HORSERACING fans the world over will no doubt have heard of Glorious Goodwood, a mecca of equestrian excellence and social networking. However, there is nothing quite so glorious as the view and the sound of sports cars from every possible decade in automotive history travelling up the notorious hillclimb that Lord March is fortunate to have in his front garden.
The event is the Goodwood Festival of Speed and it represents an annual pilgrimage for me, along with more than 160000 other people from all over the world, during the first weekend of July. Fortunately the weather played ball, with the government declaring a heat alert because it was actually rather hot at 30º C .
The event marked a number of milestones both in motoring and motorsport. The headline item was the celebration of 100 years of Audi and the company not only erected a grand sculpture on the lawn in front of Lord March’s house, but also put on a couple of huge exhibition areas.
Those who wanted to see some real “vorsprung” in action were treated to Walter Rohrl driving his 1985 Audi Sport Quattro S1. On the hillclimb the beautiful 1938 Auto Union Type D was driven by Pink Floyd frontman Nick Mason, while bringing things right up to date, Allan McNish took to the hill in the 2009 Audi R15 TDI entry fresh from Le Mans just a couple of weeks earlier.
Everywhere I looked there were iconic symbols of historical motoring, the sports cars of today and those of tomorrow. Goodwood has also become synonymous with the first showing of a number of vehicles, often still wearing those strange camouflage outfits.
A crowd puller was the Citroen GT, a car designed for the PlayStation generation, but which has already received eight orders despite no definite production plans.
Nissan sent its GT-R Spec V charging up the hill, as did a rather brutal-looking version of the Jaguar XFR that is set to become a Touring Car contender.
A number of electric vehicles also took on the hill. Tesla was back with its roadster that had received some Brabus treatment and Mitsubishi had its MiEv, Ruf had its Greenster — basically an electric Porsche 911 convertible — and the event also marked the return of a name once forgotten with the debut of the Frazer-Nash Namir. There were also a number of electric bikes, too.
I will tell you more about this snapshot of the motoring future in coming weeks, but I must warn you of things to come. You see, some of these cars looked like little city cars, but when a Porsche or the stunning Frazer-Nash comes racing out of the trees making less noise than a slightly rustling breeze, it just does not seem right. They could at least have fitted a huge speaker that emitted the soundtrack of a Ferrari V12 or something — it’s just odd .
Goodwood also celebrated 75 years since the arrival of the Silver Arrows and there was quite an extensive collection, both on the hill and in the various paddocks and display areas. These pre-war cars from Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union dominated the Grand Prix scene and this year they came from all over the world to form the biggest collection yet .
Equally as silver is the legendary Sir Stirling Moss, who celebrated 50 years in motorsport by driving a number of motorsport icons including Mercedes-Benz and the Aston Martin DBR1. Sir Frank Williams has been in F1 for 40 years and this accolade was also marked by a collection of every F1 car he and his company have ever produced. From the 1970 De Tomaso-Cosworth that was produced by Williams in 1970, no less than 13 Williams engineered cars took to the hill in celebration .
Bugatti was another one with something to shout about, celebrating its centenary with a host of models, mainly in the Cartier Style et Luxe static display. Not surprisingly, a number of Veyron models took to the hill, including one of only two that had been completely chromed, and forced many in the crowd to don sunglasses to hide from the rare English sun.
But wait, there’s more. Porsche celebrated 40 years of the legend that was the 917. Even the American s got in on the act with a number of Nascar racers to herald 50 years of the notorious Daytona International Speedway.
On the rally front, there were names from all eras, with Rauno Aaltonen driving his 1964 Monte Carlo winning Austin Mini Cooper S, right up to Sebastien Loeb in his current Citroen C4 WRC car.
And Jesse James of West Coast Choppers fame dropped in to take on the forest stage in his brutal (and believe me that word is an understatement) 800bhp Trophy Truck.
There is also one more hero I should mention in this initial synopsis of the weekend. Mr Easy Rider himself — Hollywood legend Peter Fonda — took to the hill on his Captain America chopper.
Now if you did not abandon reading this article at some point to head off to book your tickets for next year’s event, then really — how dare you call yourself a motoring enthusiast!
It is absolutely one of the most glorious weekends from all aspects, motoring and otherwise, and over the next few weeks I will give you more reasons why you missed out on something special.
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