The Goodwood Festival of Speed from July 5 to 7, 2019 celebrates all disciplines of motorsport, and this year's festival once again offered everything your heart desires, from the legendary Indy 500 single-seater to driving, aero-powered pre-war trailblazers and NASCAR racers. Several significant milestones were also celebrated. For example, 100 years of Bentley, 125 years of Mercedes Benz and Aston Martin celebrated "70 years at Goodwood", as an Aston drove on the Goodwood circuit for the first time in 1949. An exhibition in honor of Michael Schumacher was also part of the festival. And Bonhams auctioned off over 80 cars on Friday.
Rally sport at Goodwood
Rallying is still a popular form of motorsport and a major attraction at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. This year, several legendary and lesser-known rally cars took part in the 'hill climb' and the Goodwood 'Forest Rally'.
The "Giants of Modern Rallying" class featured many Group B exhibits from the 1980s. Legendary cars such as the MG 6R4s, the Subaru Impreza and the Peugeot 505 SRDT were just some of the cars that did the honors. But of course there were not only cars to see, but also their drivers. Some of the big names in motor racing did the honors and were also out on the track. Elfyn Evans, Mads Osterberg, Alister McRae and Rauno Aaltonen are just a few of the names to be mentioned.
Tribute to Jackie Stewart
Sir Jackie Stewart has long been a supporter of the Goodwood Festival of Speed and was honored this year. 2019 marks the fiftieth anniversary of his first Formula 1 world championship title. A number of cars driven by stewards were therefore on display at Goodwood. These included the Matra-Cosworth MS80 from 1969.
Jackie won 27 of the 99 races he entered, and he also took up the cudgels for greater driving safety in motorsport. In later years, he built up a team that was very successful in promoting young talent before he decided to organize the Stewart Grand Prix.
Björn Waldegård is honored posthumously
Another tribute was paid to the late Bjorn Waldegård, who won the first ever World Rally Championship title in 1979. Goodwood also celebrated this event at the Festival of Speed. Some of the cars driven by Waldegard were therefore also present. These were extremely different. There was everything from a wild-looking Porsche 911 to a Mercedes Benz 450 SLC.
Waldegard was in his element in endurance races. He triumphed four times in the "East African Safari" rally. But he also cut a fine figure on gravel and asphalt. In 1976, he drove a Lancia Stratos to his first world championship victory in Sweden. Claus Aulenbacher showed the car in "Alitalia war paint" at the festival.
Mercedes Benz also at Goodwood
Few brands are as steeped in history in motor racing as Mercedes Benz and even fewer in so many different disciplines. Mercedes' 125-year commitment was duly celebrated with a number of cars from private collections and the works museum in attendance. From the 1903 60HP to the Mercedes-AMG F1 WO8, a number of exhibits were on display. Not forgetting, of course, the famous Silver Arrow. These dominated racing in the 1930s. Three Group C Sauber-Mercedes prototypes from the late 1980s also made their presence felt at the hill climb.
Goodwood pays tribute to Michael Schumacher
The theme of the Goodwood Festival of Speed 2019 was "Speed Kings - Record Breakers in Motorsport". On January 3, Michael Schumacher, Formula 1's most successful racing driver, turned 50. It was also the 25th anniversary of his first Formula 1 world championship title. A special collection of racing cars from Michael's career were on display at "Goodwood Hill", including every single Ferrari in which he won his titles and his life was celebrated.
Many people and some VIPs, including the FIA President and former Ferrari team boss Jean Todt, Luca di Montezemolo and the Duke of Richmond came to see the exhibition. The 1996 world champion Damon Hill, with whom Schumacher had his most famous battle, and other former rivals also paid their respects. In addition to the F1 racing cars, the Van Diemen Formula Ford RF88, in which Schumacher took 6th place in 1988, was also on display. The Mercedes 190E from the 1991 DTM race and the Mercedes C11 Group C were also on display.
Damon Hill, whose rivalry with Schumacher led to his first world championship title in 1994, remarked: "He had the qualities you need to be successful. He had that ruthlessness, that talent, that focus and that commitment." Michael Schumacher's seven F1 world championship titles remain unbeaten, and he currently holds 20 F1 records, many of which are likely to stand forever.
"Sports racers" on the rise
The term "sports racer" covers all vehicles, from small-scale cars to monstrous Can-Am cars. Endless variations of this cateogory were performed on the hill at the 2019 Goodwood Festival of Speed, the oldest of which is the 1960 Marcos GT 'Xylon'.
Designed by Frank Costin, this wood-shelled machine (also known as 'The Ugly Duckling') was a prolific race winner of the era and also the first car ever driven by Jackie Stewart in a race. Several revving, open-top Abarths passed by at breakneck speed, including the 3000 prototype carburetor piloted by its original driver, Le Mans hero Derek Bell. Slightly more up to date was the BMW V12 LMR, driven this weekend by former works champion Steve Soper, and finally the latest Liger JS P217 LMP2 weapon, driven by Philip Hanson.
Separate class for Abarth
The Italian brand was in a class of its own at this year's Cartier Style et Luxe competition. The "A Sting in the Tail" category included some of the rarest models from the brand's last 70 years.
NASCAR cars delight the public once again
"NASCAR racing has built up a huge following at Goodwood and this year the festival celebrated 70 years of the series in the biggest possible way. 16 cars took to the hillclimb circuit, the oldest a Buick Regal in which Richard won his seventh and final Daytona 500 race in 1981. The Chevrolet Monte Carlo, in which Dale Earnhardt famously failed to win the Blue Riband 500, the most prestigious race in the series, in 1998, was also on the grid.
