Autosport Performance Car Show Birmingham NEC 2018

Autosport Performance Car Show 2018

I used to go to the forerunner of this performance car/racing car show when it was held at London Olympia; in fact if I think harder I remember attending before that, when it was held at London’s Horticultural Halls. Here is a piece from the MotorSport magazine at the time –

“December 1961

The Racing Car Show

The B.R.S.C.C. International Racing Car Show at the Old and New Horticultural Halls, London, S.W.1 will be opened by the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport, John Hay, M.P., on December 30th and will remain open to January 6th. The Show will be a mecca for racing enthusiasts and those interested in engine conversions, kit-built cars and special bodywork. Next month Motor Sport intends to publish a Directory of Cars Sold in Kit-Form, indicating the cost, scope and engine availability of the many p.t.-free kits now on the market.” Courtesy of the MotorSport magazine archives.

In the intervening years I have only attended spasmodically, in fact it has been a good many years since I last attended. In that time it has been moved to the Birmingham NEC, only a two stop train ride from where I live. The reason I went this time is because I was hoping to do a recorded interview with Clive Baker, the 1960s Works Team driver for the Donald Healey Motor Company.

I am a volunteer with the Warwickshire County Records Office who bought a Healey Motor Company Archive from Geoff Healey’s family in 2016. Part of the project is to record the memories of people who were involved with the company and or its cars. Over twenty recording have been completed to date, including one by John Harris, a team mate of Clive’s. But you probably know all that if you have been reading the Warwick Healey Motor Company Archive Bulletin that I host on this website. John Harris enjoyed recalling his memories so much that he insisted that we must do one with Clive. That has proved easier said than done, Clive lives in Devon! So when we heard that he was coming up to the Autosport Performance Car Show in seemed a great opportunity to do the interview. Unfortunately Clive went down with the dreaded lurgy that seems to be sweeping the country at the moment so I couldn’t do it.

But I wasn’t going to spurn my press pass so off I went to the show on Friday morning 12th January.

My, how things have changed or at least they seemed to have done as I stepped into Hall 20 and was immediately confronted by the Ligier stand replete with its stunning LMP 1 and 2 cars.

This feeling continued as a went from stand to stand gazing into the engine compartments of various cars and not recognising many of the components obliterating what I just about recognised as a traditional engine block. Of course some cars, reflecting current and future trends, did not have internal combustion engines, they had electric motors. I wondered where some of smaller companies, totally unfamiliar to me, found the money to build and develop these outstanding engineering creations. As my path took me to the outer fringes of halls 20. 19, 8, 7, and 6 I began to recognise cars and technology that was more familiar to me and that I felt more comfortable with. So if you have come to the post in the hope of seeing the very latest kit for modern racing cars I am afraid that you might be a little disappointed. Not totally so because, amongst others, I took some photos of the Pioneer sponsored Jaguar Formula ‘E’ car. Anyway, judge for yourself, these are the cars that caught my eye, I hope that they are of interest to you too. –