Farnborough, 18-21 August, 2022

The second edition of the British Motor Show sponsored by cinch at the Farnborough International Exhibition & Conference Centre, situated on the south-east perimeter of Farnborough Airport in Hampshire, some 35 miles south-west of London, was held between 18-21 August. Following a successful inaugural show in 2021, the 2022 edition was expanded, including a hall dedicated to electric vehicles sponsored by elmo, plus the Bridgestone Hall, primarily for modified cars, to provide an even greater variety of displays and activities for attendees. The venue has the advantage of not only having large exhibition halls, but also an abundance of outdoor space, both grass and paved, for further displays and a number of different activities. The ethos of the show is not only to showcase new cars, but to embrace a wide range of other vehicles from classics to supercars, with plenty of sometimes offbeat offerings along the way, as the saying goes “variety is the spice of life”!

The show provides an immersive and interactive experience for visitors of all ages, with plenty of hands-on action experience throughout the four days of the show. This spanned virtually all age groups, with mini electric Land Rover drives for 4 to 10 year olds, an 11+ young drivers arena and test drives of a variety of cars for those with a full driving licence. If you didn’t want to drive yourself, then you could book a ride in a Caterham in their “Experience Arena”, where you could enjoy the tyre smoking slalom antics of their test drivers from the passenger seat. Another opportunity for a ride in the passenger seat was with the Sporting Bears Motor Club, where for a charitable donation you could go for a ride in a variety of sports cars, maybe the one of your dreams. At last year’s show they raised over £40,000 for children’s charities. Apart from the driving arenas, the younger generation were also well catered for in the cinch family zone in the main hall, where there were simulators and slot car racing to be enjoyed, whilst the Marshall group, who were representing a number of manufacturers for whom they are sales agents, had a massive ice cream van dispensing free ice cream, plus plenty of give-aways for the children.

This year there were two action arenas, where in each on every day there was a programme of activity in them. The Live Arena featured a varied schedule ranging from both classic and supercar parades, to a British Army Parachute Jump display team and Paul Swift stunt driving shows, with plenty of tyre smoke being generated. If you wanted even more smell of tortured burning rubber, then there was the Motorsport Arena where there were drift exhibitions along with the Solent Stars Kids Motorcycle Team performing stunt rides, together with other motorsport themed action.

Just outside the main exhibition hall there was the supercar paddock presented by Premier GT, where there was a wide variety of cars on display, with a number of Ferraris including a 488 Pista Piloti Ferrari edition and an 812 GTS, an Aston Martin Vantage F1 Edition, Lamborghinis, McLarens and a De Tomaso Pantera Gp4, a number of which took part in demonstration runs in the Live Arena. They also had a pair of display areas just inside the hall with a further range of exotica, including a number of Ferraris, a F40 LM, a LaFerrari, a Monza SP2 and an 812 Superfast, plus some lurid Lamborghinis, an Aston Martin Vanquish Zagato and a McLaren Senna.

It wasn’t only supercars, although these probably attracted the most attention, as more mainstream manufacturers were present either directly or through official dealers, including Alpine, BMW, Jaguar, Mini, Peugeot, Renault, Skoda and Toyota. There were also a number of niche market manufacturers like AK Cars with their Cobra Replicas, XCS Designs with bare chassis’ for Cobra replicas and their Caterham-like Rush M/C. Lumma Design showed their personalised Land Rover Defender and Range Rover Evoque, whilst a new British sports car appeared, the Contera MD1. This is a three seat design, with a central driving position, as in the McLaren F1, with a carbon and fibreglass body, powered by a twin turbo straight-six Toyota/Yamaha engine with manual gear change, or alternatively it can accommodate a V8, V10 or V12 engine with minimal modification, according to customer requirements.

Classic car enthusiasts were also well catered for with a large outdoor display area between the two arenas. Here there were a number of one make or model clubs, showing a wide variety of cars, a number of which were once common sights on the roads, but today are rarely seen except at shows like this, so make for a great trip down memory lane. Probably the most impressive, depending on one’s taste, was the Citroen display, including an array of Traction Avant variants, 2CVs, a Mehari, DS21 Chapron convertible and SM Maserati. Within this area the British Army also had a display including a tank and armoured vehicle which people could climb in or on as they wished, together with a climbing tower, which seemed very popular with the more adventurous visitors. The great variety of offerings at the show certainly attracted the visitors, with nearly 60,000 passing through the gates during its four days.

Keith Bluemel
08/2022.