Autosport International Show

Well you know when its a new year, because its time for the annual Autosport International Show. This year Autosport were teamed up with PistonHeads.com, who brought along their own smaller sports car show. Being a motorsport engineer and a part time motorsports photographer means that I can appreciate both sides of the Auotosport Show. The Thursday and Friday of the show are dedicated "Trade" days. During this time many of the companies produce or supply components, equipment, software or hardware for race car teams throughout the world. This year some of the new innovations included Flybrid's new and so far the only fully built and tested KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System) flywheel. In 2009 the FIA have insisted that all Formula 1 cars have to have these new energy recovery storage systems fitted to them. As this is the first of these KERS products to be shown to the public there was alot of expectation and interest.

On the other hand this year saw even more sports and racing cars present at the NEC in Birmingham. This was partly due to the addition of the Piston Heads sports car show. The Piston Heads show had a huge host of Porsche, Ferrari, Lotus and Lamborghini sports cars. There was even a display of every single Mitsubishi Evo car that has thus far being produced! Other highlights of the Autosport Show was the newly liveried Le Mans spec Aston Martin's. Celebrating the 40th anniversary since the iconic Gulf Oil liveried Ford GT40's of the 1960's. Gulf Oil are now main sponsors of this years GT1 title defending Aston Martin's.

Another welcome addition to this years Autosport Show was a large and emotional tribute to the late, great Colin McRae. Many of his most recognizable rally cars were also on display - including the very Subaru in which he won his only World Rally Championship title in 1995. Each year the F1 Racing magazine creates a complete display of all the current F1 cars. In previous years this has been achieved by re-creating iconic racing circuit corners - these have previously been based on Monaco and Monza circuits. This year the display recreated a full pit lane experience, with each car positioned outside of mock pit lane garages. And for an extra special treat the newly created Force India F1 team officially launched their new F1 car at the Autosport Show.

After such a long day, (and countless miles being walked!) It was a pleasant surprise to find that it was, and had indeed being snowing outside of the NEC. Although the added snow ended a wonderful day at the show, it did make the long walk back to the car very very cold!!

So now at least I'm back home and slowly warming up - hopefully in time for the next event! Although this has not been decided yet, keep your eyes on the website to find out.

Paul...