uk

HARRY FRASER VEHICLE UPHOLSTERY

Vintage vehicle upholsterer, utilising historic techniques and materials to achieve period-correct results.

Harry Fraser and his team are experts in the world of vehicle interiors and upholstery, including hoods, seats and leather repairs – and plenty more besides. Not limited to solely vintage machinery – later classics and modern cars are regularly among the projects, and even the odd piece of furniture.

■ Building 102, The Engine Test House

■ 07813 950743

■ hfvehicleupholstery @gmail.com

■ www.harryfraser vehicleupholstery.com

HERO-ERA

A multi-service historic motoring platform hosting renowned events such as the Peking to Paris Motor Challenge.

HERO-ERA takes competitors across the globe on epic events such as the Peking to Paris, and creates national rallies for those at the start of their rallying journey. HERO-ERA is also helping to clean up the classic car hobby with its NET-HERO carbon-offset programme.

■ Building 138, The Command Works

■ 01869 254979

■ enquiries@hero-era.com

■ www.hero-era.com

HERITAGE ENGINEERING LTD

Parts manufacturer and expert in machining all types of components and gears. Bespoke and low-volume parts manufacturing is the bread and butter of Heritage Engineering. With CNC milling and turning expertise, the company has a wealth of experience in reverse engineering should the part prove elusive. There is barely a job too big or too small.

■ Building 90, The Main Stores

■ 01869 277870

■ workshop@heritage engineering.co.uk

■ www.heritage engineering.co.uk

HISTORIC AND CLASSIC VEHICLE ALLIANCE

Protecting the future of our past.

The HCVA was launched in 2021 with the aim of bringing together the thousands of specialists employed in the historic motoring industry to promote, support and maintain the long-term health of the sector. It provides a unified voice in government and media, championing the future of classic cars.

■ Bicester Heritage

■ 01869 934525

■ team@hcva.co.uk

■ www.hcva.co.uk

HISTORIT

Guardian of all ages of historic vehicle, with a vehicle-storage facility unlike any other. This is the ultimate service when it comes to car storage – and, as a result, Historit is brimming with classics and supercars, racers and motorbikes. The preparation is meticulous and the care exacting. Secure and climate optimised, there is no better place to store your vehicles.

■ Hangar 108

■ 01869 248805

■ guardians@historit.co.uk

■ www.historit.co.uk

KINGSBURY RACING SHOP LIMITED

Expert in vintage Bentley restoration, preparation and servicing.

Vintage Bentleys travel across the world to be under the watchful eye of the Kingsbury Racing team. A specialist in 1930s Bentleys, its skills match modern and heritage techniques to ensure the finest and most reliable results. As the company name suggests, Kingsbury Racing prepares motor sport winners, too.

■ Building 99, The Engine Fitting Shop

■ 07803 206536

■ ewen@kingsburyracing.com

■ www.kingsburyracing.com

LEGENDS AUTOMOTIVE

A dealer in racing and collector cars, founded through a fervour for both historic motor cars and their heroic drivers. Based in the Motor Transport Yard, Legends Automotive sources and sells some of the finest racing and sports cars you’ll come across. Expect everything from Grand Prix winners and Le Mans icons to epic hot hatches and archetypal British sports cars – and plenty more in between.

■ Building 129, The Protected Long Bay

■ 01451 821611

■ info@legendsautomotive.co.uk

■ www.legendsautomotive.co.uk

LOOP

A specialist automotive PR and communications agency producing award-winning work. Loop works across the automotive spectrum, from manufacturers to specialists, and it also covers the engineering and technology sectors. It offers the full service – content creation, product launches, event management and brand services.

■ Building 123, Station Armoury

■ 01869 228766

■ info@loopagency.co.uk

■ www.loopagency.co.uk

MORGAN MOTOR COMPANY

An experiential hub for the Morgan Motor Company, one of the longest-established British automotive manufacturers. Discover the full dynamic capabilities of Morgan sports cars with a one-to-one performance driving course.

