In a few short years Bicester Heritage has become a destination for classic car enthusiasts like few others, a mecca for those wishing to see hundreds of classic cars in a location that exudes tradition and maintains its links to the past, yet has simultaneously moved forward with a renovation and expansion programme that has brought new life to the former WW2 RAF Bomber Training Station. From a standing start in 2013, the site is now home to almost 50 automotive engineering-related businesses turning over £40m per annum – and growing – and keeping traditional heritage engineering skills alive.
I usually manage to get to at least a couple of the – always sold out – Sunday Scrambles and recently became a Scrambler, entitling me to a few benefits such as exclusive content and invitations to Scramblers Assemblies as part of a free standard package – I may take up the next level package for 2023. I’ve yet to manage to attend one of the Assemblies but for this Scramble I was invited to display my classic in the area reserved for Scramblers, and there was some very cool eye candy there already.
I needed to be on site by 8.15 to park near the Scramblers so set off a little over an hour earlier on what was a beautiful bright morning – the classic events I’ve been to this year have been uncannily blessed with favourable weather – and joined some of my fellow Scramblers for coffee while cars began to pour in. Unfortunately my Porsche is still waiting for a new oil connecting pipe and thanks to yet more rail strikes here in the UK I wasn’t able to collect my C123 after its various repairs so I drove down to Bicester in die Zitrone, which developed an alarming vibration half-way there which thankfully disappeared as quickly as it appeared, much to my relief – I’ve had enough trouble with my classic garage recently…
Events like the Bicester Scrambles tend to attract regular visitors and their cars – like me – so a number of classics on show were familiar, but as always, when some 1500 cars show up, there are always a few new radiator grilles and surprises in store, so let’s take a look around, and as usual, with so much to see, it’s only possible to mention a few in any detail, though there are photographs of many more in the end gallery.
The British Motor Museum at nearby Gaydon brought a few exhibits along, themed in pairs, including a couple of exceptionally interesting – and unique – Bentleys. One was a streamlined 1939 Corniche originally bodied by French coachbuilders Vanvooren and now rebuilt by Mulliners. Finished in its original Imperial Maroon, this extraordinary car was being shown for the first time in public after an 18-year rebuilding programme following a crash-ridden early history.
The other was a very imposing grey car christened The Locomotive, recreated over a period of seven years on a correct 1953 Bentley R-Type chassis upgraded to Continental specification from Ian Fleming’s description of James Bond’s car in Thunderball. The car also appears in The Living Daylights and On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. I’m not generally a fan of continuations and recreations, but this had a certain appeal.
Staying with pairs for while, Iso’s are not seen in numbers here in the UK, or probably anywhere, so to see two at Bicester was a rare treat. One was a very tidy 1972 Lele – one of just 285 built, in silver with the 5.7-litre Ford V8 engine, the other an exceptionally tatty 1967 Rivolta GT in bronze and rust – I did hear one bystander refer to it as patina; for me, it’s just rust. I hope someone takes it on as a project, it’s too glamorous a car to let it fall apart..
Sticking with Italian exotica, there was not one but two examples of Marcello Gandini’s stunning Lamborghini Miura, both of them SV’s, one in yellow, the other in red. Unsurprisingly, these attracted a lot of attention throughout the day. Elsewhere there were also two Lamborghini Espada’s on display, still as dramatic as ever.
Two specialist British sports cars next, not directly related but with a definite connection, albeit slightly tenuous. First a Ginetta, a red 1972 G15S with rear-mounted 998cc Imp engine and equipped with a roll cage, so it’s safe to assume it sees competitive action. About 800 of these were built, and this was a very tidy one.
When was the last time you saw a Davrian? I can’t remember when I last saw one, but there was a very smart – and very low – blue 1981 Davrian Dragon (they were built in Wales, after all) on show on Sunday. Davrian’s were originally Imp-powered – like the Ginetta (I know – I’m reaching here) but this one was fitted with a Fiesta 1300cc engine amidships. These specialist British cars fit in the same category as the Unipower for me – dramatically-styled GRP sports cars utilising very ordinary small saloons as a base, demonstrating no little engineering expertise.
