1st time at Goodwood, your thoughts?
Discussion
I'm a huge car fan, hence why I'm writing a post on the internet for people who also like cars.
Having returned from my first visit to Goodwood, I have to say I didn't enjoy it very much at all.
I will say before I give my opinion which no one has asked for, that the drive there from Oxford was amazing, due to the Vanquish and black M3 CSL on whichever rural motorway I encountered. Whoever you were, well done generally, for everything.
Anyway, I was grateful to receive a free ticket from BMW due to the M anniversary, and with hindsight I am pleased I didn't have to pay for it. I don't think I would pay to go in the future.
I can't quite put my finger on why I didn't enjoy it though, I think there are several small reasons and I'm probably wrong/spoilt for internally whinging.
I found it to be so brazenly elitist, it was nauseating. Yes I get you have to be loaded before you can even make eye contact with someone 'important' in the motorsport world, but I felt there could have been more of something less elitist. I'm not sure what, but I've found myself feeling totally uninterested by these brands now. Roger Dubuis, a watch maker with a giant stand, don't you dare be inquisitive and go in though. Saville Row blazers only please.
Only air and gravity are free once you've entered. £7.50 pints of Moretti? Come on.
This is almost pointless to say, but there were too many people there. Some caterers had run out of food and drinks by 2pm. The toilets, well, you can imagine.
The stewards had a very tough job, purely down to the volume of attendees, but that didn't justify some of their stasi type behaviour.
Look, I get it, these cars are valuable, but most people there were not 7 years old, eating a melting ice cream whilst spinning round. I've got a car, I know things already.
There's no real engagement on offer to attendees. I wasn't able to see inside many cars, under the bonnets etc, of the non-racing cars which were there.
They did have a Jaguar tyre screeching thing and a Land Rover experience. Passenger rides only. Sigh.
If your feet hurt from standing all day, don't you dare try to sit in one of the not-full spectator stands. How dare you, peasant, and no you may not buy access once you're in.
All this was sort of summarised in my head when I saw a man wearing his Goodwood Road Racing club polo shirt. There was a man so committed to the place that he literally bought the t shirt. He was sitting on the ground near me, one of the lowly general public though. No special treatment for them there either.
Other than the real life noise made by some of the cars there, it was an overly complicated yet boring event, which made you feel a little ashamed for not being on first name terms with all the VIPs there.
I get it's not a track day, I get it's not a proper racing event and I get it's not a sales event, but I don't get it.
Just a tanned Bond villain having fun with all his other rich mates, and we should be grateful, apparently.
Having returned from my first visit to Goodwood, I have to say I didn't enjoy it very much at all.
I will say before I give my opinion which no one has asked for, that the drive there from Oxford was amazing, due to the Vanquish and black M3 CSL on whichever rural motorway I encountered. Whoever you were, well done generally, for everything.
Anyway, I was grateful to receive a free ticket from BMW due to the M anniversary, and with hindsight I am pleased I didn't have to pay for it. I don't think I would pay to go in the future.
I can't quite put my finger on why I didn't enjoy it though, I think there are several small reasons and I'm probably wrong/spoilt for internally whinging.
I found it to be so brazenly elitist, it was nauseating. Yes I get you have to be loaded before you can even make eye contact with someone 'important' in the motorsport world, but I felt there could have been more of something less elitist. I'm not sure what, but I've found myself feeling totally uninterested by these brands now. Roger Dubuis, a watch maker with a giant stand, don't you dare be inquisitive and go in though. Saville Row blazers only please.
Only air and gravity are free once you've entered. £7.50 pints of Moretti? Come on.
This is almost pointless to say, but there were too many people there. Some caterers had run out of food and drinks by 2pm. The toilets, well, you can imagine.
The stewards had a very tough job, purely down to the volume of attendees, but that didn't justify some of their stasi type behaviour.
Look, I get it, these cars are valuable, but most people there were not 7 years old, eating a melting ice cream whilst spinning round. I've got a car, I know things already.
