Goodwood Festival of Speed 2018 … The biggest motorsports event in the UK beside the annual British Grand Prix


403 Tyrrell-Cosworth 003 1971 – Paul Stewart, Jackie Stewart

403 Tyrrell-Cosworth 003 1971 – Paul Stewart, Jackie Stewart

 

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