1992 F1 world champion Mansell to star at Autosport International

Mansell will attend the two public days of the show on January 13-14 next year.

"The British motorsport fans mean so much to me, and to be coming to my home town Birmingham and getting the opportunity to engage with them at Autosport International 2018 I couldn't be happier," said Mansell.

Mansell's Autosport International appearance comes 25 years after he achieved the unique feat of winning the F1 world championship and then the CART Indycar title immediately afterwards.

He captured the imagination of the British public through the 1980s with heroic underdog performances at Lotus before joining the Williams team in '85.

Mansell narrowly missed out on both the 1986 and '87 world titles in dramatic circumstances - with a last-gasp tyre blowout in Adelaide denying him in '86 before injuries from a Suzuka crash curtailed his '87 season.

He earned legendary status with the Tifosi during a Ferrari stint in 1989 and '90 before returning to Williams in '91.

By the end of that season the Williams-Renault package was the class of the field and though its surge came too late for that year's title, Mansell was unstoppable in 1992 and finally won the F1 championship - becoming the first Briton to do so since James Hunt in 1976.

His subsequent Indycar title proved his versatility and brought a huge new audience to American single-seater racing.

Though a later return to F1 with McLaren proved unhappy and short-lived, he continued to entertain his fans with occasional appearances in the British Touring Car Championship and sportscars in later years.