MotoFest Coventry’s ‘Motorsport and Performance Weekend’ has been cancelled due to logistical difficulties in securing available sites across Coventry City Centre.

The ‘Motorsport and Performance Weekend’ was scheduled for 31^st July and 1^st August 2021, with plans for a drift arena and dynamic motorsport displays amongst the weekend’s programme of activities.

However, plans to host the displays at pre-arranged city centre sites have had the brakes put on them as the result of various logistical challenges, including the use of suitable sites as temporary vaccination and testing centres.

James Noble, MotoFest Coventry Festival Director, said: “It’s with great reluctance we have to announce the cancellation of the Motorsport and Performance Weekend.

“It’s a decision that we have worked incredibly hard to avoid having to make but the logistical challenges in finding suitable sites this year to host dynamic motorsport displays has proved too much.

“This includes sites earmarked to host the dynamic motorsport displays being recently switched for use as testing centres and to support the roll-out of the vaccination programme. Furthermore, other suitable alternative sites identified have also presented insurmountable challenges, resulting in the decision we have made.

“While we will have no Ring Road Sprint Circuit or Drift Arena in 2021, both will return bigger and better in 2022! We have plans to substantially expand both those key elements of the 2022 festival programme, which we will share with the MotoFest Coventry audience soon.”

For 2021, MotoFest Coventry will switch from its traditional date on the first weekend in June, to a new ‘MotoFest Month 2021’ programme, stretched out across three individual MotoFest weekends, taking place from 17^th – 18^th July 2021 to 7^th – 8^th August 2021.

Each of the three weekends will be themed. The initial weekend of the 17^th and 18^th July 2021 MotoFest will be looking forward to the future, highlighting the city and region’s innovations and technological developments with the opening of Our Future Moves, a new exhibition at Coventry Transport Museum.  

The 24^th and 25^th July 2021 MotoFest will go full throttle for two wheeled fans, with the Motorcycle Weekend, set to feature a ‘Ride In’ and dynamic and static displays as part of the programme.

The final weekend on 7^th and 8^th August 2021 is the MotoFest Car Weekend. Both days will feature classic cars, over 30 years old and modern modified cars under 30 years, in static displays and themed events.

For the ‘MotoFest Car Weekend’ there will be a dedicated display area in Broadgate and surrounding areas of the city centre to showcase over 100 classic vehicles.

As well as displays, there will be a special 125 year anniversary celebration of the city’s famous Riley, car and bicycle manufacturer brand, with an array of festivities planned to mark the occasion.

The modern modified, modern classics and modified cars under 30 years old, will strut their stuff around the Skydome area of the City Centre on 7^th and 8^th August 2021.

A Modern Modified Show and Shine competition and an evening display titled ‘MotoFest Underground’ are set to be among the highlights for the final weekend of MotoFest Month 2021.

Across all three weekends, there will be various motoring themed activities and events including a week-long programme of drive-in concerts located at Millennium Place.

MotoFest Coventry is dedicated to the city’s motoring heritage, taking place in 2021 across three weekends in July and August as part of the new ‘MotoFest Month 2021’ schedule. As the largest free motoring festival in the UK, it brings live motorsport, including dynamic motorsport displays, classic and performance vehicles, and the cutting edge of automotive innovation right into the heart of the UK’s Motor City, free for everyone to enjoy across a whole month.  

MotoFest Coventry is to host its own Concours D’Elegance premium car show with entrants having the opportunity to display their vehicles in the iconic Coventry Cathedral ruins.

The inaugural Coventry Concours – sponsored by prestige classic, sports and racing car sales brand Car-Iconics and Bike-Iconics – will take place on Saturday 24^th July and Sunday 25^th July and follows on from a successful online ‘Coventry Concours’ event last year. Organised and run in partnership with the Association of Heritage Engineers, the winners of the 2020 ‘Virtual Coventry Concours’ will also feature at the show.

