For Irish drivers, it's the nearest thing to a motor show. Micheal McAleer reports on the British Motor Show in Birmingham
For Irish motoring fans, Birmingham offers the nearest we can get to a show of our own. While there remains no national motor show on offer to Irish car buyers, many thinking of changing their car next year find Birmingham the cheapest way to maul and finger the competition in their price segment - and, of course, marvel at the other cars they can only dream of owning.
With cheap flights to and from Birmingham, Irish visitors can make the trip around the five halls of the National Exhibition Centre, next to the airport, and still make it back to home turf that evening.
Away from the supercharged GT racers, Irish fans are offered the chance to see Ford's entrant in the more realistic rally racers. The RallyeConcept marks "a new chapter in Ford's accomplished rallying tradition" , the company says in a statement. It's claimed to be inspired by the new Fiesta, but is a far cry in both looks and potential performance.
It's powered by a 1.6-litre Duratec 16V engine with 200 bhp output. Work is underway to meet the standards for admission to the World Rally Championships with a target date of 2003 to get this concept to more closely reflect its Fiesta roots, required of entrants in the championship.
It's hard for others to compete with such pure engineered racers, but there is some other quality engineering on view. Citroën features the C3 Pluriel in a couple of its five configurations, from saloon, cabriolet and even pick-up. It makes many of the other "revolutionary" superminis look particularly dull.
For racing fans there was also the Xsara World Rally Car, ready to be driven by Colin McRae in next year's championship.
For many visitors, however, all these racers are not as important as getting the chance to manhandle the likes of Volkswagen's new Touareg four-wheel-drive car, Citroën's C3 Pluriel five-in-one car and Nissan's new Micra.
Elsewhere, Skoda unveiled its 180 bhp Octavia Estate, while the new Renault Megane was popular among visitors, who turned it over in the search for something to get their teeth into. The design won many complements from passers by while we were there, although many press visitors questioned whether the new stylish lines would go down so well with current Megane owners.
Renault's French colleague was meanwhile trying to beef up its sales with higher performance version of the old reliable 206. Peugeot was busy showing off its 206 GTi 180, which offers 0-60 mph in over 7 seconds from its 180bhp unit.
Then there was the Daewoo stand where all present looked very relieved to be a fully fledged member of the GM giant. Next stop Fiat, perhaps.
Those interested in the world of 4x4s get a chance to judge the newcomers to the luxury end of the market. First off the Porsche Cayenne looked far prettier here than we had seen before.
Finally, for those who prefer that touch of exclusivity, Morgan was busy letting everyone know that those who wanted one no longer have to wait years. Now, with a purpose-built production facility at its Malvern factory, waiting lists are down to just the one year. That's okay then, we'll have two.