Organisers of this year’s Cholmondeley Power and Speed (CPAS) have hailed the event a ‘huge success’.
The three-day extravaganza included the first running of Motorshow Live! – Cholmondeley’s ride and drive event – a supercar celebration headlined by the Ferrari FXX, a beer, food and comedy festival, aerial acrobatics, superbikes, Group B rally cars and pre-War behemoths.
The FXX appearing at Cholmondeley was the only road-legal version – and it thrilled crowds, its ear-splitting V12 howling around the course.
The line-up of content brought in the crowds with a gate of more than 40,000 visitors recorded over the course of the weekend.
Taking to the famous course were Lexus in the rapid RC F and GS F, Holdcroft Honda with the Civic Type-R hot hatch, Holdcroft Nissan with the LEAF EV, BlueBell BMW in the BMW M4 Convertible and Oakmere Motor Group, with the Lotus Evora 400, Exige Sport 350, Caterham 620R and Morgan Aero 8.
A race-prepared version of the legendary Enzo, the FXX – which appeared on Saturday – is incredibly rare with only 30 made, all of which were meant to be track-only cars. Two-wheeled highlights included a 1959 Vincent Ts Viscount and a 1961 Norton Manx and demonstrations from the highly skilled Supermoto UK riders.
A concours was also hosted by Cheshire Classic Cars, with best presented going to Rob Woodall’s Ford Mustang Convertible, judges’ choice going to Jane Weitzmen’s Toyota 2000GT and the peoples’ choice being awarded to Ron Pearson’s Ferrari 458 Italia. Overall best of show went to Keith Ashworth’s Mercedes 300SL Roadster.
On Saturday evening, the event hosted its first comedy festival. Stand-up comic Adam Rushton compered the event, opened by Duncan Oakley, a regular on the festival circuit, including the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
BBC Radio 4 regular JoJo Sutherland continued the entertainment before BBC Jesting About regular Rahul Kholi took to the stage. The night’s headline act was Ray Peacock who has appeared on Skins and Not Going Out.
In the skies, the Muscle Biplane G-ewiz performed an incredible display on Saturday and Sunday, hovering like a Harrier and performing double-hammerheads, complete rolls and even flying backwards.
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Event director James Hall said: “Despite it being a damp weekend, It’s been a fantastic occasion, with some incredible content and a number of firsts for the event.
“We’ve been delighted with the success of our inaugural Motorshow Live! while the beer, food and comedy festival was a wonderful added element.
“We’d like to thank everyone involved in making this year’s event such a success and look forward to welcoming competitors, visitors and exhibitors alike back to Cholmondeley Power and Speed in 2017.”
Nikki Faulkner, driving the Ariel Atom, was fastest of all over the weekend with a time of 60.98 secs.
He said: “I’ve come to Cholmondeley pretty much every year since it first started, and I’ve seen it get bigger and better.
“The vibe is fantastic, with a great mix of racing cars, rally cars and bikes. Everyone has lots of passion and it feels laid back – it’s easy to get around and see everything. The track itself is very challenging.
“You have to know it to go quick on it. It’s quite bumpy and narrow, there are trees to avoid and hay bales, a big jump at the end…it’s certainly got character and it’s a real test of the car.”