The Coventry Concours will begin with all participating vehicles driving into the City Centre, before parking up on display in the world-famous Coventry Cathedral ruins as part of the two-day extravaganza.

With one of England’s finest heritage sites, Coventry Cathedral, providing a wonderfully atmospheric backdrop to proceedings, the Coventry Concours will seek to emulate the glamour and glitz of globally renowned ‘Concours’ such as the Salon Prive and Pebble Beach events.

In line with being Coventry’s inaugural Concours event, there will be a strong Coventry theme to the cars and motorcycles on display with manufacturer models from Jaguar, Daimler, Standard, Triumph, Rootes Group and Armstrong Sideley all represented at the show.

Coventry Concours is free to visit, simply walk up to the Coventry Cathedral Ruins through the weekend to see these excellent examples of Coventry’s designed and manufactured classic cars and motorcycles.

There is also a special bed and breakfast package available for participants at the Telegraph, Coventry’s exclusive mid-century, boutique hotel. On Saturday 24^th July there will be a celebration dinner in the evening at the Telegraph Hotel for the participants and judges.

James Noble, Festival Director, said: “We are excited to announce the Coventry Concours, an authentic Coventry take on the traditional ‘Concours D’Elegance format.

“With renowned car sales brand Car-Iconics and Bike-Iconics as sponsor and the Association of Heritage Engineers helping us to run the show, we have partners on board as prestigious as the event itself.

“It’s going to be a fantastic opportunity to see beautiful, premium heritage cars and motorcycles showcasing the best of Coventry’s car and bike manufacturing expertise in an incredibly iconic setting and we are really looking forward to it.”

Daniel Gannon, Car-Iconics and Bike-Iconics, Managing Director, said: “Car-Iconics and Bike-Iconics are proud to sponsor MotoFest Coventry’s Coventry Concours’ and want to thank Coventry for all of the iconic vehicles it has produced over the decades.

“Coventry continues to lead the automotive industry with engineering, design and innovation, which we are delighted to be associated with.”

Dominic Taylor-Lane, Association of Heritage Engineers Managing Director, said: “It’s a huge privilege to be asked to be a part of this amazing new event and helping to put the judging panel together.

“MotoFest Coventry is an inspirational event, its depth and breadth is quite extraordinary and I’m very much looking forward to seeing ‘Coventry Concours’ taking place in such a unique and iconic setting.”

The judging of the cars and motorcycles will take place on Saturday afternoon and will be evaluated by a panel of judges as prestigious as the cars on display.

Land speed record hero Richard Noble, OBE, Antiques Roadshow regular and classic car fan Marc Allum, classic car expert Ian Tyrell and broadcaster Dr Mark Evans will be among the panel of experts who will decide the inaugural winners of the Coventry Concours event.

MotoFest Coventry is dedicated to the city’s motoring heritage, taking place in 2021 across four weekends in July and August as part of the new ‘MotoFest Month 2021’ schedule.

As the largest free motoring festival in the UK, it brings live motorsport, including dynamic motorsport displays, classic and modern modified vehicles, and the cutting edge of automotive innovation right into the heart of the UK’s Motor City, free for everyone to enjoy across four weekends.

MotoFest Coventry is to mix the modern with the classic as the ‘MotoFest Car Weekend’ provides the four wheeled entertainment for the final lap of this year’s festival.

The MotoFest Car Weekend will celebrate both the old and the new, with classic cars over 30 years old to first take center stage in the heart of Coventry on Saturday 7^th August 2021 and Sunday 8^th August 2021.  

For the classic cars big weekend out, there will be a dedicated display area in Broadgate and surrounding areas of the city centre to showcase over 100 classic vehicles.

As well as displays, there will be a special 125-year anniversary celebration of the city’s famous Riley, car and bicycle manufacturer brand, with an array of festivities planned to mark the occasion.

The Modern Modified, modern classics and modified cars under 30 years old, will strut their stuff around the Skydome area of the city centre on Saturday 7^th August 2021 and Sunday 8^th August 2021.

