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M25 or 4x4! |
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‘The
World’s largest 4x4 course at a Motorshow’
The brief came directly from the SMMT, the organisers of the
British International Motorshow. ‘Build a 4x4 course
in a woodland at the back of the NEC for all manufacturers
to participate in and that also creates a visitor attraction
for the public.’
Now came the hard bit; to make it worthwhile and cost effective
thousands of people needed to be able to participate, the course
needed to be challenging for all, from soft roaders to off
roaders and it also needed to provide that wow factor for the
show’s visitors.
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In January 2004 the main ground
works commenced with the heavy plant moving the earth around
to form traverses, banks, ascents and descents as well as cutting
a route into the pond in the deer grazing area.
Did we mention the deer, the badger sets, the wetlands, the
protected trees and all of the environmental issues? By moving
the earth early this would give nature the chance to repair
and with the show opening at the end of May we would catch
the spring growing season.
February saw an on site meeting of the 7 ‘signed up’ manufacturers
at which they had their first opportunity to see the intended
course and request any specific obstacles that fitted in with
their vehicles’ capabilities and brand aims.
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Auto Express article |
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April and May were flat out
finishing off the construction, laying turf, seeding and dressing
areas with chip bark and the erection of the ‘Edge’.
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Before the Turf |
Newly turfed |
First over the edge! |
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November 2003 saw the laying
down of tracks and potential routes through the 72-acre working
woodland managed by the NEC Estates management. An on-site
meeting for all potential exhibiting manufacturers saw much
discussion and not an inconsiderable amount of free advice.
How to keep competing car manufacturers happy over the next
6 months proved to be one of the many challenges. What would
the weather be like, how would the natural course stand up
to the challenge of 12,00 vehicles passing over it over 12
days? Could we possibly make the ‘Experience’ exciting
and yet comply with all of those numerous, yet important, health
and safety rules.
The time had also now come to decide what to do with the wet
areas, those places that would become impassable if it rained
heavily. With the very wet April a decision was made to dig
out the boggy bits and basically bury tree trunks, that were
stacked in abundance, cover with hardcore and then chip bark
so as to disguise the new roads! This turned out to be a wise
decision and on the Monday night of the second week of the
show this technique was repeated on two other areas that had
become impassable due to very heavy rain! Over 100 trunks were
buried in this manner!
Although the course was intended to be natural an enclosed ‘blackout’ bridge
saw the show’s visitors begin the course in Hall 3A.
This transported all participants, in the car of their choice,
from the Hall to the woodland some 150 metres away over the
service road at the rear of the NEC and past the industrial
units. From Motorshow Hall to Woodland, quite a start to the
course. This structure, built by Media Structures Ltd, took
some 6 days to build and 3 to dismantle and was made primarily
of scaffolding. As with the other temporary structures on the
course this was checked and signed off by an engineer before
the show opened daily.
In the pond 60 metres of Trackway was submerged which allowed
for the 12,000 vehicle passes to be achieved without mishap
although the 18” starting depth did increase to 23” as
the Trackway was pushed into the sand!
Immediately following the pond was ‘The Edge’,
an 8 metre high, 39-degree ascent/descent metal bridge structure
that certainly heard its fair share of screams!
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Trackway disappearing! |
The Edge in show guise |
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a newly constructed ‘bombhole’ |
a newly constructed ‘traverse’ |
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During the course of the show
the newly constructed ‘Bombholes’ became twice
as long and considerably deeper than at the start.
The trunks on the traverse were dislodged on numerous occasions,
particularly in week two when the drivers became ever more
daring and confident. |
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With the forecast of bad weather
at the beginning of week 2 the maintenance and design teams
worked ‘overtime’ over the weekend to construct
some new alternative routes that were utilised on Tuesday through
Thursday due to the arrival in abundance of the promised rain.
However, all of the routes remained open to all vehicles for
the duration of the show with the exception of that 2nd Tuesday
morning when one short stretch was repaired.
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The track, post rain |
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At the end of the show
the course was returned to the NEC Estates Management, with
the tracks having been graded, all metal work removed, traverses
dismantled, fences repaired and Trackway removed.
Whilst it could not be said that you would not be able to see
that we had been there, it certainly did not look like 12,000
vehicles had driven through over that 12-day period. Given
a couple of months nature will complete the job.
All manufacturers agreed that the event had been a huge success,
some even said that their vehicles had a been put through a
very good, real world testing experience and most certainly
you only had to spend some time in the Hall watching the faces
of the public as they disappeared up into the bridge at the
start or alighted from the vehicles at the end to see just
how much they enjoyed it.
As for the team at D&S Events, we were proud to have been
involved, whether we would do it again, of course we would!
Contacts & Links
D&S Events Ltd
Tel: +44 (0) 2476 692211
Fax: +44 (0) 2476 692194
info@dandsevents.co.uk
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