Formula 2 cars in the live arena
Dreary, grey sky. Seemingly endless cold and damp days. It’s about time I got a much-needed fix to brighten the mood I’m in! The fix in question will be a car show. The PistonHeads & Autosport International Show, to be exact.
Held in January every year, this is the perfect time for it. It’s situated at the N.E.C (National Exhibition Centre) in Birmingham, which has large, (and most importantly warm and dry), halls, which accommodate the huge amount of cars and stalls nicely.
I booked my ticket a couple of weeks earlier, buying the Paddock Pass ticket, which is a bargain at £35 (normal tickets are £30), as, with the pass you can access the backstage area of the Live Arena (I’ll come to that later), which also gets you a comfy seat there too. The Paddock Pass also allows you meet the stars of the show and get autographs and pictures with them.
The show itself started at 9 am, and my ticket into the Live Arena was for 9:30 am. There are quite a few Live Arena shows throughout the day, but the first is always the best as the stars and the cars in the show are bright and fresh, ready for action. By the end of the day and the last showing (6pm), the acts are tired and don’t tend to give 100% in my opinion. On with the live show then! It’s a frenzy of bright lights, moody music and noise. The noise made by a variety of machinery. On the scene with a few words first though are F1 commentator Martin Brundle and retired F1 driver David Coulthard, who give us a briefing of what’s to come (with their careers and with the show). This is the PistonHeads & Autosport show after all, so the cars that enter the arena are some of the fastest, and most powerful vehicles around.
They include Formula 2 cars (similar to Formula 1 cars, but smaller and less powerful) and the Super Mighty Minis, which take a normal Classic Mini Cooper, up-rate the engine, lighten the car, fit roll bars, Perspex windows and racing tyres and suspension, add a few other modifications, and hey presto, you have a fast racing Mini. Also raced is the latest Ford Focus W.R.C (World Rally Championship) car. This is the real deal with 300 bhp and 406 lb-ft of torque, the 0 – 60 mph time is around just 4 seconds.
Legendary stunt driver Terry Grant also made an appearance too, to wow the crowds with his usual outlandish but precise driving. These are just a few highlights of the Live Arena, there are many others, too many to mention here in fact, so you’ll have to attend the show next year to find out what’s going to be hurting your ears and making you cy with envy and jealousy over the fact that more than likely, you will never get to drive one of these rare race cars. Still, at least you get to see them in action eh!
KTM X-Bow
After the one hour show, I headed into the halls to check out the cars on display. What I like about this show is that it really is for petrolheads, whether you’re into exotics, racing cars or just normal everyday motors, there’s something for everyone here.
The salesmen and enthusiasts on the stands are more than helpful, and are always happy to answer your many, many questions even if some are boring. One of my favourites is, “ so what’s the drag coefficient on this car?”, it always baffles them for a while.
There are a lot of great trade stands to peruse, from suspension, brakes and exhaust systems, to Steve McQueen posters and books, it’s all here. With the economy being in turmoil at the moment, this is a good way for the traders to create more sales and interest in their products, after all it’s much better to go and actually have a look and whet your appetite at say, a brake calliper and disk-which can almost be a work of art at times-than it is just taking a gander on the internet!
You can also get yourself a bargain too. A lot of the time, the products at these shows are at least 10% cheaper than shop or internet prices.
Myself with the 1,300bhp Chevy Monter Truck
Wandering around the halls, there are some really unusual vehicles on display. On the Santa Pod Raceway stand, there is a beast that brings out the kid in all of us. A Chevrolet pick-up monster truck, which is a 1,300bhp, 5-ton, 4-wheel-steer brute of a machine. Also on the stand was their Jet powered Funny Car, which is not-so-funny when you read that it has over 5500 lbs of thrust and can run a quarter of a mile in 5.7 seconds, crossing the line at 336 mph!
Then there was the attention grabbing British built Bowler Nemesis, the famed 4×4 that has a cut away Range Rover type body and a supercharged engine with 450 bhp and 600 lb-ft of torque. Oh, and just to top things off, it also competes in the Paris-Dakar race. What a machine!
Another smattering of cars included the 242 mph Swedish manufactured Koenigsegg CCR, the £120,000 Ford GT, the evil looking race-car-for-the-road TVR Sagaris, and a variety of tuned and customised Porsches, Range Rovers, and other high end marques.
Prodrive tuned Aston Martin Vantage
Prodrive, a tuning company for some of the greatest cars around, including Ferrari and Alfa Romeo, also had a great stand too. It was well lit and laid out, and their tuned cars, which included Aston Martins and Subarus, were in the whitest of white colours. Very cool. The PistonHeads & Autosport International Show was a great day out, for enthusiasts and non-enthusiasts alike, with more than enough to do and see. I’ll definitely be going back next year.
Besides, it’s changed my mood to a much brighter one – there’s nothing like a good car show for that!
