Slightly underwhelmed

Slightly underwhelmed

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haddock82

498 posts

137 months

Sunday 26th June 2016
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Well...!

I've never been to FOS before, this was my FOS virginity so to speak!

My impressions:

- Traffic!
What a nightmare! Not a good location for an event of this size!
we stayed at my sisters near Dunsfold but ended up giving up trying to drive to the event and got a train to Chichester and the shuttle bus
Turns out there was an accident in Midhurst on Sat morning and they closed 2 of the main roads.

- Cost
£65 for a "normal" ticket.
£15 for a program (which i thought was awful BTW and their website... dont get me started!)
2 burgers,1 chips & 2 drinks £30..
Bus to event £6 each
Train ticket because traffic was so bad £10 each
For someone who doesnt earn "Goodwood" wages! (tongue in cheek) this was an expensive day and i dont really feel like i got value for money.


The weather perhaps put a downer on the day as there were some pretty impressive downpours!

From an "outsider" view it felt like a corporate event with space for us "norms" to catch a glimpse of what was going on if we were lucky.

Yes you can get fairly close to the track as an F1 car zooms past which, hands up, i'll admit is awesome!
But it felt like the only way to have a cracking day or feel like you are actually involved was to splash out and spend thousands on hospitality. Heck even charging an additional £35pp for a seat in the grandstand was a kick in the teeth especially when it was throwing it down!

Anyway, I sound like i'm completely coming down on the event!

Parts of it were truely great and glad i was there

Jenson stalling Niki Lauda's McLaren on the start line right in front of us :-D

Some awesome F1 cars (inc the Brawn!)

And just a lot of cars and noise I'll likely never see again.

Would i go again?

No probably not unless i either came into a lot of money to go "corporate" or got free tickets.




paulw123

3,169 posts

189 months

Sunday 26th June 2016
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Enjoyed today though there seemed to be a fair few less modern F1 cars than in previous years.
Main complaint that has nothing to do with the organisers is the number of prats who try and take a picture of everything either with a crappy phone camera. This they shove at arms length up infront of your line of view each time a car comes into view. just enjoy it with your eyes!

Baldinho

585 posts

213 months

Sunday 26th June 2016
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normalbloke said:
That's just p*ss poor planning, to be frank.
I hear you - been plenty of times before and know the drill re getting there early but logistics of mate getting down precluded any earlier and he had no choice about having to get back for 5.30 - family issue.

Four hours to get from Petersfield was just crap when most of delay was gridlock for last three miles - caused mainly by car park attendants stopping each car one at a time on the roads and stopping flow of traffic from other direction completely whilst they spoke to drivers. Could easily have been avoided.

BricktopST205

887 posts

133 months

Sunday 26th June 2016
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paulw123 said:
Enjoyed today though there seemed to be a fair few less modern F1 cars than in previous years.
Main complaint that has nothing to do with the organisers is the number of prats who try and take a picture of everything either with a crappy phone camera. This they shove at arms length up infront of your line of view each time a car comes into view. just enjoy it with your eyes!
This is what annoys me. You can get videos online, much better to enjoy the experience through your own eyes. Watching it through a phone seems entirely pointless.

Had my daughter at the top of the hill for the drift cars, only for the parents to stand in her way (she was in the childs section). Made my blood boil but kept my calm. Also felt a bit sad for Keanu. Saw him in the morning in the paddock being flooded by star struck chavs, poor guy just wanted to see the motor bikes. Was good for us though as the rest of the paddock was clean to take photos and admire.

Was my first weekend as well. Favourite bit was the rally stage and rally paddock, seemed more like a "blue collar" area and was more approachable with the mini Toyota Stand being a highlight for me. Was awesome on the wet sat and the guys were really going for it with quite a few of the rally cars taking a few knocks. Down by the house was pretty hectic so avoided it for the most part and stayed up the top of the hill for most of the runs.

Will go again next year but most likely get grandstand passes and performance parking as it was dog eat dog by the hay bails.

P.S the roads going into goodwood were fantastic just a shame about the accident on Saturday which lost us a couple of hours.

We never bought a Goodwood program although I don't know if it was worth it? Just a print off of the event schedule in my back pocket kept us up to date. The commentators seemd a little off too. Was looking at the Lancia Delta with the 2JZ swap and he described it as a V6 with AWD drive coming up the hill which it had neither.

