Cholmondeley Pageant of Power gears up for 2012

CPoP is back, and for 2012 it's bigger and better than ever

Summer is on the way, and that means everyone's favourite motoring event based at a hard-to-pronounce stately home in the North West, the Cholmondeley Pageant of Power, is back.

And if it doesn't quite seem like a year since the last CPoP, that's because it isn't - the organisers have moved things forward a month in an effort to chase better weather, with this year's pageant taking place on 15-17 June. It seems that they've looked at rainfall averages over a number of previous years and found June to be a consistently drier month than July.

Which means that the 150 historic and modern racing cars and motorbikes taking to the 1.2-mile U-shaped sprint track in Cheshire should be bathed in summer sun...

What's new?
So aside from guaranteed sunshine, what else has CPoP got up its sleeve for this year? Well, new for 2012 is...

The 'Supercar class', entrants for which include: Lamborghini Aventador, BAC Mono Bentley Continental V8, BMW M5, Porsche 991, Vauxhall Maloo, Ferrari 458 Italia, Ariel Atom V8, Radical SR3 SL, Mercedes SLS AMG and Ford Transit SuperSportVan.

A 'Bond in Motion' exhibition in partnership with Beaulieu's National Motor Museum, celebrating 50 years of 007. Cars include the 'vanishing' Aston Martin V12 Vanquish from Die Another Day and a miraculously un-sawn-in-half Z8 from The World Is Not Enough.

A 50th anniversary tribute to the AC Cobra, with a special race class dedicated solely to the iconic Anglo-American sports car and a static display of Cobras.

Rockers Restaurant, an 'Ace Cafe away from home', which CPoP describes as 'recreating the iconic rock 'n' roll atmosphere for which the venue in Stonebridge, North London is famed'.

Visitors will also get the chance to take part in a Nissan/PS3 GT Academy 'Wild Card' event - many PlayStations, big screens, race seats and force-feedback steering wheels open to the public, and one winner per day will be put forward for the UK national final of GT Academy. The UK winner from 2011, Jann Mardenborough, now races in the Blancpain Endurance Series and will be at the Pageant throughout the weekend.

And don't forget...
All of which is on top of the usual CPoP fun, such as the dedicated rally stage, aerobatic displays (including the Breitling Wingwalkers), helicopter displays and flights (the largest private helicopter show in Europe), powerboat/hovercraft racing on the lakes, a fireworks concert on the Saturday, and the magnificent aero-engined cars for which CPoP is becoming renowned.

PHers go cheap!
Entry to the pageant is £30 on the door, but PHers can get in for £20 by quoting the code PHPT. The three-day ticket, which includes the Saturday fireworks concert, is £85 booked in advance, but £72 for PHers with the code PH3DT.