With just over eight months to go before the first race of its inaugural championship, A1 Grand Prix continues to gather momentum.

Next week, the series' founder and driving force, Sheikh Maktoum Hasher Maktoum Al Maktoum, will attend Autosport International at the NEC in Birmingham, where he will explain to journalists and the public why A1 is rapidly capturing race fans' imagination.

More converts to A1 should be won over when the car is seen in action in the Live Action Arena, giving fans the opportunity to see, and more hear, the car, and it's 3.4 litre 520 bhp power-plant, for the first time.

It's believed that Sheikh Maktoum will take the opportunity to give details of the race schedule for 2005/2006.

We can't really imagine Bernie or Max meeting fans and answering questions, can you?

Meanwhile, subscribers to BusinessF1, Sports Business and F1 Racing will already know a lot more about the series, and the people behind it, courtesy of an DVD that is being given away with the magazines' January issue.

The DVD features interview with various people involved in the series, including team bosses John Surtees (UK) and Alan Jones (Australia), both former F1 world champions. There is also some great behind-the scenes footage involving Zytek Engineering and Lola Cars.