Edited by BricktopST205 on Monday 27th June 00:03

speedtwelve

3,510 posts

272 months

Monday 27th June 2016
quotequote all
paulw123 said:
Main complaint that has nothing to do with the organisers is the number of prats who try and take a picture of everything either with a crappy phone camera. This they shove at arms length up infront of your line of view each time a car comes into view. just enjoy it with your eyes!
You'll see this at airshows, music gigs, you name it nowadays. The concept of actually watching and experiencing the moment is lost on so many people. Too busy filming a dot in the distance on their bloody phone to actually relax and savour what is going on. What do they do with it afterwards? It'll be complete crap anyway. As BricktopST205 says, there are HD professional vids aplenty for reliving the day.

After the last runs on Saturday evening we stood in the paddock while Le Mans-scarred LMP1 cars, GT40s, Can Am, Napier Railton etc returned to their bays literally feet away, engines thundering. Too many people were engaged in cameraphonegasm rather than taking in the atmosphere; that car I could reach out and touch was blasting down the Mulsanne at nearly 250mph this time last Saturday!

F1JHerbert

538 posts

164 months

Monday 27th June 2016
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haddock82 said:

I've never been to FOS before, this was my FOS virginity so to speak!


- Cost
£65 for a "normal" ticket.
£15 for a program (which i thought was awful BTW and their website... dont get me started!)
2 burgers,1 chips & 2 drinks £30..
Bus to event £6 each
Train ticket because traffic was so bad £10 each
In future, you buy a programme voucher when you buy your ticket. As it costs you £12 instead of £15. Take your own food and water. I went all four days. My food (thanks to Sainsburys) cost me £20 for the whole weekend.

ukaskew

10,642 posts

220 months

Monday 27th June 2016
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Yep it can easily be done on the cheap (relatively). Aside from my ticket I didn't spend a single penny, as I do with all events I printed off a schedule the day before and took my own food and water, job done.

Not so long ago Friday's were free, now that was a cheap day out!


mistakenplane

426 posts

119 months

Monday 27th June 2016
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I'm glad I only bought breakfast in the event on Sunday. Had one of the breakfast muffin things by the cricket pitch... It was that good I'd have spent £6.50 every morning for one!

Also give the parking attendants a break. I chatted to a couple on Sat - minimum wage, 14 hour shifts and they don't have radios so can only direct you where theryve been told to send you.

benjj

6,787 posts

162 months

Monday 27th June 2016
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Speaking as an exhibitor:

We arrived Tues/Wed to set up as part of the wider MOD/MIL area. The place was already showing serious signs of bogging down days before people arrived. Not Goodwood's fault, and they had plenty of wood chips etc stored and ready, just a real bummer after the last few year's of sunshine.

Footfall/visitors was down massively, mainly noticed on Sat/Sun. Clearly this was down to the weather but the logistics and mud made it difficult for people to cut about the place as they normally do.

Walking from our stand down to the start line is normally a 5 minute stroll. This year it was a 15 minute slog. Perhaps that was why people found themselves a spot and tended to stay in it.

Prices were nuts. Cups of boggo filter coffee for £3 is just a joke. I bought 2 pints of cider from some place as a treat and that was £14. Fortunately we were all fed three meals a day from the RLC which was just heaven as no thought or cost required.

The camping site management was good and the cleaners were champs trying to stay on top of the bogs & showers through the weekend. They were on a hiding to nothing though with the sheer volume of mud.

The parking, roads management and general access to the estate was woeful. Time after time we had issues with cretins in HiViz that just couldn't work out how to best get people onto and off the parking areas in a sensible time. Looking from the inside out I can say that 75% of the problems people had with traffic and access was simply not necessary, just due to stupidity from parking and planning staff.

Overall a very good show but lacking something from previous years, just seemed not to have the normal FoS X Factor for some reason. Probably a combination of the weather and some pretty bone stands (no I don't want to buy cavity loft insulation, I'm at a car show you throbber...)

The mix of people seemed the same as always, no changes there really. Also the same goes for the thieves.

We had one woman grab a branded umbrella out of a car and run away with it. Fortunately one of the Royal Artillery lads saw her do it and gave chase and retrieved it. Then we had a bloke and his wife/kids just come into the stand and help themselves to an umbrella and load of wristbands. We all thought they'd paid someone else (£35 value) but soon worked out they'd not. The father was unlucky enough to be accosted by one of our lads from 2 Para who gave him a right dressing down in front of the GAS Arena once we found him. Let his kids keep the wristbands and took everything else back. What a cretin.

