Autosport International 2009

The annual Autosport International show, incorporating the Racing Car Show, is a firm favourite to break in the new year. Realising that this is the 2009 event does always draw attention to how quickly time flies and that within 12 months we will be a whole decade into the new century; most thought provoking.

This year’s show opened on the same day that Nissan announced that they were planning to shed a quarter of their workforce at their Sunderland plant, widely regarded internationally as one of the most, if not the most, efficient car assembly plant in the world. It really showed how seriously affected the motor industry is by the ongoing economic down turn, which has yet to see any form of stabilising.

RML’s striking MG EX265

The beautifully presented 1960 Historic Rally MGA 1600 roadster owned and navigated by Graham Carter

Seeing how badly the car manufacturers are suffering it would be quite logical to think that the motorsport industry, being as motorsports is more likely to see the withdrawal of sponsors and suffer more volatility, be drawing in their horns even more than the major car makers. However, the plethora of exhibitors, especially in the engineering and trade halls, certainly didn’t give any impression of economic gloom, which not long after opening on the first day saw some congestion due to the apparent high number of visitors that had arrived. If that foot traffic is reflected in trade then the call could be, recession, what recession.

Impressions are one thing and only time will tell the success of this show compared to the very successful previous shows, but what was the show like from our MG perspective? Unfortunately in this respect it has to be said that there was only a very limited MG presence, less than previous years. Understandable perhaps in view of yet another year separating us from the time when MG Rover collapsed, and on reflection they used to be proportionately over active in this area bearing in mind the companies size and overall situation. Seeds have been sown with the current MG Car Company in respect to the value that can be achieved when engaging in well chosen areas of motorsport and we hope that the new MG models being developed will possess some strong capabilities to be extended in this area; enthusiasts will certainly be actively encouraging this.

In more detail the 2009 show had a couple of MGs on display, RML’s striking MG EX265 and a beautifully presented 1960 Historic Rally MGA 1600 roadster owned and navigated by Graham Carter. In view of the numerous Mk1 and Mk2 competition Ford Escorts in evidence it was perhaps disappointing not to see evidence of more competition MGs, but then the Historic Motorsports Show is obviously more focussed for older competition MGs.

Looking at some of the products on display and picking a couple that have MG relevance started with the Zircotec stand. This is a company who specialise in special thermal coatings that are applied to exhaust systems primarily and have been proven to be very effective in reducing the heat radiated from treated exhausts. They are better looking than exhaust wrap, available in a range of colours or even with the original classic material look, and can be applied to the whole exhaust so that you can not only reduce engine bay temperatures but cabin temps where the exhaust runs under and close to the car floor. With the increasing problems classic MGs are suffering with modern volatile fuels I see a growing use for this sort of product, plus if the intake air temperatures are reduced by 5 degrees C then there is a power gain of 1%, as perhaps 25 to 30 degree temperature drops are feasible then that is a 5 to 6% power gain, interested?

Another well known company, Induction Technology Group, usually known simply as ITG are in the early stages of developing a new air filter conversion for MG ZT models, not the V8 though. This will use the same base Maxogen filter assembly that is so very effective in the ZS 180 conversion and so hopes are high that this will be a really effective development. Enjoying MG has been invited to the testing of this new unit when it is finished so you can be sure to read about developments in these pages, hopefully in the spring.

Remaining interest for MG enthusiasts lay in the various bolt on parts that can be applied to the four cylinder K series engines of the MGF, TF, ZR, ZS and less so ZT, such as tubular exhausts, multiple throttle bodies and some quite interesting CNC machined modified cylinder heads from a company logically named CNC Heads.

There is an obvious attraction in having a very finely computer controlled machine do modifications to cylinder heads as the repeat accuracy is obviously high. Clearly though the master modifications have to be right and effective for the best effects and it would be interesting to see how good they are compared to a known quality modified head. Of the many heads on display was a K series VVC, which I noted had many of the standard production shortcomings neatly removed so it certainly did show promise.

Overall whilst there was not a huge obvious MG interest the Autosport International was still very engaging with plenty of interesting cars and engineering to see, and for the younger men there was plenty of attractive flesh on show. Here’s looking forward to 2010.

Roger Parker