The 2015 Autosport International show ended on Sunday after four days of selling and showing off from almost all aspects of the motorsport industry.
The show, which featured over 700 exhibitors is the biggest Motorsport show in Europe and the live action element of the event was a sell out.
Visitors got to see a large number of attractions over the four days including several displays. We already mentioned the F1, BTCC and Wales Rally GB displays on previous reports but there were several more this year.
Motorsport News, who usually back the Rally display instead this year had a display celebrating 60 years of the publication. Cars were featured from across the whole 60 years and included a 1950’s Jaguar D-Type, 1960’s Ford Mustang, Steve Perez’s Lancia Stratos originally from the 70’s, Colin McRae’s 1995 World championship winning Subaru Impreza and Petter Solberg’s 2014 World Rallycross winning Citroen DS3 plus many more.
Another historic display was provided jointly by Classic & Sportscar magazine and the Silverstone Classic festival, which is also celebrating 25 years this year at the same time as the show. They provided various Classic and iconic racing cars including, Formula 1’s championship winning Cooper T53 and iconic sportcars such as the Jaguar D-Type and Sauber Mercedes C11.
Last but not least was a display by the HSCC of various cars raced by the Brabham marque. From early cars right up to the f1 car of nelson Piquet after the team was sold on, it made for an impressive site.
The Brabham name is returning to motorsport with the family in the form or Project Brabham. This intends on returning the Brabham team to the track with the help of the fans. They had a stand at the show to showcase the project.
The performance car show had a wide range of performance road cars as well as even more track cars, Autocar and What car both had road cars which have won awards in their magazine on display. Pistonheads, the online car magazine and forum made their online virtual pub, the Pie and Piston into a real pub for the duration of the show, where visitors could get a drink and discuss cars as well as the issues of the day!
The oval racing show had a wide range of stock cars on display as well as cars from other low cost motorsport like grass track racing and clubman Rallycross. The Fueltopia Barrel Sprint that we reported on a few years ago had some competitors cars on display.
There was a new attraction for 2015, the Alcatel Onetouch Wheel Change Challenge, which allowed motorsport fans to get their hands dirty, testing their skills against the clock to smartphones and tablets.
Coys held their annual auction was held on Saturday with everything from a mini to a Cadillac on sale as well as various interesting cars from the track. It had one of the biggest numbers of cars to sell that it’s had for many years with the lots taking up a big chunk of the hall at the Performance car show end of the halls.
A huge number of star drivers attended over the four days. These included David Coulthard, Allan Mcnish, Anthony Davidson, Will Stevens, Oliver Jarvis, Alex Lynn, Rob Huff, Jason Plato, Matt Neal, Gordon Shedden, Andrew Jordan, Colin Turkington plus many more. There were lots of top female drivers including 2014 Supercup champion Abbie Eaton, Rebecca Jackson, Anna Walewska (BWRDC Elite Goldstar winner.) Charlotte Burridge, Jessica Hawkins and Sarah Moore to name but a few.
We’ll leave it to Petter Solberg, who both opened the show and starred in the live action element, to sum up the show;
“My 2014 season began at Autosport International, where I launched my plans for the year. Just one year later I’m pleased to be back in the UK as the first ever Rallycross champion celebrating with the fans and looking ahead to 2015. It’s been another phenomenal few days fuelled by a real motorsport passion, I loved it.” By Marc Waller
