Autosport international 2014 continued today with the last of the trade only days. Saturday and Sunday sees the public days and one of the main attractions is the live action arena.
As usual, this year the show is a mix of live displays and racing action. There have been some new additions to the racing, the most notable is the cars from the Smart 4Two cup. You may have read about these on Girlracer before and the cars, (mostly based on modified Smart 4two Brabus models) are ideally suited to racing around the tight indoor course. Returning once again are the Hot rods and stock cars including the monstrous sounding F1 V8 stock cars. On the display side of things, Autocar show off their top drivers cars of 2013 featuring everything from a Fiesta ST all the way up to supercars. Shane Lynch and his Maxxis team mates put on a spectacular drifting display, narrowly missing the wall as they slid by. There is also an impressive parade of historic Team lotus Grand Prix cars. They impress both in sight and sound! Each show has various special guests who are interviewed. There are also several surprises but we won’t spoil things by revealing them here. Also featured are the Autosport Mclaren BRDC young driver of the year finalists and stunt driver, Terry Grant.
As well as the BTCC launches we mentioned yesterday; there have been plenty of other racing related debuts. Chevron are showing off new V8 versions of their GT3 and GT4 GR8 models. Sin cars, a Uk and German joint venture, are showing off a production ready version of their new Sin R1 supercar. The racing version made it’s uk circuit debut last year at Snetterton in the GT cup.
Zenos cars are launching their E10 lightweight sportscar. This new venture for former Caterham Cars CEO Ansar Ali and COO Mark Edwards, is powered by a 200bhp engine, weighs 650kg and covers 0-60mph in under five seconds. Although it’s aimed at the track, it’s also fully road legal and usable on the road.
It has a unique aluminium extrusion backbone chassis architecture and prices will start from just £24,995.
Autosport engineering saw it’s final day today , with over 200 stands, it’s one of the biggest for a while but it’s now replaced overnight by the Oval and extreme racing show. There will also be a feature for Radio controlled racing cars so there really are machines suitable for all ages and budgets!
Tomorrow also see’s several big name drivers starring. Among the names will be Martin Brundle, John Surtees, Max Chilton, Allan Mcnish (Current WEC champion) and the legendary Tom Kristensen who has won more Le mans 24 hours races than any other driver.
There will also be several BTCC drivers present including Matt Neal, Gordon Shedden and Dave Newsham to name just three.
Also announced tomorrow are the BWRDC gold star awards. We will bring you full coverage of this important award for female motorsport that’s announced every year at the show. Matt Neal is due to be assisting with presenting duties. The BWRDC also have a team in the annual Autosport charity kart race that was taking place on Friday evening as this report was being written. The team including, Alice Powell, Zoe Wenham, Louise Richardson, Jamie Chadwick, Liz Halliday and Tiffany Chittenden were running in second place in the early stages.
If you want to come to the show and don’t already have a ticket, tickets are still readily available at the show and we’ll be continuing our coverage tomorrow.
By Marc Waller