Staying with British performance cars, a pair of Lotus Elan +2’s with their sharp-edged styling looked great in contrasting metallic green (1974 and bronze (1973), and a hundred or so yards away, two high performance British saloons in the still-modern shape of the Rover SD1 Vitesse. SD1’s are still relative bargains, even the top of the range Vitesse (which for me ranks above the Vanden Plas, you may have a different view) and there were two fine examples parked one behind the other, one in red, the other in metallic blue; the car looks particularly good in red.
How about a couple of handsome Vauxhall coupés? These two are at the very least closely related, especially as the 1976-registered metallic blue Vauxhall Magnum Coupé – one of just 525 2300’s built – shared the same platform and engine as the dramatic droop-snoot 1973 HP Firenza. Even fewer of the latter were produced – just 204 – so this was a rare sighting of such a duo. Other pairings included a couple of Mk1 VW Golf Convertibles, and a familiar pair of BMW 2002tii’s…you’ll spot a few more in the end gallery.
Moving on to a few individual classics that caught the eye, I really like the big late 1960’s Opel and Ford coupés and the red 1971 Commodore B GS/E was a car I last saw some four years ago; it was good to see it again – I love the long fastback and pillarless styling.
It’s hard to ignore a 1960 Ferrari 250GT Coupé, so I won’t – here it is, just gorgeous. Not quite as gorgeous, but certainly intriguing, was the dark green 1969 Mercedes-Benz 6.3 SEL Crayford Estate, one of two believed left of just a dozen conversions built. It doesn’t quite work for me, looks too much like a glass box has just been added to the saloon.
Three of the oldest cars at the event included two I hadn’t heard of before, let alone seen. The first was a lustrous blue 1926 Aster 21/60; built by Aster Engineering in Wembley, London, the company only lasted for seven years between 1922 and 1929, building about 170 cars of which only two are known to survive, this beautifully restored example being one.
Older still, a 1909 Overland 30 (I think) Roadster in yellow – a company that started building cars in 1903 in Terre Haute, Indiana, moving to Indianapolis in 1905 and was taken control of by J N Willys, later of Willys Jeep fame. Overland was one of the top three US car makers in the early 20th Century, but the brand in its own right faded away in 1926, though was still used in conjunction with Willys for some years afterwards.
One more golden oldie – a 1914 American LaFrance Firechief, which I have seen before; still spectacular, though, not least for having a 14.5-litre engine. Probably originally a fire-engine (hence the name), this imposing car is likely to have been converted to “Speedster” specification – no original ALF road cars are believed to remain.
As usual at a Scramble, many of the location’s workshops were also open to visitors, with The Motor Shed putting on a fine display of a variety of British classics, and the Kingsbury Racing Shop, specialists in 1930’s Bentleys not only had a group of these wonderful old “racing lorries” on show but impressive examples of their engineering prowess as well.
Moving across the Atlantic, Bicester always attracts some interesting Americana and Sunday was no exception. It was nice to see the long sleek 1965 Chrysler 300L again, ditto the well-patinated 1971 Ford Maverick. New to me though were the equally well-worn and slightly oddly named 1957 Mercury Colony Park estate and a couple of big soft-tops – a 1964 Oldsmobile Cutlass and a mighty Pontiac GTO rag top from the same year – I hadn’t seen a convertible GTO before; nice, but I think I prefer the coupé. Incidentally, the Pontiac was parked next to a very graceful 1955 Bristol 401 Farina convertible, which can be seen at the end of this piece.
There was the usual scattering of muscle cars, such as the ’69 7-litre red Mustang, a 1969 7.2-litre Dodge Charger R/T – alongside a rusty Mercury Cougar and a soft-top Mustang, as well as it’s sibling Challenger, this one a 1970 car in orange. All these come from my favourite period of US cars, unlike the 2nd-generation Cadillac Seville “Elegante” (wishful thinking by the marketing people, I think).
Finally, I must mention some very unexceptional classics, two of which my father used to own, both of them VW’s – one a 1982 Jetta on some smart BBS wheels probably worth more than the rest of the car, the other a faded red Passat Estate from the same year. Also spotted, a very humble 1966 Mk1 Cortina Estate in pale green and white, and last and possibly least, my first car, a 1977 Triumph Dolomite 1850HL in blue with black vinyl roof; if only mine had been in as good shape – it was taken to the parking lot in the sky many years ago.
Bicester’s Sunday Scrambles remain a splendid day out, with such a wide variety of classics from the mundane to the exotic, the plain to the beautiful, the exciting to the dull, old to the very old – I think I’ll be going back there for many years to come.
