A DRIVE to find the UK's fastest accelerating road-legal car at Elvington Airfield, near York, has been axed.

Extreme Machines Motor Show was due to begin its sell-out drive where competitors would accelerate from 0 to 60mph in the quickest time, today.

But the car challenge, which attracted 25 per cent of its would-be competitors from York, will not go ahead.

Mark Podmore, director of Extreme Machines Motor Show, claims the event was cancelled because of a price rise charged by the airfield.

Elvington Airfield admits stepping up the asking price, but says it had no choice after the influx of entries from Extreme Machines Motor Show's promotion made the event a bigger one than had been anticipated.

Company secretary Chris Hudson said the price had had to be adjusted to reflect what the airfield would have been used for. More staff would have been needed and costs would have gone up.

Updated: 09:51 Saturday, March 15, 2003