The Morgan Driving Academy features a special fleet of Plus Four or Plus Six models, professional performance driving instructors and tailored courses.

■ Building 82, Power House

■ 01684 573104

■ contact@morgan-motor.com

■ www.morgan-motor.com

MOTOR SPIRIT LTD

Purveyor of lubricants, liquids and Tetraboost suitable for all types of historic vehicle. There could only ever have been one place for Fuzz Townshend’s Classic Oils to take residence – the old Lubricant Store. You’ll find every lubricant you could ever need, along with car care and more. As well as being the UK supplier of Penrite, the firm also stocks other classic brands.

■ Building 96, The Lubricant Store

■ 01869 227062

■ sales@motorspirit.co.uk

■ www.motorspirit.co.uk

MOTORSPORT UK

The national membership organisation and governing body for four-wheel competition in the UK. Motorsport UK embraces a diverse community that includes 720 affiliated motor clubs, 30,000 competition licence holders, 10,000 volunteer marshals, 4000 officials and a legion of passionate motor sport spectators and fans. It issues more than 5000 event permits each year, providing everyone with the opportunity to get close to the action.

■ Building 141a, The Command Works

■ 01753 765000

■ hello@motorsportuk.org

■ www.motorsportuk.org

PENDINE HISTORIC CARS LIMITED

Specialist in everything from Edwardian racers to 1990s supercars, with 1940s-1970 cars being a particular focus. While focusing specifically on the immediate post-war period through to the 1970s, Pendine’s experience ranges from Edwardian racers through to the supercars of the 1990s. The knowledge within the team is exemplary, giving you peace of mind that every car is the very best of the breed.

■ Building 93, The Blast House

■ 01869 357126

■ cars@pendine.co

■ www.pendine.co

NEOM

NEOM McLaren Electric Racing, competing as the NEOM McLaren Formula E Team and NEOM McLaren Extreme E Team. The Formula E Team will be formed through the acquisition of the Mercedes-EQ outfit that will see the reigning Formula E team transfer to McLaren Racing. This reflects its commitment to the third generation of the series – which will see the introduction of its fastest race car yet. McLaren Racing’s recent acquisition of EV tech is part of the firm’s ongoing sustainability journey, while reaching a new, global audience.

■ The Field Force Motor Transport Shed, Building 119

■ www.mclaren.com/ racing/contact-us

■ racingcareers.mclaren.com/ neom-mclaren-electric-racing

PHYSICSX LTD

PhysicsX is a team of scientists and engineers who help their clients achieve winning performance. Working across a variety of sectors including automotive, aerospace, space, medical, renewables and additive manufacturing, PhysicsX has a 20-year track record as an integral part of motor sport success at the highest level. It has innovated patents across technologies, and works at the edge of advanced simulation and machine learning.

■ Building 143

■ 07850 650706

■ info@physicsx.ai

■ www.physicsx.ai

OLLIMINIUM

Ollie Mullard of Olliminium specialises in automotive fabrication for both road and track use.

Olliminium specialises in automotive fabrication for use on road and track alike, from yesteryear to future years. Boss Ollie is well versed in working on confidential development projects for OEMs and yet-tobe released projects, offering a high level of discretion and privacy as part of the service.

■ Building 133, Articulated Trailer Shed

■ 07725 149102

■ ollie@olliminium.co.uk

■ www.olliminium.co.uk

POLESTAR

An open and welcoming head office for the leading EV manufacturer. Polestar Bicester is a new multi-purpose location that provides a home for the operational staff supporting the 8000 Polestar customers on UK roads. This includes the recent move to in-source all customer care centre staff. Sales, operations, marketing and communications functions will also operate out of Bicester.

■ Building 145, The Command Works

■ www.polestar.com/uk

RH45

Insurance on a worldwide basis. Angus Forsyth and Marcus Atkinson are well placed to provide competitive insurance for your classic cars. With the ability to offer insurance on a worldwide basis, coupled with a strong network of partners, the Rh45 team can offer exceptional service for owners of precious cars and classic collections.