A Modern Modified Show and Shine competition and an evening display titled ‘MotoFest Underground’ are set to be among the highlights for the final weekend of MotoFest Month 2021.

James Noble, Coventry Motofest’s Festival Director, said: “The MotoFest Car Weekend is designed to provide a fitting finale to our four weekends of two and four wheeled festival fun.

“With a dedicated weekend for both classic car buffs and modern, modified enthusiasts alike, it’s a fantastic representation of what MotoFest Coventry is all about – something for everyone united by the common theme of celebrating the city’s motoring heritage.

“As a result of the Covid restrictions, there will be no turn up and show as in previous years, and so we are asking participants to pre-register their vehicles for display ahead of the event.

“The displays are an integral part of the MotoFest Coventry programme and we look forward to again putting on a great show for the final weekend of the festival.”

For details on how to register a vehicle for either the Classic Cars or the Modern Classics displays click here.

MotoFest is dedicated to the city’s motoring heritage, taking place in 2021 across four weekends in July and August as part of the new ‘MotoFest Month 2021’ schedule.

As the largest free motoring festival in the UK, it brings live motorsport, including dynamic motorsport displays, classic and modern modified vehicles, and the cutting edge of automotive innovation right into the heart of the UK’s Motor City, free for everyone to enjoy across four weekends. 

A range of partners from across the region have come together to create Our Future Moves which will run from July 2021, at MotoFest Month 2021, through to the summer of 2022 with a series of events taking place over the 12-month period – including demonstrations of the latest technology.

The yearlong showcase – which takes place alongside Coventry being UK City of Culture – will launch with the major exhibition Our Future Moves at Coventry Transport Museum, which opens on 17 July and runs until 31 October. It will feature a diverse range of exhibits that highlight the region’s pioneering work in transport innovation – from autonomous vehicles to one person submarines.

The interactive exhibition will tell the stories of the objects on display by envisioning how future cities may look and exploring how pioneering developments in transport and technology could affect the environment and the way we live.

Objects on display will include a Skyfarer delivery drone, Aurrigo autonomous shuttle, Coventry Very Light Rail (VLR) model, Vital Auto interactive car grill that mimics how you are feeling by reading your facial expression, a Coventry University autonomous racing vehicle and display of unmanned aerial vehicle projects, Jaguar I-PACE, Microcabs hydrogen car, GE electric propulsion unit, KIVNON Mobile Robotics, Triggo electric vehicle (EV) and a University of Warwick nano satellite which monitors wildlife populations.

It will open on MotoFest’s first weekend of MotoFest Month 2021 that usually attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors to Coventry city centre each year.

The strategic partners delivering the ambitious and inspiring Our Future Moves programme include Coventry City Council, CV Life, Culture Coventry, Coventry and Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership, Coventry City of Culture Trust, Coventry University, MotoFest, Transport for West Midlands, Warwickshire County Council and WMG at the University of Warwick.

Paul Breed, CEO of CV Life and Culture Coventry, said: “This is an incredibly exciting opportunity to celebrate Coventry and Warwickshire’s past, present and future as a pioneer and innovator in transport – at a time when the eyes of the world will be on the city as UK City of Culture, and when the Commonwealth Games comes to the region very soon after.

“Our Future Moves will see a year of activities, beginning with a must-see exhibition at the Coventry Transport Museum.

“And, over the course of the year of events, it will look at how Coventry and the wider region has become the centre of innovation for future transport, from very light rail through to electric vehicles, battery technology and the world’s first Vertical Take-Off and Landing (eVTOL) Urban Air Port®.”

Councillor Jim O’Boyle, Coventry City Council’s Cabinet Member for Jobs and Regeneration, said: “Coventry is leading the green industrial revolution and we want to celebrate that, engage and inspire the next generation of innovators and share all of the amazing innovations and solutions that are being pioneered right here.

