RadWood at Bicester Heritage - 02/09/23
Words and Images by Mitcham Media
80’s and 90’s nostalgia were in full force in the blazing September sun on the airfield at Bicester Heritage. RADwood, set up by a group in America originally has crossed the pond and in 2023 made the old RAF base at Bicester it’s home for the day to celebrated everything from 1980 to 1999. Similar to the Goodwood Revival, attendees to RADwood came dressed in clobber to match the retro theme, lots of polyester, neon colours, terrible bits of beige, some even sporting period correct hair cuts… it didn’t stop at just clothing either with everything from walkmans to Raleigh Chopper bikes. The award for dedication should definitely go to the gentleman who was riding round on his bike with an ET in his front basket ready to go home.
The brute-ishly stunning Alfa Romeo RZ (Roadster Zagato) stuck out with the sun gleaming off it’s body work. Just 278 RZ’s were produced across 1992 and 1993 despite the original intention being 350 cars but due to the excessively high price not enough customers were found.
The RZ and it’s coupe SZ brother were both based on the Alfa Romeo 75, re-bodied and ending up significantly shorter giving it a very square look. The body work itself was produced in fibre-glass and drapped over a steel frame work to support. To counter cutting the rood off for the RV, Alfa had to some serious stiffening to the chassis adding over 100kg over the SZ.
A 3 litre V6 mounted up front kicked our a reasonable(ish) 210 horsepower, but the interesting bit was the limited slip diff fitted as standard.
Rally cars popped up all over the show, including a Lancia Delta Integrale in full Martini Racing livery looking ready for gravel.
As the event was coming to an end, we made the most of the hanger being open and the majority of the site becoming less and less busy, taking the finished 205 GTi round for an impromptu photo shoot.
The hanger was an interesting experience, having a fairly small car relative to the vast space inside was a nice challenge to work out how and where to place the car.
A great event all round, especially with a growing interest in 80’s and 90’s cars as they become modern classics. Hopefully RADwood can continue to run in the UK year on year.
Thank you to RadWood for organising a throwback
Check out more images from the day below and keep an eye out for more blog posts coming soon.
