Bicester Motion is a new 'automotive resort' for the UK

By topgear, 13 March 2019
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What do you think of when someone mentions an ‘automotive resort’? City cars frolicking in a waterpark? Trackside hotel rooms? Literal Mini golf? Well, in the UK we might well be about to find out, because Bicester Heritage (the little automotive hub on the old RAF Bicester airfield) has unveiled plans for Bicester Motion, a much more expansive operation.

As a quick rundown, Bicester already has planning approval for a monster 344 room hotel and conference centre, plus 77,000 square feet of new engineering, workshop and showroom space. But Motion would add a brand experience centre where anyone (even younger people) can drive on and off-road, a driver training academy, restaurant and cafe, as well as an ‘autonomous vehicle experience area’ which sounds suspiciously like the closest you’ll come to an Alton Towers-ish ride.

There are also plans for a centre for tech called Future Automotive Speed Technologies (F.A.S.T.), private posh car storage and entertainment facilities, conferencing and even a health and wellbeing zone with lodges and a spa. Although that’s probably for humans rather than a place to restore an E-Type.

So there’d be lots to do, covering off pretty much all the sectors, from classics to brand-new EVs, and Bicester already has a decent little set of test circuits to mooch about on. So a little Disneyland for petrolheads? Would you be keen?