The April Scramble at Bicester Heritage filled the old RAF campus with cars from every era. Held on Sunday 27 April 2025 to align with the UK’s Drive-it Day, it sold out ahead of the gates opening; the draw was simple: open workshops, a live airfield spine full of arrivals, and a resident ecosystem that lets you watch the craft as much as the cars.

This late-April event has broader participation as clubs plan their Drive-it Day routes to finish at Bicester. The morning queues swung onto the perimeter road in steady waves, and once inside the tempo felt more like a working campus than a static show: engine builds on stands, trim work mid-process, and suppliers talking through small parts that keep big projects moving. The format stays triannual but the April edition now carries the highest footfall because of the national calendar tie-in.

On the greens were cars from 1980s onwards. An E30 M3 Prodrive rally replica and Honda NSX drew in the crowds, but the highlights were Ivan Dutton’s 10,000 cc Hall and Scott aero-engined Peugeot Indianapolis that recently ran in Goodwood’s SF Edge Trophy. Several workshops featuring pre-war Rileys, W. O. Bentleys and ‘30s Alfas while motorsport royalty dotted the lanes from a Silk Cut TWR XJR-9 to a Bentley Speed 8 GT prototype. It felt like a treasure hunt.

From my side of the trade one small detail stood out: cars that arrived early with dew on the nose left in the afternoon with edges still clean and chip-free, in the same way that good quality PPF keeps panels presentable even after a full day of stop-start traffic on gravel and old concrete (I had to say it...haha)

If January sets the tone and October tells the epilogue, April is the chapter everyone reads at once: the Drive-it Day alignment delivered breadth and energy, and the sold-out board was justified by what showed up and what was being built. 

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Wessen Char is UPPF’s petrolhead who still mourns the loss of Saab (and drove her 9-5 NG till 2025). She travels between US and Europe to cover auto events. She acknowledges the chic tech of EVs but wonders if the inexorable move to everything digital is ultimately all-better. Analogue had more soul somehow :)

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