■ Building 123, Station Armoury

■ 01869 943495

■ marcus.atkinson@rh45 insurance.co.uk

■ www.rh45insurance.co.uk

ROBERT GLOVER LIMITED

Purveyor, curator and consultant in rare vintage cars. Born into the classic motor trade, Robert Glover has expertise across the breadth of the sector. That could be project managing a restoration, researching your car or prospective purchase, offering advice for auctions or helping to acquire your dream classic. The team can advise on storage, logistics requirements and events.

■ Garage 94

■ 01869 244255

■ info@robertglover-ltd.com

■ www.robertglover-ltd.com

ROR CREATIVE

ROR Creative is a creative agency delivering expert communications material for global brands in the market of cars, tech and rock ’n’ roll. Delivering these brands’ message succinctly is what ROR Creative does, and can do for you, too – it is creativity delivered expertly. ROR has worked with a variety of high-profile clients including Brabham Group, Haas F1 Team and Red Bull TV.

■ Building 137

■ 01869 220949

■ office@rorcreative.com

■ www.rorcreative.com

RYAN EDWARDS EXHAUST FABRICATION LTD

Master of bespoke highperformance exhaust manifolds and systems for road and race. A one-stop shop for your exhaust needs – from designing and manufacturing bespoke projects to developing existing ones, the team can also reverse engineer using jigs and CAD. Whether it’s a road or race requirements, modern or vintage, there’s no higher standard of exhaust fabrication.

■ Building 90, The Main Stores

■ 07545 212118

■ ryan@reexhaustfabs.co.uk

■ www.reexhaustfabs.co.uk

SKY WAVE GIN

A world-renowned and award-winning boutique distillery.

Sky Wave Gin founders and distillers Rachel Hicks and Andrew Parsons were always searching for their perfect gin, but failing to find it. So they decided to make it. Since launching in 2018, Sky Wave’s Signature London Dry was named the World’s Best Contemporary Gin at the World Gin Awards in 2020.

■ Building 105, The Northern Tanker Sheds

■ 01869 713813

■ info@skywavegin.co.uk

■ www.skywavegin.co.uk

SPORTS PURPOSE

Authentic Porsche sports cars and their contemporary rivals. James Turner and his team of Porsche enthusiasts know all there is to know about Stuttgart’s finest. Owners and prospective owners can visit Sports Purpose’s iconic base for advice on which car to buy, research assistance, sales and acquisitions, inspection and evaluation, support, event creation and management

– and plenty more.

■ Building 130,

The Special Repair Shop

■ 01869 225650

■ info@sports-purpose.com

■ www.sports-purpose.com

STARTERMOTOR

Bicester Heritage’s resident automotive charity. StarterMotor’s passion is to see the next generation of young people driving, maintaining and enjoying historic cars. StarterMotor is determined to ensure young people receive a big welcome to the historic motoring community, by supporting them in their ambitions and promoting access to classic cars.

■ Building 123, The Station Armoury

■ info@startermotor.co

■ www.startermotor.co

THE MOTOR SHED LIMITED

A specialist in vintage and post-war classics, with decades of experience to call on.

The Motor Shed always has a variety of vehicles in stock, from pre-war Austins to post-war Triumphs and Jaguar E-types. Mark Elder not only provides buyers with the advice needed, but also has know-how from the race tracks of Europe aboard all manner of Austin Sevens.

■ Building 135

■ 01869 249999

■ info@vintage andclassiccars.co.uk

■ www.vintage andclassiccars.co.uk

SWB MOTORSPORT

Single-seater racing car and military vehicle experience days. SWB offers driving experiences in military machinery, from MAN SV and DAF trucks to an Alvis tank or a fire truck. Experiences start at £99, while children over the age of 12 can have a go in a NATO all-terrain vehicle or sit alongside an instructor for £29.

