Bicester Heritage - April Scramble 2025
When you could spend an entire day looking around the visitor car park, I think all car enthusiasts will agree that it's a promising sign of an event worth attending. So, you can imagine the reassurance I felt when I stepped out of my car to be confronted by an immaculate Mazda RX-7 (FD), a Porsche 997 sitting nicely on BBS LMs, a brace of DC2 Integra Type-Rs and a Riviera Blue 993 RS. A cursory glance across the field revealed a first-generation Lotus Exige, a 964 RS, a Delta Integrale. Beyond them, a couple of de Havilland Chipmunks sat with a Tiger Moth on the edge of a grass airfield. There was enough serious metal here to get excited before I had even taken a step.
It was my first Bicester Scramble, and I've got to admit I hadn't got a clue what to expect when I set off. I'd taken a quick glance at the website to check parking arrangements, but that was about it. And though I absolutely adore aircraft, I must admit I rather foolishly made some assumptions when I saw the visit" section of the website had an "arrive by air" link.
As much as we don't like to admit it, we car enthusiasts can be bloody quick to judge. Like any pastimes, our beloved hobby has its uglier side, and is often spoiled by jealousy, snobbery, and division. Air-cooled vs. water-cooled. UK spec vs. Japanese spec. The haves and the have nots. Personally, I've found the past few years of attending shows and meets to be rather tiresome as a result. Seeing the potential that even a small crowd would be arriving by private plane made me think instantly of a meet (that will remain nameless) which I attended last year, where I overheard a group of TAG-wearing men commenting that there was a "smell of poor" when a group of Subaru Imprezas burbled past. In the interests of seeing some incredible cars though, I quickly batted my prejudice to the back of my mind.
And as soon as I began to stroll around the former Royal Air Force base, I am more than happy to report that I couldn't have been more wrong with my assumptions.
Bicester Aerodrome opened in 1916, hosting the RAF's predecessor the Royal Flying Corps. The Handley Page Halifax had its first flight at Bicester in 1939, and during the Second World War it served as a training centre, hosting Spitfires, Bleinheims and Mosquitos amongst others. Post-war the base remained an RAF station until the 70s, with the airfield hosting gliding clubs and various small-scale RAF and USAF operations until the 1990s.
The airfield remained relatively untouched throughout and subsequently retains a vast number of original hangars and outbuildings. In 2002, it was designated a conservation area, and in 2013, the current owners, Bicester Motion, purchased the site and began a process of carefully recommissioning the site into a 'unique ecosystem of historic automotive specialist businesses'.
Whatever that means, what they have managed to create is a haven for workshops, sales companies, auctioneers, race teams and other automotive-related businesses. Polestar have their UK base there, as do the McLaren Formula-E team. The Road Rat magazine and Porsche wizards Sports Purpose also call Bicester their home.
The Scramble functions as a sort of "open door" event, allowing car folk like me to see what goes on behind the scenes at these businesses, to see some of the incredible cars they work with daily (we spied a Ferrari 250 GTO in the same workshop as a D-Type Jaguar for example) and to enjoy the huge array of vehicles that attend as part of the Scramble Club.
The Scramble events take over pretty much the whole airfield site, and wandering through the 1930s buildings and hangars, I found it all to be refreshingly open. Very few buildings or cars were roped off; not even the Aerial Collective's Supermarine Spitfire IX PT462, a veteran of the Italian campaign in World War Two, was cut off from the public whilst resting at the back of Hangar 113.
I found myself in real petrolhead heaven, surrounded by a wonderful, classless variety of automobiles. A mint Mk1 Renault Megane Scenic sat opposite a Dodge Challenger R/T. A Fiat Cinquecento shared space with an F2 Ford Escort rally car, and Hagerty had wheeled in a Proton Saga to promote the Festival of the Unexceptional. There was clearly no snobbery about which cars made it to the main site, and subsequently, the juxtaposition created between exhibiting vehicles was fabulous. I don't know of many car meets (if any) where a World War Two RAF David Brown aircraft tug is sat only a few metres away from the utterly bonkers McMurtry Speirling Pure VP1, on display after shattering the Top Gear test track lap record and (I can't quite believe I'm writing this) becoming the first car to drive upside down. The McMurtry shared the tarmac with Aston Martin's Valhalla, and there were many other incredible cars wherever I turned: the 2003 Le Mans winning Bentley Speed 8, the Jaguar XJR-9LM that took the 1988 24 Hours, Morgan's gorgeous new Supersport, an Aston Martin Vanquish Zagato Shooting Brake, the Oakland Romano Special that won the inaugural Pikes Peak Hillclimb in 1915, etc. It was a truly special gathering of cars.
Being someone with Autism, I can quickly get overwhelmed by the fast pace of some car events and the crowds that rush at the first sight or sound of something special. But the pace at the Scramble was gentle and easy going. Even though it was a busy event, not once did it feel overcrowded or rushed, even when Pendine Classics wheeled out their Jaguar XJR-15 Intercontinental Challenge car to shatter everyone's eardrums with an engine run.
Owners of cars and on-site businesses alike were approachable and chatty. I even spotted a Citroën DS owner allowing someone to take a seat behind the wheel. There was a warm, friendly atmosphere that I find sadly lacking from many events and shows these days.
My companion for the event was my friend Oli, who has attended countless motorsport events, car shows and meets. Both of us have shared the stands in freezing fog at 3 am during several Britcar 24-hour races at Silverstone and stood in the frigid cold forests of Northern England at many rallies. He's a proper car person, and for him to comment the Scramble was "a good do" is high praise indeed.
I was happy to have my assumptions proven totally wrong. Bicester Scramble is a place where it feels good to be interested in cars. Despite being 200 miles away from home, I felt like I belonged.
