The doors are open and it's all systems go at Birmingham for the CV Show 2007 and what's more no hangover for yours truly!

Last night, the press descended on Ford and Daf for their annual pre-CV Show press dinners. From the cut of the journalists on parade in the press centre this morning at the show, both were restrained affairs.

I was out with Ford - Stratford-upon-Avon, nice bit of roast pork with a decent drop of red to wash it down - and there's plenty of news from Ford at this year's show. Chief among the announcements is a new 200hp, five-cylinder diesel engine to power the Transit. With 470Nm of torque on tap, this sort of power output is more akin to an 18-tonner than a van and with this sort of performance available I'm getting a bit worried that the legislators may soon have panel vans in their sights for increased regulation.

Also new from Ford is a 4.6-tonne version of Transit, a performance improvement for the Ranger pick-up and the launch of the new Transit SportVan.

More from the CV Show blog later...filming is starting for RoadTransportTV.