Wednesday 2nd January 2013

Performance Car Show line-up shines

With a week to go before doors open, the Performance Car Show's shaping up to be quite a treat

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So Christmas and the New Year are over and done with, and you’re back at work on a rainy grey Wednesday. The days are still short, the roads are still wet, and right now it doesn’t feel like there’s all that much to look forward to. Right? Well no, actually, because it’s now less than a week until the Performance Car Show at the NEC in Birmingham!

Supported by PistonHeads, and running in tandem with the annual Autosport Show, the Performance Car Show will be returning for its sixth year. Not only will there be static displays, but the Live Action Arena will return, where some of the most exciting machinery in the country will be put through its paces for the crowd.

Highlights will include the Supercar Paddock, where supercars of all shapes and sizes will be brought together for showgoers to gawp at and drool over in equal measure, as well as the Hand-Built British Sports Car Pavilion, which will offer visitors the chance to see some of the best UK engineering and design talent up close. Talking of which, Ariel will be revealing its new model, the Atom 3.5, at the event, a car which will set mouths watering with its supercharged 310hp Honda engine and 0-60 time of 2.7 seconds.

As if that wasn’t enough, the Live Action Arena will play host to an hour-long show that will run five times on each day. Porsche Boxsters, Supermoto Quads, Autograss Class 8 cars and BriSCA F1 Stock Cars will be just some of the wide-ranging performance and racing machines performing stunts, powerslides, and demonstration runs. Among the many participants will be Guinness World Record holder and stuntman extraordinaire Terry Grant and the 2012 McLaren Autosport BRDC Award finalists. What’s more, there’ll also be a drift demonstration from Team Japspeed, the 2012 Maxxis British Drift Constructors’ Champions. It promises to be an intense and exhilarating experience that no petrolhead worth his or her salt will forget!

The icing on the cake? Ten lucky ticket-holders will be selected at random and given the chance to compete for the prize of a lifetime – a year experiencing the thrills and spills of the 2013 Caterham Academy, including a fully race-prepared car, tuition, an ARDS license, entry to seven rounds across the country and a special spot on PistonHeads to write up a race report after every event. To enter, all you need to do is to buy a ticket to the show, submit the ticket code to the entry website, and answer a few questions. More details of this amazing prize can be found here.

Whether you win or not, the Performance Car Show looks set to be the ultimate way to blow away those post-Christmas blues. It runs from the 12-13 January, and you can buy your tickets here.

[4340BB]

Sounds good to me. See you there.

[TroubledSoul]

Less than a week? Until the 12th of January?! Am I missing something?

[Voguely]

TroubledSoul said:

Less than a week? Until the 12th of January?! Am I missing something?

The ability to bend time?

[dandarez]

TroubledSoul said:

Less than a week? Until the 12th of January?! Am I missing something?

Just what I was thinking.

I know time flies, but think someone must have had too much cheer over Xmas and New Year!

[C1RVY]

Tickets are quite expensive, with car parking costs too.

Any deals likely nearer the time??

[SLacKer]

C1RVY said:

Tickets are quite expensive, with car parking costs too.

Any deals likely nearer the time??

Park at the station all day at weekends for £5.

[dome]

If anyones looking for a cheap ticket send me a PM, I know of a spare one...

[andyps]

I've been most years recently and am not particularly interested in seeing the live action arena. It would really suit me if there was a cheaper option for a ticket just for the show. My main aim this year is to see the stands and buy equipment for competing at hillclimbs. £43 is pretty steep for doing that when parking is included. As a suggestion for the future, cut out the cost of the arena and make the tickets cheaper please.

[Andyt25]

Been a few times but just exspensive for a family of 4....over £100 plus the rip of for the parking.....Not really interested in the Arena...I take it you can not just buy tickets for the show without the Arena and save a bit of money.....

[tomoleeds]

whats with the annoying bloody adverts on the reply pages ?

[tomoleeds]

whats best day to go they used to have themed days rally cars one day,race cars another, anyone know whats on diffrent days

[lago]

Is it Harris who has insisted on the spelling of "Chrismas"?

[Scrof]

lago said:

Is it Harris who has insisted on the spelling of "Chrismas"?

Oops. Blame it on first-day-back blues. Now sorted

It is less than a week, though. Roughly. Sort of.

[Tom_C76]

It's a week until trade day...

The lineup for the arena sounds just like last year, and very similar to the year before. Maybe time to do something different?

[simonrockman]

Given that the headline says "line-up" shouldn't the copy list what's going to be on display?

[Auson]

I think Raceretro next month a just a few miles away is a bit more like it. Cheaper tickets, display with Group B rally cars with the original drivers and free parking.

[Shadow R1]

You mean the Autosport show, o no hang on they have to tie it with a performance car show to make it worth while doing.
I worked on a stand for 5 years when it was just Autosport, started out with 5 might have even have been 6 halls, in the last year i went it was 2.
It just priced itself out of the market, made it not viable for us to go.
Don't be fooled either, the halls naming convention has changed to make shows look bigger than they are, for example the bike show in November was listed as 4 halls when it was only 2.

Save your money from this and go watch some club racing, trust me it will be better.

[dandarez]

So, Express Parking (pre-book) and it will cost you double the cost of normal parking, at 20 quid.
Advance book most things and you usually save. Not here.

What really hit me, however, was the previously 'Free' disabled parking is being charged for, and 10 quid, same as for able-bodied drivers!
(no, I'm not disabled but if I was I wouldn't go on principle). It's all about money, money, money.

I haven't been for a few years (son said it was poor last year), but I'm old enough to remember the superbly memorable and brilliant London Racing Car Shows of the 60s and 70s.
ABSOLUTELY no comparison.

As I said, today it seems it just about money, nothing else.

[Vixpy1]

dandarez said:

So, Express Parking (pre-book) and it will cost you double the cost of normal parking, at 20 quid.
Advance book most things and you usually save. Not here.

What really hit me, however, was the previously 'Free' disabled parking is being charged for, and 10 quid, same as for able-bodied drivers!
(no, I'm not disabled but if I was I wouldn't go on principle). It's all about money, money, money.

I haven't been for a few years (son said it was poor last year), but I'm old enough to remember the superbly memorable and brilliant London Racing Car Shows of the 60s and 70s.
ABSOLUTELY no comparison.

As I said, today it seems it just about money, nothing else.

Its the NEC that charge the parking, not the promoter of the show. I've always thought parking should be free at the NEC, the NEC disagree