The roar of engines and thousands and thousands of spectators in the castle park? A hill climb and a rally course with the most famous cars and motorcycles in the history of mobility? Clearly, this can only be the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Once again, Lord March showed that he can organize one of the best entertainment events on the motoring scene.
Transportation from all eras
It is difficult to characterize the Festival of Speed, because not only are there automobiles, motorcycles and airplanes (the list is not exhaustive) on display almost simultaneously, there is also more than a century of mobility history covered up to modern times.
Presumably this is what makes the event so attractive, that you can see a current super sports car in direct comparison to sports and racing cars of the past.
Mazda at the center
Every year, one brand is honored with the so-called "Central Display", an oversized art sculpture. In 2015, Mazda took center stage with the 787B.
Not a classic car event
The Goodwood Festival of Speed is at least as committed to the present as it is to the past. This year, a number of car manufacturers such as Aston Martin and Renault took the opportunity to present 21 new models. It is already a tradition that the fresh Le Mans winner drives up the hill, so in 2015 the Porsche 919 Hybrid was seen driving up the winding route through the castle park.
Meeting of the legends
They were all there, today's racing drivers such as Nico Rosberg, Jensen Button or motorcycle triumphant Valentino Rossi as well as the heroes of the past, such as Derek Bell, Richard Petty, Jochen Mass, Jackie Stewart, John Surtees or Stirling Moss.
And they came mainly because they were happy to meet their old and new colleagues again. People like Valentino Rossi have petrol in their blood, as you can see when you watch him inspecting an Alfa Romeo Tipo B or enthusiastically taking a seat in the cockpit of the Mazda 787B.
Collection of rarities
It's unbelievable what cars Lord March is able to round up every year. In 2015, for example, seven of the eight 300 SLRs ever built were in the pits together, probably for the first and perhaps only time in history.
A few meters further on were the Le Mans-winning Porsche 917, 962C and 919 Hybrid and so it went on. No wonder, the invited celebrities also enjoyed strolling through the paddock.
Phenomenal shoot-out
Cars from different eras and designs competed with each other for the fastest time on the approximately 1.8 km long route up the castle hill.
Impressive how the Darracq, well over 100 years old, raced up the little road, impressive the vehicle control of the driver of the Bugatti 35.
In between, modern super sports cars, Nascar cars, racing cars of the latest design, rally-cross vehicles, power trucks, CanAm prototypes, touring cars of various displacement classes and Formula 1 vehicles such as James Hunt's Hesketh or the two freshly restored LEC Cosworths.
It was incredibly exciting and above all interesting to see how the cars behaved on the winding track. The cars were started in reverse qualifying order. How much would the drivers be able to improve on the previous races? For a long time it seemed that the LEC Cosworths were unbeatable, even though they started quite early. Then the six-wheeled March was even faster. But would it keep its nose in front against the Pkes Peak Celica? No, it wasn't enough against so much downforce.
But there were still a few more cars at the start. Another Hesketh Formula 1, for example, but the Celica remained in front for the time being. There were still two cars at the start. The Subaru with over 700 hp, which had a huge rear wing for maximum downforce, was faster up to the intermediate time and took almost a second off the Celica. Could the following modern Mini with the monumental rear wing and super power do it even faster? No. The modern Subaru had prevailed, but the classics of the Formula 1 scene could be satisfied with their performance and the Ferrari 312 P had also done very well.
Trophies and prizes
The most beautiful car was also chosen, namely in the Cartier "Style et Luxe" Concours. The winner here was Peter Mullin with his Talbot-Lago T150 C SS.
And on the rally course, Kris Meeke came out on top in the Citroën DS3 WRC.
The weather was almost unbritishly sunny and warm for most of the weekend, with only a few brief showers marring the perfect summer weather. And thanks to the few and largely minor accidents (including a Mazda 767B from 1989), Lord March was able to retire to his chambers on Sunday evening.
