Once again this year the Goodwood Festival of Speed delighted visitors from across the world. The annual event used to be a well kept secret amongst Petrolheads but is now an internationally famous event patronised by most of the major manufacturers.
In fact, more effort is put into the festival by some manufacturers now than that for the British Motor Show. BMW were there with a two storey exhibition centre and many of the other manufacturers had stands bigger than were seen at the NEC.
The Festival is a delightful mixture of large manufacturer exhibits, smaller trade and club stands and the whole event is punctuated by a huge variety of cars hurtling up the hill. The race up the hill isn’t taken too seriously and many of the drivers take the opportunity to showboat in front of the crowds. From rally drivers doing doughnuts to Formula One drivers doing burnouts it’s all dramatic stuff.
The cars used vary each year and range from some rather ancient machinery right up to modern day concept cars. Thrown in the ‘Wacky Racers’ for the kids and dozens of historic race cars and you’ve got a mixture that will suit all tastes.
There were a few accidents this year although it's not thought that there were any serious injuries. A number of the 'soap box racers' crashed. These freewheeling cars head down the hill propelled simply by gravity and can reach speeds in excess of 60mph. Made by some of the top race teams there's some serious technology in many of them to produce such lightweight cars. Steering controls remain crude however and a few of them crashed spectacularly. The other notable crash of the weekend was the Mercielago which understeered straight into a hay bale!
Air displays are becoming a regular feature at the festival too. As well as the WW2 Spitfire, Hurricane and Mustang roaring overhead this year there was also a South African Airways 747 doing some scary manoeuvres!
Tickets were not available on the door this year unlike previous years meaning that numbers had been limited. Recent years have seen the Sunday extremely full whilst this year the balance was just right and whilst the crowds were enormous, getting around the venue was no longer a stressful experience. Lord March should certainly be congratulated on sacrificing some takings in the name of keeping the event pleasurable for all involved.