At an airfield that formerly belonged to the British RAF, up to 14,000 classic cars are rusting away. The cars are scrapped for 10,000 DKK each.
In England, classic cars are piling up on former airfields around the country, just waiting to be scrapped.
At Thurleigh, a disused RAF base, 14,000 cars await their fate. A scrappage scheme in England from 2017, which was supposed to promote the sale of electric cars and new cars in general, is the reason for the large collection of cars.
The scheme gave car owners 10,000 Danish kroner to scrap a car they had owned for at least a year if they also bought a new car. 400,000 Britons took advantage of the scheme. This caused new car sales to increase by 26 percent. The British government spent over five billion kroner on the programme.
The vast majority of the cars that the British handed over for the money have already ended up as scrap. However, some of the cars were stored on old airfields from World War II, where they still stand today.
There are 14,000 cars at Thurleigh alone, and tens of thousands more are still parked at various airfields around England. Among the cars at Thurleigh are several classic models from Audi, BMW, Porsche and Saab.
According toTop Gear, these include 14 Audi Quattros, 13 BMW 635 CSIs, 4 BMW M535i, 6 BMW 8 Series, 10 Mazda RX7s, 32 Peugeot 205 GTIs and 3 Porsche 928s.
In addition, Saab 900 Turbo and 9000 Turbo have also been scrapped, as well as unusual Volvo cars, including several Volvo P1800 ESs. Even American cars such as the Ford Mustang GT have been scrapped.
It is expected that the cars at Thurleigh will be scrapped soon, as the space is also used for storing newer cars.
The scrapping program from 2017 has received renewed attention after Tesla introduced a similar program in the UK. Critics of the program fear it will lead to even more classic cars being scrapped.
It is unknown how many of the cars at Thurleigh are in running order, although it is likely that some were scrapped while still running.
The scrapping program from 2017 is an example of how political measures can have unintended consequences. In this case, the program has led to a large number of classic cars being scrapped. The video below is from 2018.
