For the very best deals on car security including TOAD, Clifford, Viper and Tracker. [ Click to Read ]
Wednesday, 7th of January 2009
* Hey there! Remember there are -2- Photo galleries so be sure to check both out or you'll miss half the photos! *
Autosport International is the one event that we all look forward to pretty much from the moment the previous one finishes. It's the biggest, most well attended and diverse show in the UK for anyone who has even a passing interest in motorsport, modified or performance cars.
It's not the grot fest that a lot of English events have become in recent years, filled with borderline jail bait and trying to flog copy of a copy body kits, under car neons and CD's that HMV stopped stocking 5 years ago - quite the opposite in fact - Autosport is a celebration of everything car enthusiasts relish.
This year we decided to make the trip down for both the media and trade days so it would be easier to get around and actually see the cars and talk to the people at the stands. The public days (the Saturday and Sunday) are always jam packed which is great for atmosphere but not so hot for taking photos. Our journey started at 3am when the alarm went off, that was the signal that we had less than an hour to do our final preparation before leaving for Birmingham. As usual I managed to delay everyone by dicking around and panicking though not by as much time as usual. With a fully laden BMW 1 series we all made a break for the border by about half 4.
The trip down was as uneventful as you'd expect in the wee small hours and thankfully no road works were encountered to slow our pace. We got to the NEC for just before 9 bells, found a parking spot just at the entrance and began to unpack our gear. Feeling £8 lighter for the days car parking in the NEC grounds (added to the £5 for the M6 Toll) we got inside and made our way to the media centre to pick up our passes. For once we'd planned ahead and everything went smoothly, I wonder if that will ever happen again
The first 10 minutes at Autosport are the most challenging. It's such a massive show, spread across so many halls you really don't know which way to turn and start from. With Bex, EK Andy, Marie and myself all carrying a camera or camcorder we decided to split up and go in the opposite direction so we wouldn't be shooting the same things at the same time. With a verbal agreement to meet up for lunch we went our separate ways and ventured into the first hall.
If you've never been to the NEC before you can compare it to a Glasgow's SECC - but on steroids. Being a conference centre it looks fairly similar inside but the sheer size of it is unbelievable. The one thing they constantly do (that really gets on my tits) is to use very crap lighting. Everything looks orange and with red carpeting almost everywhere it totally screws up any photos and video (you'll probably notice in a lot of the shots the strange colour casting). But that's about the only negative thing that can be said about the place and it's nothing to do with the show organisers. Inside the arena Autosport International is split into various different sections. There is the Engineering Show which consists of the manufacturing side with lathes, CNC machines, digital micrometers and other industrial gear through to pistons, valves, cams and other engine parts. Then there's the Aftermarket Show which is aimed more at the garage industry with aftermarket component makers showcasing their new ranges for the coming year. Finally we have the Pistonheads Show which is what we were most interested in. It takes all the areas of motorsport, modified and performance motoring and brings everything together. From alloy wheel manufacturers, suspension companies, rally teams, high performance auto makers and everything else that falls within the realm of performance motoring.
Although this year's show was a little smaller than a couple of years ago it was still without a doubt the best event you can hope to go to within the UK. The credit crunch hype fuelled by the media has really scared a lot of people into hiding their hard earned cash under the mattress so the size of the show was down slightly but that also meant that the display stands had more room to move around them without the fear of knocking stuff over or scuffing the paintwork on the cars on show. We did notice that the freebies on offer weren't quite as cool as previous years though we did get some good stuff from the "Start Ya Bastard" stand (a cap with their company name on it, always going to be a winner for Church functions plus a tiny LED keyring), Powerflex had a novel poly bush keyring for visitors too and the rest of stuff on offer was the usual lanyards, pens and generic keyrings you find everywhere.
The things that stood out the most for us across the show were the K&W GTR Skyline which commanded the most attention of any cars on display while we were there. They had it lit properly with their own bright white lights and it worked a treat with almost everyone taking photos of it. The live show is also something that you need to check out. This year they had a mix of almost every discipline of motorsport from banger racing to F1 cars, Legends, drifting and WRC cars. Terry Grant was on hand with his 2009 show which includes two cars in synchronised donuts but we'll let you check out the video of that to find out more. The staff were also unbelievably nice (something we were not accustomed to) which might be in part due to them being slightly older and wiser than the young minimum wage earners that you seem to find patrolling most shows. The people working at the stands couldn't have been nicer and took the time out to speak to us about their companies, products and services. We spent a good while talking with the guys at Butser Motorsport who produce rubber components for cars and specialise in short runs for classic and vintage cars (where the original parts are no longer available). They had seen a lot of interest from historic rally car owners looking for new parts where original items had perished and this was just one example of how interactive people are at the show. The media centre staff were first class and calm under pressure (with hundreds of press journalists and photographers all trying to get in as quickly as possible and the only bell end we found working at the show was a guy who constantly gave us ball ache for not having our photos on our passes, even though we'd been given the passes by the same company he worked for and no-one else had any photos on theirs either.