■ Building 111, Fire Tender House

■ 01327 110520

■ simon@swbmotorsport.co.uk

■ www.swbmotorsport.co.uk

THE LITTLE CAR COMPANY

The Little Car Company is the world expert in producing exceptional junior cars, in partnership with the most elite automotive manufacturers. Adored by collectors and car enthusiasts around the world, these electric juniors pay tribute to the most coveted classic vehicles in automotive history. Partnerships with Bugatti, Aston Martin and Ferrari have yielded stunning small-scale electric cars, with incredible attention to detail and brilliant performance.

■ Building 142, The Command Works

■ 0207 112 9056

■ contact@thelittlecar.co

■ www.thelittlecar.co

THE ROAD RAT MAGAZINE

A new kind of car magazine. Not overly obsessed with the detail of old cars, nor overimpressed with the performance of new; The Road Rat instead believes there are good stories in both – and in racing, too. The Road Rat also believes in the glory of magazines – lush, beautiful, valuable, collectable and exquisitely crafted.

■ Building 92, The Parachute Store

■ enquiries@theroadrat.com

■ www.theroadrat.com

THE WRIGGLY MONKEY BREWERY

The resident brewery at Bicester Heritage, producing the very finest ales. Cars and motor sport are just as important as beer at The Wriggly Monkey Brewery. There is a regular menu of beers on tap, all brewed at Bicester Heritage, and a growing number of experimental beers spring up almost month by month.

■ Building 131, The Motor Transport Yard

■ 01869 246599

■ info@wrigglymonkey brewery.com

■ www.wrigglymonkey brewery.com

TWENTYSEVEN WORKS

A specialist in digital, content marketing and social media for premium, luxury and automotive.

TwentySeven Works delivers engaging websites and digital strategies that find and orchestrate new customers for premium and luxury brands. It is also the architect behind Scramblers – the membership club for Bicester Heritage.

■ Building 94, The Tanker Sheds

■ hello@27.works

■ www.27.works

VINTAGE CAR RADIATOR COMPANY

The only company in the world to manufacture all 26 different types of pre-war radiator core. Founded in 1998, Vintage Car Radiator Company mixes manufacturer work with consumer projects. The firm is able to manufacture 26 different patterns of original equipment cores, as well as create new units and components. It is also the home of Rob Smith Motorsport.

■ Building 99, Main Workshops

■ 01869 240001

■ email@vintagecarradiator company.co.uk

■ www.vintagecarradiator company.co.uk

VINTAGE MAGNETOS

Magneto sage, restorer, supplier and manufacturer for aircraft and cars.

The details matter to Karl at Vintage Magnetos. The smaller, the finer and the fiddlier the better. The work is delicate but always rewarding and, most importantly, in keeping with the period. But there is modern reliability built into every magneto or element that leaves Vintage Magnetos.

■ Building 94, The Western Tanker Sheds

■ 07474 027581

■ rfuffa@aol.com

■ www.twitter.com/ vmagnetos?lang=en

VINTAGE TYRES

If you need new tyres in period-correct patterns and sizes, you’re in the right place. Vintage Tyres stocks tyres, tubes, rim-bands and related accessories for cars and bikes from the 1890s to the 1990s. Classic Performance Engineering is one of only two official Vintage Tyres fitting centres, and can help you in your search for road, off-road, race and 4x4 rubber from leading brands.

■ Based in Classic Performance Engineering, Building 90, The Main Stores

■ 01869 879541

■ hello@vintagetyres.com

■ www.vintagetyres.com

ZAPP ELECTRIC VEHICLES

A company that designs and manufactures high-performance electric motorcycles.

The Zapp Experience Centre will be a place where customers can build and specify their bike with their exact requirements and preferences, in addition to test riding the i300 on the surrounding roads as well as the famous Bicester test track.

■ Building 149, The Command Works

■ info@zappev.com

■ www.zappev.com

ZERO PETROLEUM

At the forefront of fossilfree fuel, Zero Petroleum is revolutionising aviation and automotive petroleumbased products.

