BCA parent firm Constellation Automotive Group has bought the former Rockingham Motor Speedway for £80m under plans to expand its Cinch online car retailer.

Avril Palmer-Baunack, executive chairman of Constellation Automotive Group

The speedway, located in Northamptonshire, was once Europe’s fastest banked oval racing circuit and will be used by Constellation to develop a specialist automotive reconditioning and logistics centre across the 200-acre site.

Combined with the group’s existing 200 acres of sites in Corby, the estate will have the capacity to prepare over 100,000 cars a year for sale and store over 50,000 vehicles. It will also house a new academy for mechanics.

The centre will be used to support the continued expansion of the Cinch business, which launched in October 2020 and enables drivers to part-exchange their car and buy or finance used cars fully online and have them delivered straight to their home. Since then, the business has reached annualised sales of over 45,000 vehicles, in less than eight months. Constellation recently raised over £1bn to drive Cinch’s growth across the UK and Europe.

Avril Palmer-Baunack, executive chairman of Constellation Automotive Group, said: “By investing in infrastructure this early in our journey we are ensuring that Cinch will be able take advantage of changing consumer trends and sell more cars on behalf of our third-party partners such as dealers, car manufacturers or leasing companies. We are excited to be able to play a leading role in the industry’s digital transformation.”