Present Day
After being taken over by LucasVarity for vehicle testing, current residents include Prodrive, Marcos and TRW.
In addition to their existing automotive consultancy business, already based at the site since 2001, in March 2006 motor racing company Prodrive announced its intent to build a £200 million, 200-acre (0.8 km2) motorsport facility called The Fulcrum. Prodrive's statement in the planning application for the facility – which could house as many as 1,000 staff – boasted of "a motorsport complex which could eventually house Prodrive's new British Prodrive F1 team", further cementing Managing Director David Richards' intention to return to F1 in 2008.
As of 3 August 2006, Prodrive has won the support of the Warwick District Council planning committee for development of The Fulcrum. The permission covers a highly advanced engineering research and development campus, a conference facility called the Catalyst Centre and new access road, a roundabout, infrastructure, parking and landscaping. The plans still have to be presented and agreed by the British government's Department for Communities and Local Government, and there is local opposition via the Fulcrum Prodrive Action Group (FPAG) to protect the rural nature of the community and the safety of the people that live within it.
However, following rule changes banning so-called 'customer' cars from competing in F1, and legal proceedings undertaken by existing F1 manufacturer teams, Prodrive's F1 plans have been shelved indefinitely. There is no information relating to the effect this may have had on continuing with any part of the site's redevelopment. Prodrive's core motorsport business remains based at their existing Banbury headquarters.
It is also the site of the HON (Honiley) VOR-DME navigation aid, which is positioned to the south of the track.
The old administration buildings, previously used by Lucas Automotive have been left by Prodrive in the same state they were when Lucas first vacated the site and have become a popular site for Urban Explorers.
Read more about this topic: RAF Honiley
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