“The next year promises to be very exciting and Our Future Moves will be a big part of that.

“With projects like Very Light Rail, autonomous vehicles, electric cars and journey planning enabled by street furniture that reports congestion this sector has never felt so exciting or so important.  I hope people will learn a lot, get a glimpse of the future and feel inspired.”

Atkins is an official Sponsor of Our Future Moves.

A charity fundraiser who has been learning to ride the ‘Wall of Death’ during lockdown is to make his full public debut at MotoFest Month 2021, during the Motorcycle Weekend, 24^th – 25^th July 2021.

Paul Malin, from Rugby, will join the famous Ken Fox Troupe Wall of Death, for his first ever public performance on the 20ft high vertical wall, in what promises to be one of the highlights of the show on 25^th July 2021.

For Paul, his appearance at MotoFest Coventry will be the culmination of months of training with the Ken Fox Troupe as he bids to raise £5,000 for four separate charities – Prostate Cancer UK, Warwickshire and Solihull Blood Bikes, Positive Bones and Pawprints.

Paul, 55 said: “I was treated for a serious illness a couple of years ago and after getting the all-clear, I wanted to give something back by raising money for the different charities.

“I wanted to do something spectacular but different to raise the money, so I began to think about a Wall of Death ride. When I visited MotoFest back in 2019, I got talking to the Ken Fox Troupe Wall of Death team about the idea. After some initial reservations from them – they don’t often train people up as its quite dangerous – they eventually agreed to train me.

“I have always enjoyed bikes and was a motocross rider back in my younger days, but this is something else. I have done over 60 hours training with them now and while it’s a very difficult skill to perfect, it is incredible once you are up on the wall riding the bike.

“I am really looking forward to joining that elite group of riders who have ridden the wall in public and it’s going to be quite some buzz to say that I performed it at MotoFest Coventry.”

Paul’s appearance at MotoFest Month 2021’s motorcycle weekend is set be one of the highlights of a packed programme of full throttle activities taking place over two days.

The motorcycle weekend is part of a new format for 2021, for the UK’s largest free motoring festival. MotoFest Coventry will switch this year from its traditional date on the first weekend in June, to a new ‘MotoFest Month 2021’ programme, stretched out across four individual weekends, from 17^th – 18^th July to 7^th – 8^th August – including the Motorcycle Weekend.

One of the main attractions for the new Motorcycle Weekend is the traditional MotoFest Coventry Ride-In from the historic Coombe Abbey Hotel – Brinklow Road, Coventry – to the city centre. Running for its third year, the Ride-In often attracts over 500 plus riders and traditionally signals the start of the MotoFest Coventry festivities.

Alongside the Ken Fox Wall of Death troupe, there will also be the two Brothers motorcycle stunt team, static motorcycle displays, individual and club displays and the ‘MotoFest Classic and Custom Motorcycle Show’ with trophies awarded across a number of categories, following on from the success of the 2019 motorcycle show.

James Noble, Coventry MotoFest Festival Director, said: “We are delighted to announce MotoFest Month 2021.

“As a result of the need to comply with the Covid-19 regulations on large scale crowds at single events, MotoFest Coventry 2021 will look different to previous years, including no sprint circuit for 2021. However, the festival ethos, particularly the commitment to hosting a celebration of the city’s motoring heritage, will remain the same.

“The new ‘Motorcycle Weekend’ is a great example of this. The two day programme will showcase an array of full throttle activities, including our local charity fundraiser Wall of Death ride, that is designed to thrill and excite two wheeled enthusiasts attending the festival.”

MotoFest is dedicated to the city’s motoring heritage, taking place in 2021 across four weekends in July and August as part of the new ‘MotoFest Month 2021’ schedule. As the largest free motoring festival in the UK, it brings live motorsport, including dynamic motorsport displays, classic and modern modified vehicles, and the cutting edge of automotive innovation right into the heart of the UK’s Motor City, free for everyone to enjoy across four weekends.