Plato's Winning Car @ Autosport Show?

[chrischats]

Did anybody see Plato's BTCC Championship Winning car at the Autosport Show in Birmingham last weekend? No? Neither did I? RML tried to con it's fans by using Alex MacDowall's car and passing it off as Plato's. You could clearly see the zero had been removed from the door of MacDowall's car to leave the number 2 which Plato ran. They then put Plato's name on both of the side and the rear window so to the untrained eye it would appear to be Plato's. Also Plato's car had "Auto Express" underneath the number on the right hand side of the car, whereas MacDowall's had "EVO" as did the one on display in Birmingham. See attached link which shows pictures posted on btcccrazy.co.uk.

http://www.btcccrazy.co.uk/2011/01/18/autosport-international-show-in-pictures/

[Mark]

Oh well, I'm sure they had their reasons!

[GridGirl]

Autosport International! Now thats a show I haven't been to sinse about 2005!

[Mark]

Come to think of it, same here! Last went in 2005, went down to Birmingham for the Karting in 2006 on the same weekend but didn't go to the show.

[MrJan]

Do RML do something like Subaru/Prodrive did with McRae, where you get to keep the car if you win the championship or something? Could well be that RML only have McDowells car.....or they just use a dummy model for all those sort of events.

[Mark]

Quite often at these types of events the cars you see aren't actually the real ones, or if they are they have a different livery because the contract with the previous sponsor ran out on 31st December the previous year!

[Dave B]

It's pretty common, and if RML upset you then best you never question the provenance of the alleged F1 cars - I can almost guarantee you they were showcars or old test chassis. Is it really worth worrying about?

[Iain]

I wouldn't even waste my money going. £30 for a basic ticket!! Although to be fair, the last few times I went, we used a BOGOF code.

Teams have been doing this for years. Dynamics used to have an Integra roadcar done up in race livery with a fully-stripped interior and cage, which they passed off as a touring car. To Joe Bloggs, it's not something they're going to notice.

[inimitablestoo]

So, RML did what everybody else does? I wondered why the earth had stopped rotating about its axis earlier :rolleyes:

[Mark]

Would you want your race winning car being crawled all over by pesky kids? Not to mention the clumsy people who will be manoeuvring it into place on the stand. This isn't so much an issue for say F1 teams where the car is effectively useless, but for touring car teams that car is going to be worth a few bob yet.