These included the two World Championship cars from Graham Hill, the BRM and the Gold Leaf Team Lotus 49 from 1968 with the Jim Clark Lotus 25 splitting them, having won the championship twice in 1963 and again in 1965.
National Exhibition Centre
8th-11th January 2009
The annual Autosport International /PistonHeads show was held at the NEC near Birmingham in a freezing cold January. The show is the ideal way to start the new year and the new season after the excesses of the Christmas period. The exhibition used several halls to house a vast selection of all forms of motor sport, including for the public weekend, a hall dedicated to a live action show. Everything from Karting right up to Formula 1, Le Mans and the World Rally Championship were represented.
The high light of the show was a display to represent the Grand Prix cars of
some of the British World Champions over the last 50 years
These included the two World Championship cars from Graham Hill, the BRM and the
Gold Leaf Team Lotus 49 from 1968 with the Jim Clark Lotus 25 splitting them,
having won the championship twice in 1963 and again in 1965.
 1962 BRM P57 which Graham Hill won the World Championship |
 Graham Hill Gold Leaf Lotus Ford 49 1968 World Champion |
 Jim Clark Lotus 25 World Champion in 1963 and 1965 |
 James Hunt 1976 McLaren |
All three Championship winning cars of Jackie Stewart, The Matra MS80 from 1969, and the two Tyrell Fords from 1971 and 1973. James Hunts Championship McLaren from 1976 started the second row, along with two Williams for Nigel Mansell and Damon Hill.
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Jackie Stewarts three World Championship winning cars, The Matra Ford MS80, Tyrell Ford 003 and Tyrell Ford 005 |
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Left is the Williams Renault FW14B used by Nigel Mansell
to win the World Championship in 1992. Right is the Williams Renault FW18 as raced by Damon Hill to the 1996 World Championship |
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To the left of this display, on a central raised platform stood the McLaren Mercedes MP4-23 of current World Champion Lewis Hamilton.
This formed the centre piece of the Formula one display, with cars from the
majority of the remaining Grand Prix teams displaying cars to the left of
the McLaren.
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Retired Grand Prix driver David Coulthard opened the show officially on the Saturday morning. A display of cars raced by David formed a large display in one of the exhibition halls. (Left) Taken from his museum in Scotland, the cars traced David's career, from his first Kart right up to one of the Red Bull Grand Prix cars that David raced at the end of his Grand Prix career. The show also had various Le Mans cars scattered through out the show, along with a snow scene depicting cars from the World Rally Championship.
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Historic racing cars were well represented with an
interesting line up of Formula 2 cars and Formula 3 cars |
Ron
Dennis was there, and you could get to see him on the big screen, as he drew a
large crowd and you could not get too close. That's him in the centre of the
bottom edge of the photograph!
There
were many classic Lotus Grand Prix cars in attendance, many in the famous Black
and gold colour scheme. On the Classic Lotus stand they had this fine example of
the JPS Lotus 72 as driven by Ronnie Peterson.
As
well as the Autosport racing car show, the Piston Heads show allowed for
all forms of classic and super car to be displayed such as this Swedish
Koenigsegg. There was also a display to celebrate 50 years of the Porsche 911
And what car show would be complete with out the usual glamour girls.
Some people got special car parking privileges!
While others could not decide old car or new?
Finally a couple of cars looked like they had not been finished
on time..
To finish assemble, please close body on top of car!
Looks like we only got time to finish half the car, only view from left side!
All images copyright Simon Wright 2009. www.simonwrightphotos.com Please contact Simon Wright at simonwright57@hotmail.com
