The Autosport International show, which incorporates The Racing Car Show and other motoring attractions, opens its doors to fans at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham today.

On thursday and friday it was press and trade days and there is no reason to doubt it will be more popularl than ever over the next two days with stars from road, track and off-road heading to the NEC to entertain and meet their devoted fans.

With nearly 900 exhibiters housed in 13 halls, the show has seemingly gone from strength to strength over its 19-year history.

However visitors looking to see motorsport cars alongside road going versions they can buy will be disappointed.

Although Mitsubishi, SEAT and Fiat, as manufacturers, had their latest models on display alongside motorsport versions, other important brands involved in motorsport such as Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Ford, Citroen, Peugeot and GM did not.

Subaru were to be found on the Prodrive stand with their Impreza WRX STI and Impreza Group N rally car. According to industry sources the cost of exhibiting at the show and the cost of constructing and staffing a show stand, is prohibitive relative to the number of new car sales that might be achieved.

In 2007 the show attracted 27,011 trade visitors of which 4,000 came from overseas, 50,119 public visitors and 1,052 members of the Media. Organisers say they expect the 2008 show to attract even more visitors this year judging by the increased numbers of advanced ticket sales. 

However it is not cheap to attend. Adult tickets are £28 and children’s tickets are £18.50. A Paddock Pass with access to the Live Action arena costs £34 and £24.50 for children whilst a Platinum pass with unlimited access to all areas costs £95.

Over £310 million of business was generated from the 2007 event and 70 per cent of trade visitors made a purchase or set up future business contracts from visiting the show.   As for the paying public 80 per cent of visitors were male and 95 per cent spent money at the show on motorsport related items. In total the paying public spent an estimated £2.9 million on the two public days.

The 2008 event includes participants from F1, WRC and F3/GT teams, motorsport organizations, component manufacturers, suppliers and specialist on and off road vehicle makers.

Motor manufacturers such as SEAT were promoting the close likeness of their production models with their British and World Touring Cars.

Mitsubishi showed their latest Lancer and Lancer Evolution road and rally cars and announcing their Mitsubishi Evolution Challenge 2008 rally programme and Subaru were there with their new Impreza WRX STI and a Group N Impreza was actually assembled on the Prodrive stand in four hours.

Aston Martin officially unveiled the DBR9 race car with new sponsorship livery and announced support from Gulf Oil to defend their GT1 title at Le Mans in 2008. Motorcycle manufacturer KTM marked their move to future four-wheel products with the street-legal KTM X-BOW two seater road and track sports car.

Aston Martin chairman David Richards, also the boss of Prodrive, unveiled the Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT2 after he had joined International Motors Managing Director Lawrence Good in unveiling the new Subaru Impreza 2.5 WRX STI 300PS road car.
First deliveries of the STI in the UK start in March and the five-door hatch is priced at £24,995, £1,600 less than the model it replaces and loads less than the cheapest Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X.
Richards said Prodrive are already testing a WRC rally version of the STI, known as S14, and it is expected to make its rally debut mid 2008. Completing the action on the stand Subaru WRC rally technicians built a new Subaru Impreza Group N rally car in four hours.

Meanwhile their great rivals Mitsubishi Motors were showing their new Lancer saloon car range and debuting the ‘halo’ Evolution X variant.   The four-door saloon and the Evo X go on sale in time for the March new plate registration month and Lancer five-door Sportback will be launched in time for the September 2008 plate change month.
Lancer prices start at £12,499 for the 1.5-litre petrol five-door variant but the flagship Evolution Xs with FQ 300, 330 and 360bhp power output options, range from £27,499 up to £37,999.
Show goers were surprised by just how much larger the new Lancer models, including the Evo X, are compared to the outgoing production Lancer family of saloons, estates and Evolution IX models.
The Lancer was already a weighty C-segment car, the new generation Lancer looks a class up in size, more D-segment now, certainly more expensive and not likely to be troubling the WRC front-runners anymore, although the car is due to be homolgated for motorsport events during 2008.

Mitsubishi also announced at the show the line up for their 2008 UK works rally team. With five victories from seven rounds British Champion Guy Wilks stays with the team for another season. He is joined by Phillip Morrow as the team’s second works driver who gets the position by virtue of him winning the Mitsubishi Ralliart Evolution Challenger 2007.
Mitsubishi confirmed their Evolution Challenge series will continue for 2008 and the series organizer Simon Slade also confirmed an Irish Evo Challenge series with six events gets the green light to start in February 2008.

Looking for a body at the show was a Westfield two-seater spaceframe rolling chassis complete with an electric power source.
The ‘bright sparks’ on the Niche Vehicle Network stand launched at the show a competition to design a car for the world’s first one-make electric vehicle race series.
The prototype chassis is a version of Midlands based Westfield Sportscars latest two-seater sports car range. The competition is open to design students from universities, further education collages and senior streams of comprehensive schools.
Their competition entries must be registered with the organisers by 1 February 2008 but the design does not need to be finished until July in time for the final judging. The winning design and the resulting racecar will be shown at the Autosport show in January 2009.
With electric power the new one-make electric sports car will have a top speed of 110mph, 0-6mph will take under five seconds, the electric motor produces the equivalent of 100bhp but with over 400Nm of torque.