You'll also be interested to know you had 35 troopers who normally wear sandy berets cutting around all weekend keeping you safe. I only found out on Saturday night, I didn't happen to notice them funnily enough wink

A good show that was really battered by the weather but the core Goodwood staff worked like Trojans and made the best of it. Here's to more sunburn, dust and dehydrating next year.

pauloroberto

229 posts

150 months

Monday 27th June 2016
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Had a great day yesterday. There is so much to see and do that we will probably go for the whole weekend next year.

We got to the outskirts of Chichester (from the Portsmouth side) at 7.15 am so I'm not sure why it took until 9 to get on to the site.

Considering Rosberg is leading the championship, there seemed to be very little enthusiasm for him!

Without a grandstand ticket, it was difficult to find a good viewing area, especially for a young child. Was there a free junior grandstand near the start?

TIGA84

5,204 posts

230 months

Monday 27th June 2016
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Benji, a friend was talking to one of the guys on the gate at the Exhibitors car park on Saturday and said that a pitch for a trader was £6k?!!

That's surely almost not worth doing a that cost? Was he mis-informed?

benjj

6,787 posts

162 months

Monday 27th June 2016
quotequote all
TIGA84 said:
Benji, a friend was talking to one of the guys on the gate at the Exhibitors car park on Saturday and said that a pitch for a trader was £6k?!!

That's surely almost not worth doing a that cost? Was he mis-informed?
I don't know but can well believe it. Lord March gives us the MOD/MIL area free each year - word has it that our combined area (inc the Artillery, REME, PWRR, Mission Motorsport, H4H, AAC etc) is worth £300,000 if he sold it as regular pitches. He's a good bloke.

I did speak to one lady, mainly because she was wearing the tightest trousers I've ever seen in my life and I'd been away from home for several nights in a muddy tent. She was just heaven. She had a converted van and was selling coffees and "artisan" cakes. She said the weekend costs her £6k which includes travel, lodgings, fuel, purchase costs of her items for sale, pitch rental and everything. She must need to sell a bazillion coffees to just break even I reckon.

ecsrobin

17,019 posts

164 months

Monday 27th June 2016
quotequote all
benjj said:
TIGA84 said:
Benji, a friend was talking to one of the guys on the gate at the Exhibitors car park on Saturday and said that a pitch for a trader was £6k?!!

That's surely almost not worth doing a that cost? Was he mis-informed?
I don't know but can well believe it. Lord March gives us the MOD/MIL area free each year - word has it that our combined area (inc the Artillery, REME, PWRR, Mission Motorsport, H4H, AAC etc) is worth £300,000 if he sold it as regular pitches. He's a good bloke.

I did speak to one lady, mainly because she was wearing the tightest trousers I've ever seen in my life and I'd been away from home for several nights in a muddy tent. She was just heaven. She had a converted van and was selling coffees and "artisan" cakes. She said the weekend costs her £6k which includes travel, lodgings, fuel, purchase costs of her items for sale, pitch rental and everything. She must need to sell a bazillion coffees to just break even I reckon.
My parents were speaking to a trader from farnborough who said if you thought FOS was expensive as a trader try Farnborough airshow!

Eric Mc

121,779 posts

264 months

Monday 27th June 2016
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Airshows became prohibitive decades ago.

Back in the 1970s airshows used to be great place to buy aviation related stuff - models, books, paraphernalia etc. By the 1980s all those traders had pulled out to be replaced by bouncy castles, fun fairs, radio roadshows and fudge sellers.

tonymor

1,476 posts

171 months

Monday 27th June 2016
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The prohibitive costs for traders is reflected everywhere.
The public don't always appreciate this when the complain about the lack of stands and the prices of goods on offer as a result. I recognised this and was not suprised to see more grass ( or mud) than ever this year .

ashleyman

6,962 posts

98 months

Monday 27th June 2016
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First time ever this year and I really enjoyed my 1 day at Goodwood. We were totally spoilt with our tickets and did as much as possible. I want to go back for 2 days next year and check out the rally stage and maybe do more 'experiences' rather than just walking around. I'd also like to sit in the stands more than we did this year and watch all of the cars going up and down the hill. I felt like I missed out on some cars looking at some YouTube videos last night and realising that half the cars featured, we either missed or didn't run... The exhibitors was a bit crap, enjoyed URBAN and Mansory though and did some shopping at GTechniq. Most of the manufacturers stand staff were nice and the guys in the supercar paddock let me sit in most of the cars - I imagine this is heavily dependant on what you look like and time of day because a lot of them said yes because it was either quiet or was friendly enough for a chat.

Disgusting that people would write WASH ME on the cars. Grown up handwriting all down the Koenigsegg One:1 was horrible to look at, especially considering some people don't wash their cars for sentimental reasons like with the Le Man cars..

