Vroom For New Investment: Trinity Buy Top Gear Track

Trinity College have paid £50 million to buy all 898 acres of Dunsfold Park, home to the BBC’s Top Gear test track. Known for a vast property portfolio valued at an estimated £621 million in 2005, Trinity’s other holdings include a 999 year lease on London’s O2 Arena, which they bought for £24 million in 2009, in addition to several more controversial investments.

Trinity of a different sort

Dunsfold Park was previously a Canadian airfield in the Second World War, before being used by British Aerospace to develop Hunter, Harrier and Hawk aircraft. Trinity’s plans, however, are hopefully more cheerful. The college have agreed to manage the site in Surrey in conjunction with its former owner, The Rutland Group, in a move welcomed by environmental groups. With Rutland having been denied permission by Waverly Borough Council to build homes in Dunsfold Park in 2008, Guildford, Woking and Waverley Friends of the Earth expressed approval of the new partnership with Trinity. A spokesperson for the NGO said: “Trinity College is a major long-term investor, which has a track record of imaginative and far-sighted development such as the Cambridge Science Park.”

Stig disapproves of drink-driving

With their fondness for wining and dining, let’s just hope nobody at Trinity gets round to the Top Gear track after a night at formal.