News Autosport international 2014: All the bits you need to know

Get close and personal with all the 2013 Formula One cars

This year's Formula One season might not have been the most exciting one for quite a few fans of the sport, but the 2013 championship is still a rather poignant one. Not only did it see Sebastian Vettel firmly establish himself as one of the all-time great drivers by becoming the youngest ever quadruple World Champion, but it's also the last time we'll perhaps ever see the cars compete with naturally-aspirated V8 engine.

As perhaps a fitting tribute for a genuine end of a powerplant era, all of the 2013 season's Formula One teams will be represented at this year's Autosport International, right from the oh-so-dominant Red Bull Racing RB9 to the humble Caterhams and Marussias.

More importantly, perhaps, their presense at the Show next year allows the attendants to get right up close to these ultra-sophisticated racing cars, with only a rope stand between you and the most extreme single seaters on the planet.

For F1 fans, that might just be worth the admission price along…

Live Arena headlined by Classic Team Lotus

Nearly every motoring exhibition on the calender has a 'live arena' of sorts, and Autosport International is no exception. However, whereas the likes of Top Gear Live have only a certain tame racing driver to draw the crowds with, Autosport's got something far more exciting for fans of vintage racing cars: a few old Lotus F1 cars.

Loaned from Classic Team Lotus, which maintains all of the Formula One cars fielded by the original team before it shut up shop in the late Nineties, two iconic examples from the outfit's back catalogue – the 79 and the 49B – will be up and running at the Live Action Arena.

Add in Sky Sports F1 commentator and Codemasters Formula One game associate David Croft into the mix as host of the Live Action Arena, and you've got the makings of a pretty spectacular event!

Interviews with racing legends old and new

As iconic as the old racing cars may be, it's the drivers who've gone down in the annals of motorsport history who are perhaps the real stars for dedicated racing fans, and Autosport International doesn't disappoint with the selection of drivers old and new who'll be present at next year's show.

Whilst the full list as yet to be confirmed, we do know that former F1 driver and television presenter Martin Brundle will be present to discuss the 2013 F1 season and how the 2014 regulations will spice up the racing next year, with the likes of 1964 F1 World Champion John Surtees and former Force India driver Adrian Sutil also set to make an appearance over the course of the four-day running time for special stage interviews.

Supplementary racing car and Performance Car Shows

Us here at Team VVV are pretty passionate about our motor racing, but that doesn't mean we'll sniff at the oppurtunity to have a quick snoop around some more humble road and racing cars.

As with the list of attending racing legends, we aren't fully aware at time of writing of just how many cars will be featured at Autosport International 2014, though we assume there'll be plenty of swish supercars, cool racing karts, some rad rally cars and a horde of homolgated racing machinery to ogle at in the various displays that'll be dotted about the NEC.

Autosport International will also be the launch pad for an all-new, British-built lightweight sports car called the Zenos E10. It almost certainly won't be as headline-grabbing as the inevitable Detroit Show performance motors will be, but the E10's Autosport debut is still a pretty interesting little feature of the event, and – as the company's being run by the same folk who used to oversee Caterhams's car division – it's likely this won't be the last time we'll hear of the Zenos car company…

Team VVV will be there!

Those of you who've been following us for a while may remember we attened the Autosport International show earlier this year, with Alan uploading a host of video content filmed at the event onto our YouTube channel.

We're super pleased to announce, then, that we'll be returning to Autosport in the New Year as well. So, if you'll be attending the show as well, do feel free to say hello if you bump into Alan in the packed show floor of the Birmingham exhibition centre.

And, if you're not able to attend Autosport in 2014, we'll be posting all of our coverage of the event on the Team VVV website as soon as it's ready to go live, so do keep checking back to our news page in January for our in-depth reports on Autosport International.