Wings, wheels and world firsts at the Scramble

International debuts and UK firsts were a feature of a bumper sun-soaked and sold-out Scramble at Bicester Motion on Sunday 27 April.

A first look at the production Aston Martin Valhalla shared the limelight with the McMurtry Spéirling as Top Gear made its Scramble bow, the latter pocket rocket fresh from a new lap record of the fabled Top Gear Test Track. 

Further down Western Avenue, the fully licensed Ford Escort Alan Mann 68 Edition by Boreham Motorworks made its first public appearance days after it was announced, while the DS Nº8 hit UK shores for the first time and the upcoming Grande Panda made its UK debut on the Scramblers display.

The DS celebrated 70 years of its precursor, the Citroën DS, and was joined by a matching DS21, while the Grande Panda was a nod to the central display of the October Scramble, Reboots and Restomods. 

The central display at the April event instead honoured records – from record books to record sleeves. Skoda recalled its Bonneville Salt Flats run with the Octavia that clocked 227mph in 2011 and the manufacturer’s Longest Continuous Drift on Ice Guinness World Record that was set using an Enyaq vRS. A pair of Mazda MX-5s represented the biggest-selling sports car of all time and the first car to drive from Land’s End to John O’Groats using sustainable fuel, while Honda’s Jazz once drove the same route on just one tank of fuel. Volvo’s 1800ES honoured Irv Gordon’s remarkable 3.2m mile-record as the most driven by one vehicle and a Ford Puma ST-Line represented the best-selling car of 2024. 

Among the record cover cars was Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles’ Type 2 panel van, a mirror of the car on the cover of Bob Dylan’s Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, while others included a bright orange BMW M3 like that on Frank Ocean’s Ultra, Nostalgia mixtape.

Volkswagen also revealed a special livery for the double World Rallycross Championship-winning Polo to celebrate 50 years of the model, surrounded by a Mk1, Mk2 bread van, Black Edition and latest GTI at the top of the Main Drive. The livery was a nostalgic nod to the iconic Harlequin edition of the 1990s.

Another world-first was hosted in the Fire Party House, Building 88 at the former RAF Bicester, where the Classic Defender V8 Soft Top was seen for the first time as part of a line-up from Jaguar Land Rover Classic. The first roofless Defender for eight years was revealed online a matter of days before.

Jaguar Land Rover Classic also partnered with Bicester Motion-based charity StarterMotor for a celebration of the 50 years of the Jaguar XJ-S. Alfa Romeo and INEOS both offered test drives to attendees, and more than £2000 was raised on the day by a special display of Aston Martin Wings Series models in Hangar 113. As many as 22 of the 33 combined Spitfire, Blades, Red Arrows and Concorde editions were united by series creator Simon Lane and Concorde Edition commissioner Aston Martin Bristol, all in aid of the Royal Air Forces Association. A Spitfire evocatively joined from the Aircraft Restoration Company at Duxford, flying in over the thousands of arriving visitors just after 9am.

Elsewhere in Hangar 113, the 60th anniversary of HM Queen Elizabeth II’s visit to Bicester and RAF Bicester was marked by military machinery and photos from the visit itself. The late Queen’s own Bentley EWB Mulsanne greeted attendees into the former home of the Bristol Blenheim, too.

Meanwhile Aston Martin Works marked 70 years of Newport Pagnell with a display spanning the decades, headlined by a Goldfinger Continuation DB5 complete with all the James Bond extras, and an eclectic mix of cars from the Scramblers membership lined the avenues, from pre-war specials to the latest supercars. The third and final Scramble takes place on Sunday 5 October – tickets are selling fast already.

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