On Sunday 12th May I reached a place that classic car enthusiasts cannot miss: Bicester Heritage. We were guests at the Petrolicious Drivers’ Meeting.
I left from London, heading north-west, towards Oxfordshire, after an hour and a half drive and a mainly flat landscape, interrupted by gentle hills, I cross the entrance gate.

Bicester Heritage, 420 acres of classic motorsports and more.
At the airport, there is a lot of movement with the flying gliders. Their twirling with grace and gentleness is very entrancing. “There’s something which I can’t describe…” a positive energy which fully involves me from the beginning, and the trip’s metaphor is well suited to this experience…

Bicester Heritage has an evocative power which conveys very strong feelings. I stroll along the tree-lined roads, without rushing, and I observe time slipping into the past. I discover buildings which, thanks to a conservative restoration, have maintained all of the charm of the ’20s and ’30s. Today they’re workshops for the restorers, tradesmen and professionals who deal with classic vehicles.
It is a place charged with meaning, where past occurrences can be perceived, maybe it is down to suggestion, maybe it’s down to magic, and I stop to think for a moment.

The former RAF Bicester site, which is now Bicester Heritage, has a historical past of national relevance. IN 1918, the airfield became a training depot and over the next three years and up to 1925, the aerodrome was turned into a vanguard bomber station. In 1936, it was expanded, while the country was preparing to go to war against Germany. RAF Bicester was the base for the legendary Hawker Hart, Bristol Blenheim and Handley Page Halifax bombers. The soldiers from the Glider Pilot Regiment trained at Bicester before leaving for D-Day, Arnhem and, finally, for the Rein. RAF Bicester was transformed and became an imposing maintenance unit which dealt with both planes and motor transport.

Bicester is still undergoing a transformation today. Thanks to the view of some enthusiasts, more than 90% of buildings, built with the typical red bricks, have been restored and reinstated for business purposes. Mr Daniel Geogheghan, who conceived the idea and contributed from the very beginning to implement this “tourist port” for classic vehicles, talks calmly, with pride and honest satisfaction. His goal is preserving and promoting the United Kingdom’s automobile heritage. He believed in a dream and he’s made it come true.

I agree with the project that Mr Daniel Geogheghan has implemented with Bicester Heritage.
The International Classic portal has the same view, in a virtual dimension.
RAF Bicester is a place of memory and the whole of the space talks about what it has been. Your mind generates a past whose traces are still evident and I perceive the combination of the individual forces to create excellence.

Bicester Heritage has the will to preserve the memory and the commemorative value of the place with ideas and reinforced values. The presence in one place of the restoration excellences and of the trading of classic vehicles creates the development of skills and the common idea to leave traces of the past well into the future.
I strongly believe in the contribution that every individual can provide in a community, which is why I believe in the Community.

During the Petrolicious event, many workshops were open and I was personally able to experience these feelings.

Take a ride. Entertain your passion. Drive tastefully: Petrolicious. It is impossible not to get involved in the action atmosphere of this event and the founders Kika Vigo and Afshin Behnia, have given their contribution in terms of congeniality and humanity.

An extraordinary car collection. Around two hundred cars, of every age, classic, youngtimer and new cars. Road, rally, racing and modified cars… for everybody’s satisfaction. They’re carefully laid out in the park, outside the workshops, in the hangars and in the paddock of Bicester. A day which was full of very interesting meetings. I was very pleased to meet several young photographers, who are very enthusiastic and motivated. It is simply fantastic!

On the notes of Born to be wild, by Steppenwolf, I leave Bicester Heritage… see you soon!