By Site Staff
January 12 2003

The Autosport International show at the Birmingham NEC is traditionally the place where the average British F1 fan gets their early season F1 fix, before the first race of the season. This year the Toyota fan was catered for, with a few surprises.

This site was lucky enough to get admittance to the show on the 'media only' Friday, where the crowds are a lot quieter and there is none of the usual crush to get around all the stands. First stop was the F1 Racing grid display, where one car from each team is lined up in a race start grid pattern. The most obvious comment to make from this years display was the empty space left open for the Arrows A23 at the back of the exhibit - a painful reminder of what is happening to this team. On a brighter note, a Toyota TF102 display car was sitting gleaming at the back of the display. This site has to admit that, even though there were only 10 cars on this 'virtual' grid, it still all looked very impressive. What it must be like with all 20 cars, with their V10 engines wailing before lights out we can only imagine - but this was a good taster of what it must be like.

It was quite noticeable that there was no actual exhibit from Toyota as a car maker - in fact all of the F1 teams were very poorly represented at the show. In past years there have been big displays from the likes of McLaren and Williams, but this year nothing. Are the purse strings in F1 really that tight ?

This site's other aim in visiting the show this year was to find out about Toyota F1 merchandising - and by accident we stumbled across the www.paddock-shop.de stand, to find it packed out with Toyota gear. Unfortunately none of it was for sale - according to the very helpful staff there the public will be unable to purchase the goods until March, but we were advised to keep a close eye on Paddock Shop's website for future updates. We can say this for all readers, the full team Jacket is a very smart item indeed and is very high on the purchase list for this site's staff.

The 'normal' merchandising stands did not carry any of this new gear, apart from the Minichamps models of the TF102 car. One nice find was a Revell 1:24 model kit of the TF102, complete with 'brush strokes' transfers. If the staff here make a good job of it's construction then some pictures will feature here soon. If you cannot afford the cost of a 1:18 Minichamps car and are prepared to put in some time yourself, then this is a good way to own your very own TF102.

The last Toyota connected exhibits turned up at the Autosport central stage, where Cristiano da Matta's championship winning CART car was on display. These things look so completely different to F1 cars - so much more skinny, and more flimsy somehow. In addition, you could have a go in a TF102 chassis in the form of a video game simulator using what looked like the EA sports F1 2002 game. Even though it was a media day there was a constant large queue of people waiting to have a go, so we cannot give you a report on what it was like. If you were lucky enough to have a go and are prepared to tell everyone about it, then write it all down in an email and send it to this site. We'd be happy to share your experiences with other fans.

TotallyToyotaF1 is now looking forward to the 2004 show where perhaps the Toyota fan will be given even more to look at, and perhaps a few merchandising bargains into the equation as well...