The Autosport International Show 2009
This week saw the Autosport International Show – the biggest motorsport show in the world- take place at the NEC Birmingham. At a time when the credit crunch is affecting every walk of life it was interesting to see what 2009 holds for driving fans in general and motorsport in particular. Where to start in this high octane festival of speed is always a difficult question, although the real star of the show for me was the stunning Alfa Romeo Brera S.
The Alfa Romeo Brera has long been hailed as one of the sexiest looking cars in the world, but on the real road, there was, perhaps, something missing from the handling. In a bid to satisfy the British driver who wants a bit more feedback and composure from this coupe, the Italians gave the car to Prodrive - the world leader in motorsport - to tighten up the driving feel offered by the standard Brera. After a year of suspension and chassis development at Prodrive, the Brera S is released with significant suspension tweaks and other modifications to reduce weight, and a choice of two petrol engines, the 182bhp 2.2-litre JTS and the 256bhp 3.2-litre V6 JTS which sounds glorious through those 4 exhausts. To ensure exclusivity, production of the S will be limited to just 500 individually numbered cars.
Despite their pulling out of the World Rally Championship, Subaru had a full stand of models including one of the stars of the channel 5 show "Police Interceptors" the latest Impreza STi police traffic car. With 300 horse power, a 0-60 time of around 5 seconds and impeccable 4 wheel drive handling, this is a traffic officers weapon of choice in the fight against car crime.
Formula 1 was well represented at the show with the main item being Lewis Hamilton's 2008 Championship winning McLaren. It will be interesting to see how the 2009 cars will look when they are released in the next few weeks with all of the technical changes, Especially Ferari's F60, so called to celebrate their 60 years in Grand Prix racing. Still smarting from losing the championship on the last corner, they are bound to be back with a bang.
The World Touring Championship winning Seat of Yvan Muller was also on show, along with Fabrizio Giovannardi's British Touring Championship winning Vauxhall Vectra.
Other incredible cars making their show debut were the immaculate in white Aston Martin GT2 and GT4 cars for the European GT racing series. Each car is hand built for racing at Aston Martin, and is based on the tremendously successful Vantage model saloon. Also on display was the awesome KTM Crossbow in the distinctive KTM orange. This is probably one of the quickest real world cars that money can buy, and certainly the most distinctive
.
So there was a lot to celebrate at Autosport 2009, and a tremendous years racing to look forward to in many different series. Will Lewis be number one again this year? Only time will tell, but I am sure we all wish him good luck.
Words and pictures by www.MJP-media.com
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Weather for Luton
Saturday 04 February 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: -1 C to 1 C
Wind Speed: 18 mph
Wind direction: South east
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: -1 C to 4 C
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