The new facility provides 10,000ft2 of mixed laboratory and engineering space, delivering the next step in development of the company’s ground-breaking technology with the production of synthetic Zero aviation fuels. It’s also entered into a joint development project with the Royal Air Force.

■ Building 148, The Command Works

■ enquiries@zeropetroleum.com

■ www.zero.co

COLLECTING CARS

Official auction partner

Collecting Cars is a global online auction platform devoted to cars, bikes and automobilia. It is open for bids 24/7, with new auctions going live every day. The platform might be 100 percent online, but behind the scenes Collecting Cars is a passionate team of more than 90 car enthusiasts who work around the clock to get your car or bike in front of the most eyes. Collecting Cars also runs the hugely successful Coffee Run events, including at Bicester Heritage. The most recent took place in May and welcomed more than 2000 classic and collector cars through the gates. At Flywheel, Collecting Cars’ Porsche Sale will come to a conclusion – see some of the consignments on the Scramblers Lawn powered by Collecting Cars. www.collectingcars.com

FOOTMAN JAMES

Official insurance partner

For more than 40 years Footman James has continued to be one of the leading specialist insurance brokers for classic vehicle owners, restorers, collectors, motor traders and competitors. It’s enjoyed a unique relationship with vintage and classic vehicle enthusiasts and clubs, working with more than 150 clubs and partners offering policies with benefits that are important to the enthusiast. Footman James also insures a combined value of £2.5bn-worth of vehicles, all of which are dealt with by one of more than 100 dedicated members of staff who deliver and maintain a high level of service. In partnership with Scramblers, Footman James will host one of its Coffee and Chrome classic vehicle meets during the summer. www.footmanjames.co.uk

BENTLEY MOTORS Event partner

Bentley is the world’s most sought-after luxury car brand. Its Crewe headquarters is home to all of its operations including design, R&D, engineering, Mulliner and production of the marque’s five model lines: Continental GT, Continental GT Convertible, Flying Spur, Bentayga and Bentayga EWB. The combination of craftsmanship –using skills that have been handed down through generations – with engineering expertise and cutting-edge tech is unique to UK luxury car brands such as Bentley. It’s also an example of high-value British manufacturing at its best. Bentley employs around 4000 people at Crewe, and is based in Building 112 at every major Bicester Heritage event, showcasing a special range with Bentley High Wycombe. www.bentleymotors.com

LIGHTSOURCE BP Energy partner

Lightsource bp is an international solar business developing, financing, building and operating utility-scale solar-power projects through smart and sustainable solutions. Since 2010, Lightsource bp has provided sustainable and affordable energy to businesses and communities throughout the UK. It has successfully developed, financed, constructed and connected more than 200 solar projects in the UK alone. As a leading global solar developer and bp partner, it is rapidly scaling up to help meet the rising demand for reliable electricity, while supporting the global energy transition to net zero. Partnering with Lightsource bp goes some way to ensuring a greener future for the next generation of classic car enthusiasts. www.lightsourcebp.com/uk

CHAMPAGNE POMMERY Champagne partner

In 1858, Madame Pommery took over as head of Pommery & Greno after the death of her husband. She based the expansion of her House on the creation of wines unlike any others, with one constant demand: quality pushed to the extreme. Over the years she built a collection of the finest vineyards in all of Champagne. In matters of taste she was ahead of her time. It was she who created Pommery Nature in 1874, the first brut Champagne to meet with commercial success, thereby breaking with the tradition of very sweet wine. A woman in a man’s world, she imprinted her personality on her Champagnes. The purity and the finesse of Pommery wines perpetuate this legacy.

www.champagnepommery.com

RADIO SHOW LIMITED Multimedia partner

Born out of the introduction of Special Event Radio during the 1980s, Radio Le Mans has been available to listeners at the historic French race circuit since 1987, before going global through live streaming. Radio Show Limited (RSL) is led by Eve Hewitt and John Hindhaugh, and has become the voice of the world’s greatest race. RSL provides commentary trackside and online across the world as the authority on sports car racing. Its weekly magazine show, Midweek Motorsport, is unprecedented in its reach and in making the sport accessible to the masses. RSL will be streaming Flywheel live in sound and vision all weekend, and is available on demand.

