Autosport International show revving up for NEC

The world of motorsport will descend on the West Midlands next month as the Autosport International, comes to Birmingham NEC.

Taking place from January 13-16, the show is the traditional herald to the start of the annual motorsport season.

With a huge range of motorsport disciplines covered and a wide range of road cars on show, Autosport International aims to offer something for fans of anything with four wheels and an engine.

As usual, a host of motorsport stars will be making the trip to Birmingham for the show.

Commentating legend Murray Walker will be joined by the current faces of Formula One for the BBC, Jake Humphrey and Martin Brundle, as well as eight-times Le Mans 24hr winner Tom Kristensen, F1 test driver Gary Paffet, ex-F1 driver Anthony Davidson, triple FIA World Touring Car Champion Andy Priaulx and Chevrolet WTCC star Rob Huff.

One of the key attractions at this year's show will be the McLaren Racing Display, a phenomenal collection of racing cars from the company's illustrious motorsport history with McLaren's sensational new road car, the MP4-12C as its centrepiece.

This display will be a rare chance to see cars that are normally kept locked up in McLaren's secret archive including Ayrton Senna's MP4/4, which won 15 out of 16 races in the 1988 Formula One season and Lewis Hamilton's championship-winning MP4-23.

Formula One fans will also want to head over to the F1 Racing Grid, which will feature many of the challengers from the 2010 season including the double championship-winning Red Bull RB6 and the car that brought Michael Schumacher back to the pinnacle of motorsport, the Mercedes GP Petronas MGP-01.

The show will also mark the public debut of the new Lotus Renault racer, featuring a re-interpretation of the famous black and gold JPS livery, which will be unveiled on the Lotus stand in Hall 20.

Road car fans will have plenty to get excited about too: as well as the MP4-12C, BMW will show the much-anticipated 1 Series M Coupé for the first time in Europe while Caterham, Radical and Ginetta will all be unveiling brand new cars.

On display in PistonHeads: The Performance Car Show will be Nissan's heavily revised 2011 GT-R supercar and Ariel's monstrous 500bhp, V8-powered Ariel Atom.

The Fifth Gear Live Action Arena will be hosted on Saturday and Sunday by Fifth Gear TV stars Jason Plato and Tiff Needell.

This year's show will feature cars from the European Drift Championship, Class 3, Class 4 and Junior Autograss racers, rally cars, BriSCA F1 Stock Cars and rally cars from the European and British Rallycross Championships, including Liam Doran's 600bhp+ Citroen C4.

For fans of times-gone-by, Autosport International will play host to a display of cars from rallying's spectacular Group B era while auction house Coys is holding two auctions during the weekend, one for automobilia (automotive collectables) and a second for cars.

For further details, visit: www.internationalmotorsportbusinessweek.com.

Adult tickets cost £30 per day, with children's tickets priced at £19.50. Group and traded tickets are also available.

• Check back at expressandstar.com/motors for coverage of the show in the next couple of weeks