Situated in a private and secure countryside location within the heart of the UK’s ‘Motorsport Valley’, Catesby Tunnel near Banbury was once part of the Great Central Railway.
It is a 2.7km long, straight indoor road test track that enables an extensive range of full-scale vehicle assessment studies to be carried out.
Recently, the tunnel has been used to put several vehicles through their paces by the BBC’s incredibly popular show Top Gear.
The ‘Tunnel Run’ series, which is available to watch on YouTube, is hosted by Becky Evans, who showcases seven separate runs with some of the world’s wildest cars.
These include; the Lamborghini Huracán STO, the Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR, as well as older classic cars, such as the Mercedes S600 AMG and the BRM V16 F1 car, all with the infamous Stig in the driving seat!
Rob Lewis, Director at Catesby Innovation Centre, commented: “It has been great to welcome such a diverse group of cars to Catesby Tunnel, and credit to the guys at Top Gear for creating a fantastically engaging series of videos.-
“We hope they have given people a flavour of what Catesby Tunnel is all about and what makes it such a unique facility for full-scale vehicle testing”.
Alongside the tunnel, White Commercial is currently marketing Catesby Innovation Centre, a two-storey modern statement office building with plenty of car parking designed to provide flexible office space from 290 to 8,200 sq ft for automotive and associated companies.
The accommodation is available on flexible licence agreements, which will also provide seminar space and a café area, a place for conferences, training courses and lectures, encouraging meetings and social collaboration.
There are also plans to develop new larger units within the surrounding area that will also provide ‘grow-on’ space for businesses that graduate from the Innovation Centre.
