Autosport 2010

January’s rolled round so its time for the annual trip to Autosport International at Birmingham’s NEC. With the season still three months off, this isn’t a curtain raiser – more a slight twitch as we peek out at the weather in the hope it’ll go away so we can start to think of all things motor sport.

Following a few days of heavy disruption on the roads, the trip was fine aside from some evil ice on the side roads on the way to collect Rich.

A few familiar faces were missing from the show but given the state of play for businesses right now, I consider it a bonus that the show still runs. Nice to see Tony Adams patrolling the halls as we’ll be working closely with him this year during the H&DLCC’s 75th anniversary and Loton’s 50th year.

As ever, the show featured some astounding, cutting edge machinery including the Bloodhound SSC project. I’d love to try to pan that baby!

There were too many cars of jaw-dropping beauty to mention but the people on the stands deserve a mention. They never cease to amaze me with their enthusiasm and patience. Instead of doing something useful like shovelling snow off footpaths or painting railings, every spotty, chlamydia infected teen with a camera phone from miles around had gathered there on ‘press day’. How the promo girls tolerate having to pose with these morons is beyond me. I’ll suggest to Autosport that they should issue tasers to the young ladies next year as zapping a few of these idiots would make for a fine sport whilst we await the new season to arrive.
All-in-all, a great day out. Cheers to Rich for his company and a big thanks to the bods at the NEC for shifting the snow so efficiently that we managed to make it into the building without breaking our necks or our lenses.





Reality leaves a lot to the imagination - John Lennon