Pistonheads Annual Service 2025
It’s beautiful Saturday morning and we are off to the Pistonheads Annual Service at the beautiful Bicester heritage site which is part of the wider Bicester Motion project. The site is recognised as a national hub for historic motoring and aviation. Set on a former RAF base in Oxfordshire, England, the 444-acre site has been carefully restored and now brings together more than 50 specialist businesses dedicated to classic cars, aviation, and motoring, creating a vibrant centre for the industry and its community.
The PistonHeads Annual Service has become one of those dates car enthusiasts instinctively circle on their calendars.
We arrive nice and early. The car park on the fields is worth walking through before you even get to the main event. Rows of stuff you don’t see every day from modern supercars to old favourites that bring back memories. People are stood around chatting, swapping stories, kids pointing out their favourites, and cameras clicking everywhere.
What makes the Annual Service special is the variety of people and cars that attend, but all with the same passion for cars (& coffee). It’s not all brand-new exotic stuff, though there’s plenty of that. It’s cars from the last 40-50 years all mixed in together. You can walk past a modern Ferrari and then straight into a line of 80s and 90s hot hatches. For people of a certain age, that’s where the nostalgia really kicks in.
Those old hot hatches were everywhere back in the day, and seeing them now in mint condition is brilliant. It’s like stepping back in time. A Golf GTI or a Peugeot 205 might not get the same headlines as a Lamborghini or McLaren, but for a lot of people, those are the cars they grew up with, and you could feel how much love there still is for them.
That’s probably the best part of the Annual Service - the memories it conjurs up. Everyone has their own story. You hear people saying things like “I remember when my mate had one of these,” or “I had a poster of this car on my wall.” It’s not just looking at cars, it’s remembering the times that went with them.
For me, walking around felt a bit like flicking through a scrapbook of my younger years. Cars I’d once seen on TV, in magazines, or blasting around local streets suddenly right there in front of me, polished and perfect. It’s a reminder of why we got into cars in the first place. Another thing that stood out is how well these cars are kept. A lot of them are now worth serious money, especially the 80s and 90s stuff. Cars that once seemed cheap and everywhere are now rare and going up in value. But the owners don’t just lock them away, they bring them out, drive them, and let people enjoy them. That says a lot.
You can see the pride people take in keeping them alive. Whether it’s a supercar worth a fortune or an old hot hatch that’s now a classic, the care and effort shine through.
Of course, the big-name supercars always draw a crowd. There were plenty around, and it’s always fun to get up close and see them in the metal. But the Annual Service isn’t about one type of car being more important than another. It’s about everything together – the mix. A Lamborghini looks just as at home parked next to a 90s hot hatch as it does next to another exotic. That’s the beauty of it.
What makes the PistonHeads Annual Service so good is that it feels genuine. It’s not a showroom, it’s not a sales pitch – it’s just people who love cars bringing them together. You can wander around for hours and still keep spotting things you missed earlier.
And it’s not just about the cars. It’s the people. Everyone’s friendly, everyone’s got a story to tell, and you can see the enthusiasm across generations. Parents bringing their kids, groups of mates reliving their youth, owners happy to answer questions and share their passion.
The 2025 Annual Service was everything it should be – relaxed, full of amazing cars, and a great reminder of why car culture is still alive and well. It’s not about who’s got the most expensive car or the rarest model, it’s about sharing that love of driving and the memories that come with it.
If you’re into cars, you owe it to yourself to go at least once. I’ll definitely be back next year.
- Will (UDA Team)
