Chichester, 12th - 15th of July, 2018
25 years ago, in the summer of 1993, the Earl of March invited the first guests to what should become the biggest motorsports event in the UK beside the annual British Grand Prix: the first Goodwood Festival of Speed. Now celebrating its Silver Jubilee this has become the Mecca for all motorsports fans old and young to see cars and bikes spanning more than a century going up the hill and what started as a relaxed garden party became an industry over the last 25 years. All the major manufacturer have realized the importance of the festival many years ago and since the loss of the Earl Court Motor Show in London Goodwood became the place to display the cars to a huge public of about 200.000 visitors attending every year. Prolonged to a full 4 days show a few years ago the Thursday is dedicated to the new cars and the supercars where potential clients are taken up the hill at speed, taking the narrow 1.16 miles in between the straw barriers flat out.
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Whereas the speed is indulged outside the beauty of the classic car is shown behind Goodwood House where Bonhams set up their annual sale highlighted by the Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato and the top selling BMW 507 from the Surtees Family. John Surtees was not only a champion on two and four wheels but also one of the earliest supporters of Lord March with the idea of the event and Surtees was a regular guest over the years to follow until his passing last year. But Surtees was still present as former Honda F1 driver and Brawn GP World Champion Jenson Button drove up his beautiful Honda RA301 over the weekend.
The first car 25 years ago apparently going up the hill was the Ferrari 166 MM Touring Barchetta of Sally Mason-Styrron and just like back then the small Barchetta was present and wore the starting number 101.
Over the 25 years a lot of features were on display at Goodwood, many of them containing the German pre-war Silver Arrows and so it is not a surprise that both companies were back for the jubilee. Audi brought their C-Type Auto Union with twin-tires in hill climb configuration as well as a W25K Streamliner, the Mercedes factory museum even brought more cars and together with the Silver Arrows currently on show at the Louwman Museum the factory museum might be empty for a clean up. Starting from the W25 both in GP and speed record configuration, the W125 driving up the hill in the hands of legendary motorbike champion Giacomo Agostini aside Jochen Mass, the W196 both as GP car and the 300 SLR sportscar derivate to the Mercedes-Benz CLK LM. Newest toy of the classic department is the recently restored T80, the 1939 world record car featuring 3500 HP that never made it on the road before the war. Displayed naked only with the supporting tubes for the thin alloy body the car barely fitted a double garage in the pits.
One of the sponsors at the current FoS events is Martini and so the legendary livery was seen on many Lancia and Porsche in the paddock and on the hill.
This also leads to the main attraction this weekend, the 70th anniversary display of Porsche. One year after the rival of Ferrari taking over the FoS the weekend was clearly dominated by the cars from Zuffenhausen this time. With classes dedicated to the road cars including the very first 356 ever produced, the No.1 Spyder, the early GT racing including the various 911 RSR in the silver Martini livery with Le Mans and Targa Florio class winners only beaten by the factory prototypes.
Especially the 911 RSR Turbo 2.1 with it huge rear wing for the cooling of the turbo was a show on the hill as it introduced the turbo into the 911 back in the days.
Since those days Porsche has a deep connection to Le Mans and the fist Le Mans winning Porsche 917K in the Porsche Salzburg livery could be seen in the paddock whereas the Gulf and David Piper livered examples were run up the hill. In addition a 917/10 could be seen in the infield and the insane 917/30 for the American Can-Am series took the hill as well. The last Porsche victory at La Sarthe was last year, since then the 919 Hybrid was relieved from the regulations of the WEC and ACO to take a few record runs at Spa and the Nordschleife setting new lap records. Unfortunately the hill at Goodwood was not on the target list for the car so a rather relaxed show run was on the program.
Speaking of record breaking technology this was the very first year Goodwoods fastest time of the weekend was set by an all electric car, the VW Pike Peak racer that just broke the relatively new record of Sebastian Leob at the American Hill Climb in the hands of Romain Dumas. The French Le Mans winner on the 919 Hybrid was in Goodwood to set the third fastest time ever after having a huge safe in one of the earlier runs when he went into the very dry grass.