www.radiolemans.co

SCRAMBLERS

Official membership club

Scramblers was born out of Bicester Heritage’s quarterly Scramble events, and in just two years it has attracted a membership in the tens of thousands. Each month a themed Assembly is held – a cars-and-coffee meet that costs £5 per person or is free to those who have upgraded to either Pegasus or Merlin memberships. Other Scramblers benefits include exclusive events, early ticket access and more. It’s free to join, with upgrades starting at £54. Scramblers prides itself on being inclusive, welcoming anyone with an automotive bent. You’ll see Scramblers members’ cars by the Bicester Aerodrome Company, and you can find out more by visiting the Scramblers Lawn powered by Collecting Cars.

https://wearescramblers.com

NET-HERO

Net-Hero is a leading carbon-offset company, providing an easyto-use web-based platform to access environmentally responsible driving. Whether it’s a Ford Focus or a Jaguar E-type, Net-Hero allows you to offset your vehicle’s carbon footprint. A three-step process calculates the emissions from new and classic cars, before estimating their total carbon footprint. Users can then offset the environmental impact of their vehicle, or event, by contributing to global decarbonisation projects developed by BeZero Carbon via the Net-Hero basket. Bicester Heritage will donate 20 carbon credits, contributing towards the total CO2 emissions calculated from Flywheel’s on-site operations and logistics, which will then be used in two South American-based initiatives.

www.net-hero.org

BICESTER MOTION

Bicester Motion is a unique 444-acre resort that aims to offer leisure, culture, educational and tourism experiences within one magnificent destination. It plans to be the first experiential automotive space where visitors can become fully immersed in the breadth of automotive culture, from existing on-site historic specialists (at Bicester Heritage) through to future electric and autonomous technology. This planned low-density development will be dedicated to driving experiences and the demonstration of high-tech engineering as well as health, well-being, events, accommodation and aviation. It seeks to become a top-20 visitor attraction that offers a destination for up to one million visitors, and a further 200-plus businesses providing thousands of skilled jobs. www.bicestermotion.com

UNLOCK A WORLD OF STORIES.

At Hoodpin we curate and cultivate car stories from around the globe and deliver them directly to your inbox.

Our editorial team are masters of modern collector culture and spend hours searching for incredible stories, like the story of Drew Haffner, the vintage Porsche panel beater that works for the

renowned resto-mod builder Rod Emory in LA. Drew created his own Porsche 912 masterpiece in the Emory Motorsport workshop after hours, sleeping on the concrete floor and working through the night before starting work again early in the morning.

Want to read more? Scan the QR code below to visit our site.

Please note that you are attending this event at your own risk. Warning! Vehicles will be moving around the site throughout the event, and the Experience & Demonstration Track and airfield are both active. Dogs must be kept on leads at all times.

BAR

Ticket Check

Vintage Tea Tent

Catering Outlets

Fairground & Electric Karts

Trade Stands

Beringer’s Enclosure

Autotest

Silent Cinema

Entertainment Tent

Scramblers Lawn Powered by Collecting Cars

Art Exhibition/ Kids

Autojumble

Static Aircraft Display

Static Aviation & Motoring

Exhibits

Aero Engines

Military Vehicle Rides

Visiting Aircraft

Pilots Check-in

1771 Club

VIP Parking

Parking

Disabled Parking

Scramblers Parking

Car Club Parking

Mobility Scooters

Toilets

Medical Centre

Defibrillator x2

Pioneers

THE LIMITED-EDITION TRIPLE-FOUR RACING CHRONOGRAPH IS MORE THAN A BEAUTIFUL WATCH

It’s a Swiss Chronometer with heritage features that offer a journey of discovery, inspired by iconic automobiles and featuring details paying homage to British motorsport history. Designed by the legendary Sir Terence Conran, and limited to just 500 units.

www.brooklandswatches.com