“Why go to a shed on an industrial estate when you can enjoy the vibrancy of a vision?”
We’re interrupted by his wife and 12-month old whippet. Surrounded by heavy classic car tomes and his faithful dog, he looks as though he has made a second home here.
What does the future look like for Bicester Heritage?
There’s still a lot of work to do at Bicester Heritage, as Geoghegan explains: “Our next step is the 15-acre innovation centre, which we will start building this summer.
“We’re curating a site which sets to disrupt. We’re looking for innovation leaders. We want to create a campus that creates a synergy a cluster can offer.
“We’re in the Oxford-to-Cambridge corridor, and Bicester is growing. Those people need jobs, and we can provide them.”
Dan remains tight-lipped about which companies will move in, but you can expect them to be futuristic and have an automotive base. Think drone companies, component manufacturers and fossil-free fuel makers.
Future plans for the site also include an experience quarter, a wilderness quarter, further work to the hangars and a 200-plus-room hotel, and Bicester Heritage even has permission to extend its track to a 3.5km circuit. Bet the neighbours in the new builds will love that.
Its transformation from an old RAF base to an event hub, test track, industrial estate and place to be seen at has come in less than a decade.
But what about the Scramble, the event that helped put Bicester Heritage on the map? Is it doing enough to entice this generation and the next?
On my way out, I bump into 19-year old Jay Eaton. He’s here with his similarly young friends. He tells me he found this place via social media and YouTube and he finds it more relaxing and varied than the Goodwood Festival of Speed. He said he would be coming back again, and I suspect he won’t be the only one.
