STEVE HOLE bemoans the fact that Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground is no longer available for testing purposes by car magazines but does tell the story of an interesting site that many, many TKC MAG/totalkitcar must have attended at least once over the years be it for a trackday or to attend a car auction and the like …

I used to love everything about Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground in deepest Leicestershire, not far from Lutterworth and the M1 motorway. The place had a really great atmosphere about it, with plenty of RAF and USAAF history as well as a great on-site café. Let’s not forget the circuit, complete with a two-mile (runway) straight

Most of all though, I miss phoning up circuit owner, David Walton and booking some circuit time, negotiating a mutually agreeable, not expensive price and turning up, being left alone to get on with your work. No fuss, no drama and no bloody jobsworths shouting and hollering and/or barking orders.

At one time, the majority of UK car magazines used the place at least once a month to conduct road tests. I’d regularly bump into journo mates and colleagues there …

Before we discuss why it’s not available for magazine testing purposes anymore, let’s look at a bit of the history of the former RAF Bruntingthorpe.

Opened in 1942 as an Operational Training Unit (OTU) base for Vickers Wellington twin-engined bombers and as a test facility for Meteor jets.

Soon after, the RAF gave it ‘care and maintenance’ status which means it was unused until 1957. However, in November 1953 it did come under the control of the USAAF, although they never used it operationally.

In 1955, the Americans began a major reconstruction of the site with the plan being to transform it into a USAAF Strategic Command bomber base. Also, the plan was for it to become an advanced ‘Reflex’ base for fast deployment of B47 Stratojet nuclear bombers.

Major ground works were carried out by 3912th Air-Base Squadron, part of the 7th Air Division and the 19th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron.

RAF Bruntingthorpe’s runway was originally 6000ft long but the reconstruction work saw it extended to 10,800ft, meaning that 34 adjacent farms were compulsorily purchased to gain the extra acreage needed to accomplish the extension. An underground refuelling pipeline was also installed.

Brunters – as it is affectionately known – officially opened as a Strategic Command base on March 1, 1957.

It became home to 43 Boeing B-47s from Pease Air Force Base in New Hampshire in March 1958, although they left again in November of that year.

The next arrivals were the 96th Bombardment Wing from Dyess AFB (Texas) in June 1959 but they weren’t stationed there for long. On September 1, jurisdiction changed to the USAAF again under the control of the 10th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing from RAF Alconbury. Brunters became a satellite station of the Cambridgeshire USAAF base. Three of their squadrons were stationed at RAF Bruntingthorpe.

In July 1962, B-66 Destroyers of the Reconnaissance Squadron arrived although their tenancy was shortlived as by the end of September Bruntingthorpe was transferred back to MOD control. The RAF quickly began to sell off parts of the site and many buildings were demolished if they were deemed unserviceable. These included barracks, recreational buildings, on-site social housing and even the USAAF control tower.

RAF Bruntingthorpe was decommissioned in 1965 when it went to public auction. The Rootes Group was the new owner and they used the site extensively for vehicle testing, even when they became part of Chrysler and then Talbot, until 1980.

In 1983, C Walton Ltd bought the site, with the name changing to Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground aka Bruntingthorpe Aerodrome. The 700-acre site was put to good use. For car magazines, as mentioned, it was used for testing. Vehicle manufacturers also used it, while a variety of trackday companies run events there.

The ASDA supermarket chain ran a brilliant charity car-flavoured event for many years.

The Walton family also had a massive passion for aviation and bought up a sizeable collection with all sorts of retired military and civilian aircraft stored there, while David Walton set up a collection called ‘Cold War Jets’.

The iconic ‘Vulcan To The Sky’ Vulcan XH558 restoration was carried out at Brunters.

Business-wise, the activities grew exponentially with PalmerSport originally located there before moving to Bedford Autodrome, while several raceteams have been based at Brunters.

Manheim Auctions set up a base there, while in 2010, C Walton Ltd built a very impressive new exhibition hall. Car storage became a massive part of the business, with upwards of 25,000 cars stored on-site at any one time. Indeed, C Walton Ltd was, by 2017, the UK’s second-largest fleet management operator.

in 2020, Cox Automotive bought the site, with the Walton retaining an area for their aircraft activities although I think the majority of the aeroplanes were re-located to other airfields.

At that time, general vehicle testing was curtailed although I do believe that mainstream manufacturers may still be able to use a portion of the old runway circuit, although Cox Automotive has continued to develop the auction and car storage side of the business.

The resurrected Royal Enfield motorcycle company has their technical department based at Bruntingthorpe.

The place was such a cool venue and I, no doubt like many journo colleagues, have fond memories galore of Bruntingthorpe and dealing with the Walton family.