Bicester Heritage Flywheel Festival, June 23-24

Photos by Jonathan Sharp

Located on one of the oldest and best-preserved RAF bases in the UK and only 60 miles northwest of London, Bicester Heritage is a hub for classic car businesses, now with 30 trades on one historic site, compete with a test track. It is the realization of a dream of Dan Geoghegan, who purchased the 348 acre airfield and its 50 buildings from the Ministry of Defense for £3.4million and began work in 2013. It needed work and he has been restoring the site ever since.

According to his website, “We have rejuvenated this unique architectural survivor, restoring the RAF’s Technical Site for modern purpose and created not just a destination, but a thriving hub of industry geared to supporting the wider motoring community. We have refurbished and restored the red brick buildings, hangars, tree-lined avenues and airfield to provide an authentic period setting for specialists, vehicle owners, enthusiasts and visitors to meet, share their passions and immerse themselves in a classic age.”

The base came complete with the old airport runways, making “the perfect environment for pre-race shakedown testing through to tracking shots for documentaries. Our test track is a kilometre in length and is configurable as a loop or figure of eight. With some tight turns and a long back straight, it is perfect for warming up historic cars, getting to grips with a crash gearbox or testing a car from one of the dealers based at Bicester Heritage prior to sale.” Jonathan Sharp covers the Flywheel event herein and next week he promised to send some images taken at the test track and paddock area.

Goeghegan’s motive was to gather together outstanding classical businesses, from dealers to restoration outfits in one spot, a one stop shopping center for classics. “With classic cars getting to these specialists can be time-consuming and frustrating. There may be only a handful who deal with your specific car and in this fragmented industry they are often on out-of-the-way industrial areas, or even down farm tracks”.

Renting the old airbase out to film companies is another source of income…and publicity for Bicester Heritage. Car dealer Robert Glover has a selection of mainly pre-war Bentleys, housed in the old Power House, which was used as a set in the film the Imitation Game, starring Benedict Cumberbatch. Another movie to make use of the historic ambiance of Bicester was Darkest Hour, an Academy Award nominated film from last year.

Get the picture? The old “Build it and they will Come” routine, but the hub is a new idea for the classic car scene. To drive addition traffic and publicity, the Bicester Heritage is home to two established events; the Sunday Scramble and Flywheel Festival, a new collaboration of The Classic and Sports Car Show in association with Flywheel. And this is the event our Jonathan Sharp covered for us below, taking photos of both the cars entered in the Flywheel event and a look into the garages and businesses that make up the hub that is Bicester Heritage.