The Festival of Speed, which Lord March has been organizing in his castle gardens every year since 1993, must be somewhat unique. And it has grown year on year, not only in terms of the number of spectators, but also the range of attractions.
It gets better every year, said a cheerful Nico Rosberg as he signed autographs.
Not a classic car event
The Festival of Speed is aimed at "petrol heads", i.e. people with gasoline in their blood. However, the three-day party is not a classic car event. A significant proportion of the vehicles were built in the last twelve months and half the fields would not even meet the classic car criteria. This is intentional, because Lord March simply wants to provide a stage for fast means of transportation.
And if he had a large enough castle pond, then speedboats would certainly be cruising around there too.
Asphalt and forest paths
The main attraction is certainly the "hill climb", if you take a 1.86 km long courtyard driveway with only a slight incline as sufficient. There are nine real corners and the best time dates back to 1999, when Heidfeld set a time of 41.6 seconds in the McLaren MP4/13, which led to modern Formula 1 racing cars only completing demonstration runs for safety reasons. Nevertheless, Heikki Kovalainen in the Renault R25 Monoposto is said to have managed to complete the hill climb in less than 40 seconds.
In addition to the hill climb, the forest tracks are also used to give rally and four-wheel drive racing cars the opportunity to show off their skills as part of the "Forrest Rally Stages".
This year, BMX bikes could also be seen in action in their own arena.
Also a concours
In addition to the moving vehicles, there were of course also many stationary classics on display, the most beautiful of which competed in the Cartier Style et Luxe Concours d'Elégance, from which the 1971 Lamborghini Miura P400 SV from the factory museum emerged as the winner.
Other winners included a Benz Velo from 1898, an AC 428 Fastback from 1967, a Lancia Astura Pinin Farina Cabriolet "Bocca" and a Lamborghini Countach from 1975.
The sound makes the music
Hardly anywhere else can you experience the tonal possibilities of the racing cars of the past and present so impressively. After all, a hill climb not only offers a varied start, but also many acceleration sections, making it the ideal terrain to maximize the soundscape.
Visitors were able to compare high-displacement pre-war racing cars such as the Fiat S76 with post-war racing cars with up to sixteen cylinders, and Formula 1 cars from the 1950s with their successors up to the present day.
There was even an (almost) current Formula 1 racing car from Mercedes, which caused little enthusiasm with its muffled hybrid noise, but still sounded much more like a car than the Formula E racer from Renault, which was also at the start. The last Formula 1 cars of the eight-cylinder era with engines that revved up to 20,000 rpm were certainly among the most impressive cars.
And of course the Mazda 767B, the only Japanese racing car to have won the 24 Hours of Le Mans and powered by a Wankel engine.
A marketing show
Lord March does not hold his event as a hobby, however; the Goodwood Festival of Speed, like its brothers Revival and Members Meeting, has become a solid business and the sponsors naturally want to present something for their money. Porsche, for example, had a whole off-road environment set up where the capabilities of the Cayenne and Macan could be actively tested.
BMW, Ford, Audi, Mercedes-AMG, Volkswagen, etc. showed what they currently have to offer in their pavilions.
The 2016 sculpture
The large sculpture, which is erected in front of Goodwood House every year, was dedicated to the BMW brand and its 100-year history in 2016. Pre- and post-war racing cars could be found on the foothills, beautifully arranged and presented as always.
BMW was also able to showcase some of its long history during the demonstration runs, such as the Brabham BT52 driven by Ricardo Patrese, the BMW V12 LMR from 1999 and the CSL and 6-series coupés. Of course, the LeMans winners that were built together with McLaren were not missing either.
40 years since James Hunt's world championship title
Every year at Goodwood, certain themes are addressed, which usually have a round chronological reference. From June 24 to 26, 2016, for example, it was the 40th anniversary of James Hunt's world championship title. As is well known, he had won his first and only title in 1976 after a fierce battle with Niki Lauda (see also the film "Rush"), after impressive results but no consistent performance had been possible with Hesketh the two years before.
A number of the cars that James Hunt drove in his life were on display at Goodwood, including the yellow Porsche 911 Carrera RS 3.0 that served as his everyday transportation as a gift from Lord Hesketh.
Of course, there were also various Hesketh and McLaren Formula 1 cars on display, as well as the Wolf-Cosworth in which Hunt had raced. And many racing drivers recalled experiences and racing successes with Hunt, such as Derek Bell, who raced with James Hunt in the Mirage sports car.
Out of great retirement
The Goodwood organizers wouldn't be British if they didn't also call for a veritable time trial. As is the case every year, the fastest cars from the pre-qualifiers competed across all vehicle categories and ages and it was exciting to see who would set the fastest time.
It was Olly Clark in his 870 hp Subaru who set the fastest time in 46.29 seconds, only narrowly beaten by Kenny Brack in the brand new McLaren P1 LM with 47.07 seconds. Much more relevant for fans of historic racing, however, was Andrew Newal's fourth place in the McLaren-Chevrolet M8F, a 40-year-old CanAm prototype, which completed the mountain course in 51.01 seconds.
In 6th place was Jordan Gregor in the Hesketh 308B with 52.49 seconds, while David Franklin, himself over 70 years old, placed seventh in the beautiful Ferrari 312 P Spyder from 1969 with 53.33 seconds.
A huge show
Lord March aims to entertain and does so every year. Terry Grant, for example, entered his Legend Car (1:5/8 scale) with a small engine and showed how to drive around two marshals in a precise oval until the tire grazes the toes of one of them. And then he got out and let the car produce more "doughnuts" on its own. What precision!
Not just cars
As every year, Goodwood was not just about cars. There were also plenty of motorcycles of younger and older vintage on display, and dragsters and off-road trucks were also welcome. The main thing was to drive and, if possible, not for too long, was the motto in 2016 too.
People meet people
For the approximately 150,000 visitors, the focus was not only on the vehicles but also on the drivers. Formula 1 racing drivers of the present such as Nico Rosberg and the past such as Sir Stirling Moss (now with a beard), Ricardo Patrese and Sir Jackie Stewart mingled with the crowd with just as much stamina as actor Keanu Reeves and a wild mix of touring car, rally and motorcycle drivers.
They all praised the great atmosphere and secretly talked about their experiences at the glittering parties, which were of course a must in the evening. Meeting old colleagues and friends was just as much a part of the program for the prominent visitors as riding up the hill a few times.