I'd also really like to try and find out how to get a run up the hill in the RR that was going up and down all day, that looked fun, apart from when he nearly rear ended one of the old Can-Am cars!

We were with friends who must have a serious issue with rich folk they just keep complaining about them and their ways, Making fun of the people on the house balcony or in the grandstands or with VIP lanyards etc.... They seemed to be talking about them and us a lot but shut up when they found out we had roving grandstand and a programme. I understood their points but at the end of the day, any event is going to have some form of 'corporate' sponsorship to it. We're definitely not 'them' rich, not rich at all!

I can imagine if you don't have the right tickets it's a very long day but I would say the Grandstand tickets are well worth the money considering it's somewhere you can sit yourself down and enjoy the show without needing to stand.

Edited by ashleyman on Monday 27th June 13:22

Nik da Greek

2,503 posts

149 months

Monday 27th June 2016
quotequote all
On the subject of grandstand tickets, I'd just say that this year was probably the best year in a while to have stand tickets in as much as there were few stoppages (on the Sunday at least). Other than when Justin Law's Jaguar dropped one of its favourite wheels off and when that lumpy fella off Emmerdale failed to realise there's a left-hander at Molecombe, it all ran quite smoothly. In previous years, there have been a lot of pretty long stoppages and then being in a grantstand is a bit of a liability. Some of the better ones are a fair walk to get to and once you're there you don't really want to leave because you lose your good seat, waste a lot of time getting to/from and so on. Thus you can spend a good deal of time that you could be spending doing something else sitting and waiting while not much goes on. If you're only there for one day it's enough of a struggle getting round everything as it is.

I've found over the years that the price of the tickets is enough as it is and adding £35 for a grandstand pass isn't really great value for money when stoppages happen; you're better off watching what you missed on the YouTube feed later because you get a better view that way anyway. There is one reward for being disabled (if you can actually make it in across the mud in the first place) which is the disabled viewing platforms. They at least have a roof and are thus one up from the free-access platforms, although this year the startline one was placed right behind a couple of trees and exactly so the boom camera was right in the way of everything! However, credit is due to Goodwood for providing them, and they're always well subscribed. I had to leave and stand in the general population a couple of times as the one we were in was getting so full

benjj

6,787 posts

162 months

Monday 27th June 2016
quotequote all
ashleyman said:
I'd also really like to try and find out how to get a run up the hill in the RR that was going up and down all day, that looked fun, apart from when he nearly rear ended one of the old Can-Am cars!
That's easy, you have two options:

1) Be invited by RR because you're a VIP or interested in buying one of their cars

2) Be a wounded or serving British soldier. Dave and the whole RR team are massively helpful and supportive and we love them for it smile

I managed a quick run up and down with Dave and it was ace. He did a mental burnout when cruising back down from the top, that car is insane - 650bhp and c.800 lb/ft. It shifts.


ashleyman

6,962 posts

98 months

Monday 27th June 2016
quotequote all
benjj said:
That's easy, you have two options:

1) Be invited by RR because you're a VIP or interested in buying one of their cars

2) Be a wounded or serving British soldier. Dave and the whole RR team are massively helpful and supportive and we love them for it smile

I managed a quick run up and down with Dave and it was ace. He did a mental burnout when cruising back down from the top, that car is insane - 650bhp and c.800 lb/ft. It shifts.

So that won't be happening then!! Thanks for the information though!

Itsallicanafford

2,759 posts

158 months

Monday 27th June 2016
quotequote all
My first FOS, so i few thoughts from me...

traffic, what traffic? A car park at 6.30am on the Saturday...



Costs. Well the ticket price is abit punchy but the good people at Lexus invited us in for breakfast...and then the good people at Land Rover served us a late breakfast before we had some scampi and Chips for £8 a partition for lunch.

I really enjoyed the event, at 7am the paddock was pretty deserted so we had a good nose around what can only be described as an amazing array of cars (F1 LM, mazda 787 etc) You can get as close as you like while still giving these machines the respect they deserve. But you can also get the impression of what bespoke pieces of machinery these are, the 787 had all it body panels removed at one point and see you see all the details (such as the unnumbered mazdaspeed VIN plate. All the engines being pre-warmed before their runs was quite something to behold.

Really enjoyed the various hill climb categories although generally wet and also seeing the modern stuff have a go was great, especially vehicles such as the LFA being driven in anger. Even enjoyed the drifters...

Called it a day at 3.30pm, straight out of the car park and home.

Will be back next year and will bring the kids this time.