We made time to go and speak to the alloy wheel companies as this is the area that seems to be holding steady during this doom and gloomy time (as everyone wants to have good looking rims even it they aren't after an ICE install or bodywork). Alcar had a massive display stand featuring their DOTZ range of wheels which look outstanding. We caught up with Kevin Greer and Robert Sinclair to get the run down on what's going to be happening for 2009 and they've got some of the best looking new styles around. On their stand they had their latest pin up girl signing posters and were also handing out the new DOTZ magazine which features a load of information on the drift scene plus news, reviews and lifestyle content. Over at the Performance Wheels stand we spoke to Ian Smith who showed us the new range of KEI Racing and Finichi wheels plus new product additions to the company including the TyreSure pressure monitoring system which gives advance warning of slow punctures or rim leakage. On the Rim Stock stand the full range of Team Dynamics wheels were being showcased with their two top PR chicks Paige and Tillie (more of them on the photo galleries and video) plus BTCC superstars Matt Neal, Gordon Sheddon and Tom Chilton. News from Team Dynamics this year is the opening of their wheel refurbishment service where you can send your damaged rims down to their warehouse and have them fixed up like new and returned to you. Across the board there were some great new designs from the big wheel companies so even if you aren't looking at spending on a new car this year at least your current one can have a new set of shoes.
Andy and Marie caught up with Tiff Needell on their travels around the show and found him to be a complete gent and very approachable. They met Nigel Morris who is the owner of Big Foot, the crazy monster truck and got a signed t shirt plus they were daring enough to get inside the 6.3l V8 Mercedes AMG just after breakfast for some tail happy power sliding and drift action.
I think we've covered everything, no hold on a minute...
How could we forget the gorgeous PR girls that made the 2 days of walking, the sore feet and multiple blisters worth every pain infused step. It's true that this is a car show first and foremost and as I said earlier there aren't more girls than cars like some shows but what Autosport lacks in female quantity they sure make up for in quality!
The PR team that stole the show (as voted by us all, females included) were the "Start Ya Bastard" girls, namely The Sun newspaper's Page3 stunner Katie Leigh and her best bud Lucy. Draped in figure hugging yellow catsuits they literally stopped the flow of visitors everywhere they went. Absolutely stunning and always happy to pose for photos from the eager public. The marketing guys at Nulon had a triple win on their hands, firstly for the name of their product, something that has already caused a lot of heated debate (and free publicity), secondly for having amazing looking models that everyone took photos of and last but not least, they got their branding 100% spot on with the girls costumes. People were saying "have you seen the Start Ya Bastard girls?" because their product name was right there in bold letters across their chest and also neatly printed on their bums, where as on other PR girls you couldn't tell who the hell they were working for as the company names were either too small or in the wrong place. Why do you think we printed our web address on the Strathy PR girls hot pants We'd also like to make a mention for the painted on rubber trousers that two girls were wearing for some karting company (see what I mean, no idea who they were working for) that was also an awesome sight (from behind). The blonde girl in the blue catsuit (photographed with the lovely Andy) was also a firm favourite and was happy to pose in front of the stand she was working for (no idea again what it was for) and both Rachel and Steph looked stunning PR'ing for Pirelli.
We also caught up with Jennai Dewsbury who used to appear on page 3 and had been up to Knockhill a few times to find out why she'd not been working at shows recently. It turns out she's not had the time for modelling lately as she's now a successful song writer and has been working away in the studio for the last few years with a load of artists. She was working for Ginetta Sports Cars on the day and certainly drew a crowd to their stand. We found the music theme continuing when we chatted to Jakki Degg about what she's been up to and found out she's now a professional DJ and has some big events coming up in March with a UK tour planned for later in the year. "I'm getting too old for modelling now" she said but by the amount of guys eager to get their photo taken with her we think she's well off the mark.
And so Autosport comes to a close for 2009. We loved every minute of the show, we got some freebies, saw some amazing cars and spoke to some great people. We even picked up some bargains from the RaceWare stand (Sparco trainers for £20 yas!). All we can do now is book out hotel rooms for 2010 and start counting down the days. Be sure to check out BOTH galleries (1,000+ photos in total) and also the following 3 videos all shot in high definition.
The Main Show:
The Babes:
The Live Action Show:
Words: Rikki Photos: Rikki, EK Andy & Bex
Please note you can't edit or delete these comments later. Standard forum rules apply.
