The old Caterham F1 team HQ.
I have copied the history from a previous post as i imagine we all know it if you know about this place, but for those that don't i will paste it below:
Leafield Technical Centreis a former radio transmission station, now turned motorsports centre of excellence, located in the hamlet of Langley, in the western part of the village of Leafield in Oxfordshire, England. Developed from 1912 as a radio transmission station by the General Post Office, it was decommissioned by successor company British Telecom in 1986. BT Group redeveloped the site as a training college, but then closed the site in 1993
Sold to a commercial property company, the site was then leased by Tom Walkinshaw Racing (TWR) as a motorsport development centre for the Arrows Formula One team, until the team's demise in the 2002 season. From the 2006 season until the 2008 season Leafield Technical Centre was the headquarters of the now-defunct Super Aguri F1team.
Menard Competition Technologies were then based at Leafield Technical Centre. MCT has made the engines for Norton Motorcycles' range of Commando 961 models since 2009.
In January 2012, it was announced that the Caterham F1 team would be moving to Leafield from their original base at Hingham, Norfolk and 8 months later, Caterham F1 Team eventually completed their relocation to Leafield Technical Centre The Caterham F1 Team was a Malaysian, later British, owned Formula One team based in the United Kingdom which raced under a Malaysian licence.The Caterham brand had competed in the Formula One World Championship from 2012 to 2014, following the acquisition of British sportscar manufacturer Caterham Cars by former owner and team principal Tony Fernandes, forming the Caterham Group.
In July 2014, Tony Fernandes and his partners announced that they had sold the team to a consortium of Swiss and Middle Eastern investors.The "Caterham" name was later used under licence after the Caterham Group separation.
In October 2014, Caterham entered administration and did not attend a race weekend for the first time in its history beginning from the United States Grand Prix. In November 2014, after also missing the Brazilian Grand Prix, Caterham became the first F1 team ever to resort to crowd funding, enabling it to race at the final Grand Prix for 2014 and take part in end of season testing both held in Abu Dhabi.On 27 February 2015, the Federation Internationale de L'Automobile (FIA) published a revised entry list with Manor Marussia being reintroduced and Caterham being removed from the list, and by March of the same year, the team's assets were put up for auction, spelling the official demise of the team.
The Explore:
So after a trip up north to visit Eggborough Power Station, amongst several other places which didn't all go plan. (Security at Eggborough & Ferrybridge is TIGHT now they have started work demolishing them!)
This was our final stop on the way back down to the shire.
This site is covered in motion detectors & cameras even though the place is totally wrecked, so we knew once we were in we would only have a window of opportunity to see everything.
We almost did but unfortunately missed out on the older stone buildings and seeing the molds in the sheds at the back due to being caught out by the security.
Also kicking myself for not looking at the room at the top which you access through the rafters as it completely skipped my mind when i opened the door into the roof space!
This is a great place for a look around even if its not in any decent state compared to a few years ago and the random bits of paperwork scattered around the office areas made for an interesting skim read, I could of gladly spent several more hours here if I was able to.
Hopefully I'll manage to see the bits i missed out on this time in the future when I am next up that way anyway.
That said - on with the pictures.
*Edit: Pictures seem to have been compressed via the upload so if anyone is interested in the high res images to see in closer detail - drop me a message!
I have copied the history from a previous post as i imagine we all know it if you know about this place, but for those that don't i will paste it below:
Leafield Technical Centreis a former radio transmission station, now turned motorsports centre of excellence, located in the hamlet of Langley, in the western part of the village of Leafield in Oxfordshire, England. Developed from 1912 as a radio transmission station by the General Post Office, it was decommissioned by successor company British Telecom in 1986. BT Group redeveloped the site as a training college, but then closed the site in 1993
Sold to a commercial property company, the site was then leased by Tom Walkinshaw Racing (TWR) as a motorsport development centre for the Arrows Formula One team, until the team's demise in the 2002 season. From the 2006 season until the 2008 season Leafield Technical Centre was the headquarters of the now-defunct Super Aguri F1team.
Menard Competition Technologies were then based at Leafield Technical Centre. MCT has made the engines for Norton Motorcycles' range of Commando 961 models since 2009.
In January 2012, it was announced that the Caterham F1 team would be moving to Leafield from their original base at Hingham, Norfolk and 8 months later, Caterham F1 Team eventually completed their relocation to Leafield Technical Centre The Caterham F1 Team was a Malaysian, later British, owned Formula One team based in the United Kingdom which raced under a Malaysian licence.The Caterham brand had competed in the Formula One World Championship from 2012 to 2014, following the acquisition of British sportscar manufacturer Caterham Cars by former owner and team principal Tony Fernandes, forming the Caterham Group.
In July 2014, Tony Fernandes and his partners announced that they had sold the team to a consortium of Swiss and Middle Eastern investors.The "Caterham" name was later used under licence after the Caterham Group separation.
In October 2014, Caterham entered administration and did not attend a race weekend for the first time in its history beginning from the United States Grand Prix. In November 2014, after also missing the Brazilian Grand Prix, Caterham became the first F1 team ever to resort to crowd funding, enabling it to race at the final Grand Prix for 2014 and take part in end of season testing both held in Abu Dhabi.On 27 February 2015, the Federation Internationale de L'Automobile (FIA) published a revised entry list with Manor Marussia being reintroduced and Caterham being removed from the list, and by March of the same year, the team's assets were put up for auction, spelling the official demise of the team.
The Explore:
So after a trip up north to visit Eggborough Power Station, amongst several other places which didn't all go plan. (Security at Eggborough & Ferrybridge is TIGHT now they have started work demolishing them!)
This was our final stop on the way back down to the shire.
This site is covered in motion detectors & cameras even though the place is totally wrecked, so we knew once we were in we would only have a window of opportunity to see everything.
We almost did but unfortunately missed out on the older stone buildings and seeing the molds in the sheds at the back due to being caught out by the security.
Also kicking myself for not looking at the room at the top which you access through the rafters as it completely skipped my mind when i opened the door into the roof space!
This is a great place for a look around even if its not in any decent state compared to a few years ago and the random bits of paperwork scattered around the office areas made for an interesting skim read, I could of gladly spent several more hours here if I was able to.
Hopefully I'll manage to see the bits i missed out on this time in the future when I am next up that way anyway.
That said - on with the pictures.
*Edit: Pictures seem to have been compressed via the upload so if anyone is interested in the high res images to see in closer detail - drop me a message!
