OK – What is there not to love about the Autosport International Show? A chance for a catch-up and a beer with your racing pals perhaps? Or a welcome chance to search for part suppliers in the engineering section or seek out your race series and sign-up.
If you can or can’t make it to the NEC for this weeks show we have put together the top 10 highlights:
1. If you are a fan of F1, Rookie Williams driver, Lance Stroll, will be in the hall on Saturday 14th January. (Stroll will be the first Canadian F1 driver since Jacques Villeneuve, who left in 2006) Speaking of which, Former Formula 1 World Champion, CART IndyCar Champion and Indianapolis 500 winner, Jacques Villeneuve, will also be in the building! Sunday will see Williams’ head of performance engineering and long-term race engineer to Felipe Massa, Rob Smedley, interviewed on the Autosport Stage and Claire Williams, deputy team principal of Williams Martini Racing, taking to the Autosport Stage to discuss the 2016 season, what’s next for Williams and the future of F1.
2. If you are an Indy Car fan then four-time IndyCar Series champion and three-time winner of the Indianapolis 500, Dario Franchitti MBE, will be attending the show on Saturday.
3. If F1 cars are your thing, then look out for the Williams collection who will be displaying a fascinating collection of its famous heritage cars including the FW07 which gave Williams its first victory, Nigel Mansell’s 1992 Drivers’ Championship-winning FW14B, Damon Hill’s 1996 Drivers’ Championship-winning FW18 and the 2003 Monaco GP-winning FW25.
4. If you are a Supercar fan then the adjacent Performance Car Show will be featuring the Ferrari California T Handling Speciale, a Jaguar F-TYPE SVR Convertible, and a Porsche 911 GT3 RS. Other stunning cars to look out for McLaren 570S GT4 (Hall 19) the 3.5 litre V6 brand new Ford GT, an Aston Martin DB11 and making its debut MacG Racing, (the UK’s only distributor of the current AC Cobra brand), will be launching the first right-hand-drive MK VI.
5. If you are looking to race an FIA spec Hypercar then head straight for the Hussarya GT, Polish supercar manufacturer Arrinera is returning displaying the car that made its debut in 2016. Built to FIA GT specification, the 6 litre V8 Hussarya GT is to hit the circuits this year and will be displayed in Hall 4.
6. Abarth is to show their new 124 Rally at AIS – The bright red and yellow liveried, rear wheel drive lightweight 124 rally is set to go on sale, we’ll find out more when we get there.
7. The Live Rally cross arena is set to thrill showcasing nine decades of Rallycross, drivers to appear include Rally legend Vic Elford at the wheel of a Porsche 911R, current drivers confirmed include: 2016 British Rallycross Champion, Dan Rook, winner of the 2016 British Rallycross Grand Prix, Liam Doran, and FIA World Rallycross Championship supercar competitor Andres Bakkerud.
8. Live action arena will also feature some BTCC bad boys including Gordon Shedden, Matt Neal, Colin Turkington and Andrew Jordan, going head-to-head in what is sure to be a highly competitive time trial.
9. Renowned stunt driver Terry Grant will be returning to perform a selection of nail-biting tricks, this time joined by professional free-style stunt rider Lee Bowers.
10. Finally as a classic fan, I shall be making a bee-line to see a unique display featuring all seven remaining Lotus type 49 cars thanks to their owners from around the world. The cars from 67 – 70 were raced by legends such as Jim Clark, Graham Hill, Jackie Oliver, Jochen Rindt, Richard Attwood and Emerson Fittipaldi amongst others.
Autosport International 2017 will be held at the Birmingham NEC on 12-15 January. For more information, visit www.autosportinternational.com.
