Tuesday 6 March 2012

Goodwood Festival of Speed and Moving Motor Show

The 2012 Festival of Speed theme (28 June-01 July) is ‘Young Guns – Born to Win’, celebrating drivers and riders and designers and engineers whose supreme talent and insatiable thirst for speed shocked the establishment, affording them immediate superstar status. 

Throughout motor sport history, an elite group of newcomers have announced their arrival on the world stage with performances so stunning as to instantly rewrite the status quo.  From Bernd Rosemeyer and Mike Hawthorn, to Emerson Fittipaldi and Lewis Hamilton, Mike Hailwood and Valentino Rossi, to Henri Toivonen and Colin McRae, all made an impact that was as immediate as it is indelible. 

The 2012 Festival of Speed will celebrate the careers of these overnight sensations – some of whom fulfilled their full promise; others who shone briefly before fading; but all of whom secured their own special place in motor sport’s rich tapestry. 

60th Anniversary of Lotus Engineering
Alongside this central theme, the 2012 Festival will mark the 60th anniversary of Lotus Engineering.  Inspired by the incomparable Colin Chapman, this small British company utilised unparalleled technical ingenuity to dominate all levels of motor sport, from club racing to Formula 1, creating a glorious and enduring legacy. A spectacular collection of winning Lotus cars, from F1, Indycars, saloons and sports cars, will be a key attraction at this year’s Festival. 


The Festival of Speed will also feature a glittering array of cars and motorcycles from a huge variety of disciplines, further enhancing the Goodwood event’s reputation as the world’s greatest celebration of motor racing history and culture. Tackling the famous Goodwood hillclimb will be everything from early Grand Prix and endurance machines, to off-road and contemporary racers and racing motorcycles. 
Complementing the overall Festival of Speed theme will be a host of other attractions at the 2012 Festival. 

Aside from getting close to the action-packed hillclimb and paddocks, Festival-goers will be able to admire some of the most stylish vehicles ever designed at the Cartier ‘Style et Luxe’ concours d’elegance, see and potentially try the very latest road cars at the Moving Motor Show exhibition, glimpse into the future of transportation at FoS-TECH, see many of motor sport’s famous faces up close, swoon at the mouth-watering display of supercars, witness the exciting sideways action on the Forest Rally Stage, and become a part of the action at the off-road activity fields and Junior Festival of Speed.  The hugely popular GAS (Goodwood Action Sports) will return for 2012 as well. 

Goodwood Festival of Speed founder Lord March says:  “I am really looking forward to having so many great cars and drivers here at the Festival of Speed to celebrate our 2012 ‘Young Guns’ theme. For me it is always magical to see so many of the world’s greatest drivers, riders and machines in action.”  
As in previous years, admission to the Festival of Speed, plus the Goodwood Revival (14-16 September) and Moving Motor Show (28 June) will be strictly by advance ticket only, with 2012 event tickets going on sale from 9am Monday 31 October.

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Quality of Assurance Award for Holiday Inn Express Southampton M27 Jct7

The management team were proud to receive the Quality of Assurance Award from InterContinental Hotels Group at the award ceremony in Cannes. This award signifies the highest degree of property quality and service excellence achieved.

Holiday Inn Express Southampton M27 Jct7 hotel near Titanic Museum opening in 2012

It is 99 years since she went down, but the unsinkable Titanic liner that hit an iceberg in the north Atlantic on her maiden voyage and sank with the loss of 1,500 people. Now Southampton, the city which provided most of the crew, is planning its own interactive museum, to open in time for the centenary in 2012.
John Hannides, the city councillor responsible for culture and heritage, is predicting hundreds of thousands of visitors: “Southampton was the home of the Titanic, so it is only fitting that we tell our story.

Southampton was thrown into deep mourning by the tragedy. It was the port from which the new liner set off on her maiden passenger voyage on 5 April 1912 and 549 of the dead, a third of the total casualty list, hailed from the city – yet only one was a passenger. The crew’s professionalism and dedication in staying with the sinking ship has hitherto been marked with a modest monument to the Titanic’s engineers in a city park. Among the other dead were waiters and stokers, sailors and stewards whose stories have been overlooked.

On display will be many of the 4,000 artefacts from the disaster that the city has gathered over the years, many of which are in storage: plates and cutlery, letters and menu cards, and fragments garnered from the seabed after the wreckage was finally located by a team led by the American oceanographer Robert Ballard in 1985. Also in store are recordings of the recollections of about 70 survivors.

Heritage Lottery Fund has awarded the city £500,000 to develop the project which could lead to a £28m exhibition in the city’s former magistrates’ court, next to the civic centre. More than 100 companies have expressed an interest in developing the idea and Hannides believes potential sponsors will not be put off by the recession. If the plans come to fruition, visitors will board a reconstruction of the ship, into – of course – a first class cabin, of a sort made familiar by Kate Winslet in James Cameron’s 1997 film.
Many local people are descended from members of the crew.

The last known survivor, 97-year-old Milvina Dean, who as a nine-week-old baby was handed down into a lifeboat with her mother while her father remained on board and died, still lives close to Southampton. She is due to give a talk at Southampton University on 17 April, as part of the city’s annual commemoration of the disaster. “There’s a very strong connection, still. It’s part of our social history and personal experience,” said Hannides.

