I usually go to Bicester Heritage two or three times a year, for their now-famous Sunday Scrambles, events that attract upwards of 1500 classics and several thousand visitors. This morning however I went to what will be the first of three visits to this most evocative of locations in just four weeks – including a Scramble – so it’s helpful that it’s only an hour or so’s drive for me.
Collecting Cars is – in their words –“a global auction platform devoted to cars and automobilia”. I have used it once, but without success. Established in 2018, it seems to have grown rapidly, and has offices in London, Stockholm, Sydney, Munich and the UAE. They have also started organising events, having hosted a Coffee Run at Bicester in May that attracted over 1,000 vehicles and last weekend’s event saw what appeared to be almost that number in Porsche’s alone – thanks to the Porsche Club GB making it one of their flagship events and to the fact that the Stuttgart marque is the most sold on the platform – and over 2,000 cars in total emerged through the morning fog.
Collecting Cars doesn’t specialise in any particular era of car, so their events attract all sorts, with classics forming a relatively small part of any gathering, but with so many cars present at the former WW2 bomber site, that meant there were still a couple of hundred interesting classics dotted around.
I have to say a little more about the huge turnout of Porsche’s though, more even than show up at the Silverstone Classic – when I arrived in my 911 at about 8.45 after an hour’s drive through the morning fog (it felt more like a November morning rather than September) I was directed to what was already the second of what would be half a dozen rows of at least 125 cars in each row. While the dominant era was post-2000, there was a spread from 356’s through all era’s of 911, which was good to see. There was also an area dedicated to so-called Paint To Sample Porsche’s – you give the company a sample of the colour you want your car to be and that’s the colour they’ll paint it, for a fee, of course, and there were some interesting shades on show. In among these various tints was what is perhaps the ultimate road-going Porsche, a 918. I know it’s not a classic but it will be, and it’s an extraordinary machine.
Although Porsche dominated the morning, there were plenty of classics from other marques to catch the eye, and I’ll start with what was perhaps the most interesting car – and least recognised during the morning – a 1966 Matra Djet V. It was easy to overlook this Gallic gem, dwarfed as it was by the Land Rover parked alongside, but this was a rare treat; I’ve seen this one before, also at Bicester, and I don’t think I’ve seen another. Although fewer than 1700 were built between 1962 and 1967, initially as Rene Bonnet’s and later as Matra’s, the Djet has a special significance, being the world’s first mid-engined production car. This example was a Djet V, and when last spotted, it sported a white roundel on each door and was pretty careworn – it’s clearly been treated to a makeover since then and looked very smart.
Other than the Matra the most interesting French classic on show was a very tidy 1988 Renault Alpine GTA 310 V6 Turbo, the country’s answer to the 911. I think its angular lines are dating well, though I can’t imagine ever picking one instead of the Porsche, other than on price.
There was a healthy smattering of Italian classics to be seen – a smart ’75 Lancia Fulvia 1.3 in an unusual shade of green, a pair of Delta Integrale’s, a couple of Bertone-Alfa’s and my favourite Alfa of the day, a lovely dark blue Giulia Super which the DVLA has as being manufactured in 2002 (and the number plate reflects this) but that surely can’t be right?
Fans of the Prancing Horse had plenty to enjoy, with highlights for me being the pair of 512’s, one red, one Giallo Fly – parked side-by-side, and in another area, a blue 1983 Ferrari 400i. Elsewhere a Ferrari alternative in the dramatic wedge-shape of a 1973 De Tomaso Pantera could be found lurking nearby between a couple of modern supercars.
Besides the almost overwhelming number of Porsche’s, there was a healthy number of other German classics, particularly from Mercedes-Benz and BMW, with a good selection of E30’s from the latter, and a couple of Paul Bracq’s timelessly elegant Pagoda SL’s. Both marques were also represented by other models, some of which you’ll see in the gallery at the end of this piece.
From our own shores, the stand-outs for me were a pale blue 1971 Capri 1600GT MK1, a 1962 TR4 in JW-Gulf colours – I think they worked; in fact, I think the famous blue-and-orange would work on almost any car – a 1970 TVR Vixen S2 and a gold 1975 Ford Granada 3.0 Mk 1 – the last one was a bit scruffy in places but these executive sector Ford’s of the ‘70’s are disappearing from our roads, with fewer than twenty of the 3.0 remaining.
Regarding Nipponese classics, in amongst the Nissan Skyliners and Mitsubishi Evo’s were a couple of very cool classic Toyota’s – one a white 1984 Corolla Coupe in racing colours, the other one of our International Editor’s favourites – indeed, I think he owned one some years ago – the very similar Toyota Trueno Sprinter, which is basically a Corolla coupé with differences such as concealed pop-up headlights.
From the USA, it perhaps wasn’t a surprise to find a nice selection of Mustangs, but besides these was a very cool first generation Pontiac Firebird in white and it’s similarly-styled GM stablemate, a 1969 Chevrolet Camaro SS in maroon. I really liked the eyecatching bright yellow 1980 C3 Corvette, but the star Yank for me was the big, black and imposing 1964 Ford Thunderbird, which had an air of the underworld about it – you can just imagine it pulling up to a meeting of mafia dons, big V8 rumbling.
The one other not insignificant difference between this event and a regular Bicester Scramble besides the much broader focus beyond classics was the fact that the workshops and other premises around the site were not open to visitors. Presumably because the Scrambles are organised by the Bicester Heritage management, they want to keep that very enjoyable aspect of the Scrambles as one of the USP’s for their own events. A pity, but understandable – nevertheless, this was a fun morning (apart from the drive through the fog), and it was free, which is never a bad thing. I’ll go again; here’s the best of the rest.