Tour Legends at the Goodwood Festival
The Tour de France de l'Automobile celebrated its 120th birthday in 2019 and Goodwood marked the milestone with a special celebration at the Festival of Speed. The week-long tour included a mixture of circuits and road stages and was once known to tax even the toughest of star drivers. The event's oldest campaigner on the hill is the Ferrari 250 GT SWB of Joe Macari, who competed in the event in 1961-62. He retired with engine failure the first time, but won the overall championship twelve months later. French pride was restored, however, when Matra dominated the 1970 race with a series of MS660 sports prototypes that were 'notionally' road-legal. One example of this era was driven by Yves Mahé at Goodwood.
March creations on the grid
March Engineering was once one of the largest manufacturers of racing cars in the world. At Goodwood, the manufacturer was honored with significant models in a special class, the cars of which either appeared on the "Hillclimb course" or could be viewed statically. The cars on display ranged from Andy Gilberg's 693 from 1969, an 86C Champ car in the mid-eighties, to a monstrous 707 Can-Am. The appearance of so many "Marches" in one pile is rare.
March Engineering was founded in 1969 by the highly ambitious quartet of Max Mosley, Alan Rees, Graham Coaker and Robin Herd and was subject to much ridicule in the early days as it announced it would build cars for various racing disciplines. The critics stopped laughing when five 701 Formula 1 cars appeared at the opening race of the 1970 World Championship.
Touring cars at the forefront of the festival
Touring cars and the aces who drive them have long been part of Goodwood events and the Goodwood Festival of Speed is no exception. This year Kara Birrell, daughter of the famous Gerry Birrell in the Ford RS2600 and nine-time Le Mans winner Tom Kristensen in the Audi DTM did the honors. The highlight for many, however, was the sight of former DTM champion and Le Mans winner Frank Biela driving the Audi 200 Quattro Trans-Am. The model won eight of the 13 races it contested in 1988 and the rules were subsequently rewritten to prevent it from appearing the following season.
Monster from Porsche takes over Goodwood
The Porsche 917 sports prototype, which dominated the international one-make championship in the early 1970s, was also honored at the 2019 Festival of Speed. The beast first took to the racetrack in 1969 and won the 24 Hours of Le Mans just one year later. It was the first victory for Porsche in the endurance classic. The procedure was repeated in 1971. After the model was banned following a change in the rules due to the engine size, variations of it dominated Can-Am and Interseries.
Every possible version of the 917 was on display during the festival weekend or even made an appearance on the hillclimb. Le Mans winner from 1970, Richard Attwood and 1971 winner Gijs van Lennep were among the star drivers and made the "monsters" sing.
Aston Martin in the spotlight
Aston Martin and Goodwood are inextricably linked; in 1949, 70 years ago, an Aston Martin raced at Goodwood for the first time! This year's display of the marque stretched thirty meters into the air and atop the construction of one of the most celebrated racing cars, the DBR1. On the ground were a number of different Aston Martins covering the entire history of the brand.
This ranges from the famous 11 HP "Green Pea" from 1922, to the DBR4 from 1959, to three current project cars that took part in the 2019 FIA "Super Season".
Indy icons were firm favorites
Few races have such a long history as the Indianapolis 500, and the 110th anniversary of the race was also celebrated at Goodwood. With a big race and many historic machines at the Festival of Speed. From the Ballot (1919) to the Penske-Chevrolet PC22 (1993), a lot was represented.
Supercars in the "Michelin Supercar Run"
The fastest street-legal cars in the world put their wheels on the tarmac on Friday morning during the Michelin Supercar Run. Ferrari made its presence felt with a series of limited-edition exotics, including the FXX K Evo and Monza SP2 models. Also from Maranello was the P80/C, a hypercar that took four years to realize. McLaren appeared with six cars, including the Senna GTR. DeTomaso, which had returned from the dead, presented the new P72 project. Ford presented the brand new super racer Ford GT MkII, which is based on the Le Mans GT winner.
VW ID.R set a new record at the HIllclimb
The fastest time ever recorded on the "Hillclimb course" was pushed down this year. The fully electric VW ID.R, with Romain Dumas at the wheel, raced up the course in an incredible 39.9 seconds. The previous record of 41.60 seconds was set in 1999 by Nick Heidfeld in a McLaren MP4/13 Formula 1 car.
The vehicle also set a new lap record for electric vehicles on the Nürburgring's Nordschleife. The ID.R has another year of development behind it. It currently delivers 500 kW (670 hp) and a torque of 650 Nm. It weighs less than 1.1 tons, including the driver. It needs 2.25 seconds to jump from 0 to 100 km/h. So it will be interesting to see in 2020 how many seconds a Tesla Roader, which only needs 1.9 seconds from 0 to 100 km/h, will be able to lap the Goodwood circuit.
Electric racing SUV called Odyssey21
The all-electric Odyssey 21 completed its first run at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. It is powered by a 400 kW (550 hp) battery, which makes it more powerful than other WRC cars. The SUV needs just 4.5 seconds from 0 to 100 km/h and can overcome extreme inclines.
World premiere of the new DeTomaso P72
The famous brand returns and unveils a new model at the same time. The legendary super sports car brand DeTomaso revived itself with the world premiere of its brand new P72 model on the opening day of the Goodwood Festival of Speed 2019. It is not yet known how fast the new car will be. The P72 was built with FIA LMP2 regulations and only 72 units will be built, with a price tag of around EUR 750,000.
