Autosport International 2008 - Day Two!
Our Technical Editor, Mr. Caruana, has provided us with an update to last week’s events:
After a nice “full English” breakfast to set me up for the day I headed off nice and early for the show from the hotel via a local taxi. Upon arrival the exhibition centre was a hive of activity with exhibitors and mainly trade attendees all heading for the main entrance. After registering I made my way to the main Autosport Engineering & Manufacturing Exhibition hall which also housed the General and Historic Motorsport exhibitions.
The first port of call was the Colin McRae tribute stand which was a cluster of extremely rare original cars form Colin’s career pulled together from a number of private collectors, to pay respect to this master of the rallying world who unfortunately passed away after a helicopter crash in September of 2007.
On show was the original Talbot Sunbeam that Colin used to begin his professional rallying career, shown in red as the last car on the left of the picture below. Followed by the white Vauxhall Nova with its small 1300cc engine which Colin drove in the 1987 Swedish Rally as an eighteen year old.
Then came the first of the mighty Subaru’s, first was the Legacy RS which Colin won back to back British Championships with during 1991 and 1992. Also in 1992 Colin would come head to head with Tommi Makinen in the Nissan Sunny GTi-R during the Elonex Rally, and win by the skin of his teeth (2 seconds). The second Subaru on the stand was the 1995 World Rally winning 555, this was when Colin was at the pinnacle of his career.
Overall the exhibition was very well attended considering it was a trade day, and a real buzz about the place with acquaintances being re-kindled from all sectors of the industry. Full marks go to the show organisers and the exhibition centre as it was well organised and executed, with ample facilities to cater for the significant level of attendance. In tomorrows blog I will cover the KTM X-Bow and updated Radical SR8 Supersport.
