Saturday, 14th of January 2012
When Xmas and New Year are starting to disappear
from your mind you know its time to prepare
for Autosport International!
Every year the first thing on our calendar is to
get prepared for Birmingham and ASI. For those
who dont know, it's a show that covers just
about every form of motor racing and caters
for all kinds of petrolhead from noob
drivers, modified car owners, performance
enthusiasts through to rally drivers, racers
and drift champions. The show even goes as
hardcore as having a dedicated area for
engineering and manufacturing where you
can watch solid lumps of metal being CNC
machined into parts - we're not kidding.
With hotel rooms booked and bags packed we set off on Wednesday night on the 4ish hour commute to Birmingham Airports new Travelodge. We thought this was a great idea as the rooms were only £19 a night. We only found out when we got there that parking was another tenner a night plus if we wanted to leave for food and come back we'd be bum raped further by the automated carpark machine.
Never mind, we enjoyed stocking up on the multiple complimentary bath towels left in the unlocked complimentary bath towel cupboard
Up fresh as a daisy on Thursday morning we hammered the breakfast with slabs of bacon and beans aplenty before braving the early morning Birmingham roads on the way to the NEC.
Beating the rush we got there, signed in at the media centre (who remembered us from last year, oh dear) and were inside the show a good half hour before anyone else dared enter. This allowed us to get some photos without tons of people walking in front of the camera - something most of the visitors were oblivious to considering it was a media/press and trade day.
Having been last year we knew a lot of the show would be similar to the previous one and we were right. It was good to see some familiar faces but was a bit same old same old seeing everything in almost exactly the same location as the previous year and a lot of the same stands having the same exact layouts.
On the bright side there were a lot of new exhibits, demo cars and PR chicks to keep us entertained for the full two days though.
Some of the key highlights of the show were of course the live action stunt show with master showman Terry Grant plus the Ginetta juniors, TimeAttack drivers, motor cross, McLaren demo drive and to end things off a race of vans! In the main hall there was a tribute to legendary driver Ayrton Senna featuring a range of the cars and karts he drove during his racing career; Porsche had their 918 RSR on display rotating on a turntable drawing crowds all day long and across the floor the Maxxis girls drew another type of crowd with their VW camper and Mark Luney's refreshed 2012 drift Supra.
SVM's awesome Hulk GTR was on show and had to be one of the stars of the show with its immaculate engine work and crazy green styling plus tons of other attractions we cant even begin to list. What we did notice was the Pistonheads area had shrunk yet again compared to a few years ago (and even last year) and FastCar didnt have a stand this time around which was a shame as we were looking forward to catching up with the guys for some banter.
Of course there were some cracking cars in the NEC carparks on the way out too - as always happens.
As far as starts to the new year go you cant beat a few days away at Autosport.
If you've never been before and have even the slightest interest in cars then its the place to be and in the grand scheme of things it isnt that expensive and even cheaper if you grab a budget return flight booked well in advance.
Here's to 2013 - if we make it there!
Words: Rikki
Photos: EK Andy & Rikki
Please note you can't edit or delete these comments later. Standard forum rules apply.
© 2000-2012 Strathycruise.com / UXXV Developments - If you would like to use these images email us. |
