The Autosport International in Birmingham kicked off the 2006 motorsport year in early January. It's the world's largest dedicated motorsport exhibition and brings the best in the world of motorsport under one roof. Actually, under about six, with the show spread across numerous vast halls within the NEC complex. The show gives you the chance to mingle with the great and the good from international motorsport, the sort of people you're normally separated from by a dozen security guards and barbed wire at the track.

Bernie Ecclestone came along to deliver the Watkins lecture on Motorsport Safety and also managed to endear himself to every motorsport marshal in a well publicised interview. The list of drivers from every area of the sport was long and illustrious. David Coulthard opened the show on one day and Tom Wheatcroft, owner of the Donington Park Circuit and Grand Prix collection both opened the show and presented a fair proportion of his fabled GP collection in the main feature of the show, celebrating 100 years of Grand Prix racing.

Malcolm Wilson and Marcus Gronholm were there to launch the latest Ford Focus WRC (clearly a success, already with two victories under its belt this season) and Subaru/Prodrive showed the new face of their WRC (oh dear, not very successful so far) and Group N rally cars.

Talking of Prodrive, Dave Richards' company made a real splash with the eagerly awaited revealing of its two-door sports car, the P2. It is the first high-performance road car David Richards' prestigious rally and racecar development business has built from the ground up. The project is "a technology demonstrator", designed to show what Prodrive's various divisions - from electronics and aerodynamics to suspension development - can do.

The Prodrive P2 is based on a heavily altered Japan-only Subaru R1 micro-car, mated to all-new chassis structures and suspension to house a 2-litre turbocharged flat-four and four-wheel-drive transmission from the Subaru Impreza WRX. The P2's shape (not the prettiest two-seater in my opinion) and proportions are the work of McLaren F1 designer Peter Stevens, formed in composite under the close eye of Richards himself.

Prodrive has had a presence in many areas of motorsport (British touring cars, Australian V8s, GT racing and rallying for instance) and Dave Richards, an ex-BAR team boss, hinted at a possible return to F1: "if the rules change in 2008, as is the goal, then the circumstances could be right for a team like Prodrive to become involved again so we will watch that development very carefully."

Connaught, a famous marque from the 1950s was the first British manufacturer to win a Formula 1 Grand Prix, beating works Maseratis and Ferraris. The company exhibited its exciting supercharged V10-engined Connaught Type-D coupe on the Advantage West Midlands stand, the Regional Development Agency (RDA) for the West Midlands who exhibited a selection of cars built in the region, such as Marcos, Zolfe, Westfield and Virago.

Tyre manufacturer Fulda brought along its outrageous 2.6 ton Maybach Exelero, a showcase for the 23-inch UHP (Ultra High Performance) Exelero tyre. Fulda employed legendary tin top driver Klaus Ludwig, three-time German Touring Car Champion, to test drive the car. Looking like something from a Batman cartoon, the 5.9-litre engine develops over 700bhp and propelled Ludwig to 217.9mph (351 km/h) at a recent test.

The Autosport International show continues to be a roaring success. The two dedicated trade days attracted more trade visitors than ever before in its 16-year history with over 27,000 buyers from 56 countries generating an estimated £400+ million of business.

Thank heavens I was there only on the trade days when making my way through the crowds was just about manageable. The crowds are always greater on the public days and I shudder to think how busy it was on Saturday and Sunday when huge crowds gathered to meet Allan McNish, David Coulthard and the entire Red Bull Racing Formula One team. A further reflection of the spending power of visitors at the show was highlighted on Saturday when a 1990 Jaguar XJ220 prototype went under the Coy's auctioneer's hammer for £98,000.

The massive amount of floor space available at the NEC enables the Autosport show to have a whole hall dedicated to the Live Action arena. This is a big attraction for the fans, but it always provokes the same argument as ITV's World Rally programme. What's the ratio of talk to action, of style to content? Quality action is what the fans want and in many previous shows it's been sadly lacking. A few famous guests, yes; needless celebrity chat, no thank you.

This year's Fulda-sponsored show provided a good balance with the MC roles handled by Louise Goodman and Paul Musselle. We had races for BRISCA F1 cars, Autograss racers, historic saloons, a Ferrari GT pit stop challenge, motocross stunt bikes and the ever-popular Group B rally cars and Rallycross supercars. That this was real racing was demonstrated by the large gouges in the side of the Lotus Cortina, a previously gleaming and immaculate example, driven by Narain Karthikeyan at the Goodwood Revival. Only the cream of the crop is invited to take part at Goodwood, but even this car was not spared the racing driver's competitive spirit!

The amazing Terry Grant broke two world doughnut records, succeeding in setting four cars doughnutting simultaneously and he ended the Live Action show with an absolutely manic display in an Impreza WRX, culminating in another world record of 10 doughnuts in under 15 seconds. Breathtaking!

To view the complete 2006 Autosport International show gallery, click here.

Syd Wall - 6 Feb 2006