The idea of cars and coffee on a Sunday morning isn’t exactly a new one, but the chaps at Bicester Heritage have executed their own version of this now ubiquitous event with absolute perfection. Hosted on their huge WWI-era base which now serves as a classic motoring hub—a place that’s usually closed to the general public—but on this particular brisk and sunny spring morning, the gates were flung open, and everyone was welcome. Especially if you were at the wheel or handlebars of something interesting.
And thankfully, a lot of people showed up with exactly that: a huge amount of stunning cars and bikes make their way to this event, everything from mid-century Americana to millennial Japanese imports. There’s a real beauty to the variety of cars and enthusiasts mixing together; the folks in charge of Bicester Heritage could quite easily cater only to their usual clientele at these events, by which I mean people focused mostly on European classics—this is an old military base after all, and the place feels like stepping through a portal to a long-gone era.
It’s a show of machinery that’s all the better for its variety though, as you have no idea what may lie around the next corner. One tree-lined avenue might hold a cluster of post-war dragsters, and then the adjoining courtyard may contain a collection of Toyotas, with a cherry red 2000GT as the centerpiece. Broadening this spread, out on the airfield there’s a mass of different car clubs: a vintage Tiger Moth airplane taxis and takes off behind those. Despite the scale of the meeting, it still retains a level of intimacy that’s hard to find.
It’s been quite a while since I last attended a Sunday Scramble, but I’m glad to see it continuing to grow. I can’t wait to see what lies in store in the future, but for now, feast your eyes on a bunch of photos and make sure you’re at the next one!
