Nik lives in Essex, UK and works in London as the editor of MacUser magazine. The posts and comments on this site do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions of values of his employers.
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Sunday was educational (and Saturday was rainy and spent alternately sheltering in a nice coffee shop on Ipswich dockside and re-watching Moonraker) as we buzzed along to the end of the A14 for the second time in a little over a month. This time it was to Bruntingthorpe aerodrome, as guests of the VW press office.
They (and indeed we) were there to mingle with the thousands of modified VW cars strewn liberally across the apron and surrounding grass, some inches deep in mud, yet all still polished to within a whisker of their undercoats.
The airfield isn’t often used for flying any more, but during the cold war the US Airforce stationed many of its heavy bombers there, presumably as it takes less fuel to drop bombs on St Petersburg from Leicestershire than it does from somewhere far flung, like Virginia.
Nowadays it’s used for testing cars - particularly fast ones, and has facilities for repairing Maseratis and Ferraris on site, should the inevitable happen. Fortunately the inevitable didn’t happen at all - particularly not as Rich tried his hand at the quarter mile drag race (insert inappropriate joke about driving in heels here) in a couple of VW press cars.
All in all, we were treated very well, and fed and watered in the old control tower, which externally at least has barely changed at all since it was built in the 1940s. It’s got a king of basic charm to it. No frills, or airs and graces - just functional windows and walls, and a panoramic view across the airfield from the balcony that hugs its upper floor.
It’s a shame we didn’t really get time to explore the old planes scattered around the edge of the airfield. The most impressive was a huge propellor-driven Airbus used to ferry aeroplane wings around European factories, and the most unusual the bizarre Asda jumbo.
They’re a reason to head back next year, though, and perhaps to get there a little earlier in the day.
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