But the VW was not the only electro-car that stunned the masses. The so-called roboracer took the hill without a driver or assist from the outside. Intended for a series of roboraces in near future the technical masterpiece went up the hill with the aid of gps and sonar running through a very complex computer software. Although limited to about 120 km/h (as the car is much faster) it was a spectacular sight showing the future.
More men power was certainly needed at the latest Le Mans race. Although critics mentioned the lack of competition the Toyota team finally got their long awaited victory, traditionally the winning car could be seen in the paddocks still wearing the dirt from La Sarthe.
So once again the Festival of Speed had a lot of attractions for every taste including the popular drift challenge cars doing their show, the bikes going up the hill mostly on one wheel, the forest rally stage with action throughout the weekend and even a glimpse at the current F1. Valtteri Bottas was the active F1 driver taking the Mercedes AMG W07 up the hill.
The dry heat of the last weeks left the grass in a very sorry condition and with 200.000 visitors walking the infield and hill side the gardeners of Goodwood house might have a lot of work to bring the estate back in the typical British Garden. They will not have too much time because the next FoS in 2019 certainly is already in the planning
Report & images ... Peter Singhof www.ClassicCarphotography.de
Ferrari Entry Model | Colour | Chassis # | Entrant | Class 3 – Post-War Grand Prix Cars | 156 “Sharknose” F1 Re-creation (2) | Red | 0002 | Jason Wright | 156 “Sharknose” F1 Re-creation (8) | Red | 0006 | Jason Wright | 158 F1 | Red | 006 | Barber Museum | Class 4 – Early Endurance Racers | 166 MM Touring Barchetta | Red | 0040M | S. & D. Mason | 250 GT SWB Comp’ Berlinetta | Dark Red | 2845GT | Private Collection Philippe Cornet | 250 GTO | Red | 3757GT | Ten Tenths Ltd | Class 17 – Sports Racers 1966 – 2000 | 365 GTB4/C | Yellow | 15373 | Ten Tenths Ltd | Class 18 – Modern GTs | 488 Challenge | Green-White-Red | 236657 | Ferrari N. Europe | 488 GTE | Red-White Stripes | 3828 | Ferrari N. Europe | Class 23 – The Cosworth Years | 312 B3 | Red | 015 | Christian Knobloch | 312 T | Red-White | 018 | Giancarlo Casoli | Class 24 – The Turbo Era & Beyond | 126 C4 | Red | 072 | Daniel Rollinger | F150 | Red | 291 | Gregorio Barrachi | Class 25 – Contemporary Formula One | F60 (run with Marc Gené) | Red | 273 | Scuderia Ferrari | F60 (Display) | Red | 276 | Scuderia Ferrari | Class 31 Michelin Supercar Run | FXX | Red-White | 144883 | Ferrari N. Europe | 599 XX | White-Grey | 170891 | Ferrari N. Europe | FXX-K EVO | Black-Yellow | 212351 | Ferrari N. Europe | GTC4 Lusso T | White Met’ | 230243 | Ferrari N. Europe | 812 Superfast | Yellow Met’ | 232871 | Ferrari N. Europe | Portofino | Red Met’ | 233123 | Ferrari N. Europe | LaFerrari Aperta | Black Met’ | 234263 | Ferrari N. Europe | 488 Pista “Piloti Ferrari” | Red-RWG Stripes | 237115 | Ferrari N. Europe | Cartier Style & Luxe Concours | 365 California | White | 9849 | W. Heinecke | 365 GTB4 | Blue Met’ | 13479 | J. Franklin | 25th Anniversary Display | 550 Maranello WSR Edition | Grey Met, | 117673 | A. Donaldson | F50 | Black | 106715 | J. Chen | Enzo | Red | 131324 | T. Tomkins | LaFerrari | Red | 212170 | P. Saywell |
Keith Bluemel 07/2018
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