There is also one further link. “Titanic was an Olympic class liner and 2012 will be the London Olympics,” he said. Hopefully the coincidence ends there.

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P&O Cruises: Tracing our roots back to 1837 – 175th Anniversary Grand Event:

Today P&O Cruises operate a fleet of seven impressive ships that sail all around the globe to a myriad of destinations. As the company prepares to celebrate 175 years of heritage, we peel back the years to the very beginning; to the passage of a simple wooden steam paddler and a man with a vision…..

It all began in 1837 when life on the ocean waves was quite different from the experience we enjoy today. It was in this year that the first official birthday of the Peninsular Steam Navigation Company was documented, when the company’s founding fathers, Arthur Anderson and Brodie McGhie Willcox were awarded the British Government contract for a weekly mail service to the Iberian Peninsula.

At this point in history ships were designed for cargo passage rather than carrying passengers, yet it was through the events of this period that cruising as we know it was born. On 4th September the company’s wooden paddle steamer, the Don Juan, set sail to Vigo, Oporto, Lisbon, Cadiz and Gibraltar.
Three years later, in 1840, a second mail contract extended the company’s services to the East and, as a result, ‘Oriental’ was added to the name – creating P&O.

Anderson and Willcox recognised the importance of good customer relations, doing their utmost to make sea travel as safe and comfortable as possible, with hearty meals and decent accommodation a priority. Sunday services were offered and benches were placed out on deck. On board entertainment even existed in some form and whilst it was a far cry from the open air cinemas, theatre productions and comedy shows found on board today, it was forward thinking for its day. It was this attention to detail and recognition of travellers’ needs that set the standard others imitated.

In celebration of this exciting milestone, all seven ships of the P&O Cruises fleet will be together in their home port of Southampton on the same day, 3rd July 2012. This will be a first in the history of the company and it promises to be a grand event. The ships with their gleaming white hulls and signature “buff” funnels will be alongside at seven different points in the port of Southampton. Leaving their berths on this historic day, the ship’s passengers and crew will enjoy a champagne deck party as the flutterfetti flies; the marching band plays and the ships sail past in a procession from Southampton Water out into the Solent. It is here, out in the open water that the ships will meet again, saluting one another before they sail onwards to their various exciting destinations.
The Rose Bowl is an ECB- accredited Test match ground qualified to host matches of the highest level up to, and including, key England Series’ such as The Ashes.

Since it was finished in 2001 it has provided the backdrop to some of the most dramatic scenes of the British summer as the venue for multiple Twenty20 Finals Days, International T20 fixtures, One-Day Internationals and, for the first time in its history, an England Test match in 2011.
With a maximum capacity of 25,000 for major matches, the ground, while it cannot compete with the history and tradition of a ground like Lord’s, certainly represents the future of international cricket in the UK.

Over the coming seasons, cricket fans across the South can look forward to an England v India Test as well as ODIs against Australia, the West Indies, South Africa, New Zealand and Pakistan and Twenty20s against Australia and Sri Lanka.

Why not stay at the vibrant 3 Star Holiday Inn Express Southampton M27 Jct7 during your visit and enjoy the comfort of a hotel adjacent to The Rose Bowl offering free parking, complimentary Hot Buffet Breakfast to all guests and serving freshly prepared evening meals in the Conservatory Restaurant with licenced Bar/Lounge. Call Reservations on 02380 606060 or email

reservations@expressbyholidayinn.uk.net

Rose Bowl International Fixtures 2012 – 2016
2012
ODI: England vs West Indies
ODI: England vs South Africa


2013
ODI: England vs Australia
ODI: England vs New Zealand
T20: England vs Australia


2014
Test Match: England vs India


2015
ODI: England vs New Zealand
ODI: England vs Australia


2016
ODI: England vs Pakistan
T20: England vs Sri Lanka

3 for 2 Weekend Offer at the Holiday Inn Express Southampton M27 Jct7

Situated in the heart of the Hamble Valley, it’s the ideal location for visiting attractions such as Southampton Maritime, Titanic & Aircraft Museum, Spinnaker Tower, Portsmouth Historic Dockyards, Gunwharf Quays, Marwell Zoo & Beaulieu. 

Stay 3 consecutive weekend nights for the price of 2: Rates is for 2 Adults and 2 Children (18 years and under) sharing a Double Room with Sofa Bed including Hot Buffet Breakfast. Rate valid from 01-Feb to 31-Dec-12 subject to availability.

Please call our Central Reservations Team on 0800 43 4040 and quote IDEX2.

Booking Accommodation

Special Day Delegate Package at the HIE Southampton M27 Jct7

One free day delegate for every 5 paying
delegates booked Rate includes:

• Air-conditioned meeting room with natural daylight for up to 52 pax
• Unlimited Tea & Coffee, Biscuits and Mineral Water
• Choice of either Hot / Cold Fork Buffet or Finger Buffet for lunch
• Overhead Projector / Screen, Flipchart, TV & Video and Stationery
• Complimentary parking for hotel guests and meeting delegates

Note:  LCD Projector available at an extra fee, subject to availability

Offer Valid until 31-Dec 2012
Subject to availability and a minimum number of 6 delegates booked

DDR Rates at £27.00 per person                                                                                                                                                                       24hr Rates from £104.50 per person
Room Hire from £125.00

Please call our Reservations Team on 02380 606055 or email them at reservations@expressbyholidayinn.uk.net for more details.