There's no real engagement on offer to attendees. I wasn't able to see inside many cars, under the bonnets etc, of the non-racing cars which were there.
They did have a Jaguar tyre screeching thing and a Land Rover experience. Passenger rides only. Sigh.
If your feet hurt from standing all day, don't you dare try to sit in one of the not-full spectator stands. How dare you, peasant, and no you may not buy access once you're in.
All this was sort of summarised in my head when I saw a man wearing his Goodwood Road Racing club polo shirt. There was a man so committed to the place that he literally bought the t shirt. He was sitting on the ground near me, one of the lowly general public though. No special treatment for them there either.
Other than the real life noise made by some of the cars there, it was an overly complicated yet boring event, which made you feel a little ashamed for not being on first name terms with all the VIPs there.
I get it's not a track day, I get it's not a proper racing event and I get it's not a sales event, but I don't get it.
Just a tanned Bond villain having fun with all his other rich mates, and we should be grateful, apparently.
WhyOne said:
I am guessing that the FoS (and other Goodwood events for that matter) are not for you!
I am one of the great unwashed, but despite this I love the event and the opportunities it offers to get close to cars I grew up watching race, and chat to the people who engineered and raced them.
This year Andy Wallace, cheif engineer at Williams during the Mansell / Hill Villeneuve years, Gordon Murray, one of the guys who heads up Rimac, John Watson, Rene Arnoux and Stig Blomqvist were all more than happy to talk to me.
I think it is a world class event we are lucky to have on our doorstep...I met people this year from Europe, USA and Japan who had travelled to the UK to attend.
Re. Somewhere to sit down....as an elite BMW owner (I assume) there was a grandstand just before Molecombe with access for BMW owners only I believe?
Well done for managing to find them amongst the 14 million people there!I am one of the great unwashed, but despite this I love the event and the opportunities it offers to get close to cars I grew up watching race, and chat to the people who engineered and raced them.
This year Andy Wallace, cheif engineer at Williams during the Mansell / Hill Villeneuve years, Gordon Murray, one of the guys who heads up Rimac, John Watson, Rene Arnoux and Stig Blomqvist were all more than happy to talk to me.
I think it is a world class event we are lucky to have on our doorstep...I met people this year from Europe, USA and Japan who had travelled to the UK to attend.
Re. Somewhere to sit down....as an elite BMW owner (I assume) there was a grandstand just before Molecombe with access for BMW owners only I believe?
It was nice seeing big Nige there, albeit on a screen, and seeing (apparently) George Russel drive past (he has a helmet on, could've been anyone!).
Jokes aside, oh wait, no, let's talk about the BMW seating area. 2.5 hour wait to sit down, and then you could only have it for an hour, so I was told. The steward couldn't believe the look of disbelief on my face.
I suppose she thought I could just go and sit in my BMW if I wanted to sit down so much.
damowhiskeyman said:
I couldn't agree more.... I've been a few times going back about 10 years.... Gets more and more like a rich boys playground. Apart from the Alfa stand was there another mainstream (realistically priced manufacturers) displaying?
I walked the whole place paid my £7.30 for my pint and £11 for a mangey burger
and £20 for a programme (yes I was done) ... spent a bit of time on "peasant Hill" as I call it (the banked bit on the way upto the rally area) ...the only place you get a decent view without having to pay for it.
Weather was good though
I too ended up on peasant hill with all the other undesirables. I walked the whole place paid my £7.30 for my pint and £11 for a mangey burger
and £20 for a programme (yes I was done) ... spent a bit of time on "peasant Hill" as I call it (the banked bit on the way upto the rally area) ...the only place you get a decent view without having to pay for it.Weather was good though
Weather was really good, which was its saving grace. If it had rained, I'd have left instantly.
£20 for a program, I didn't know that. I'd be done too.
foxbody-87 said:
I enjoyed it although I take your point about not getting much on the ‘pauper ticket’, I was sat in my folding chair on the hill up the bit before the flint wall as really that’s the only place you get a good view without being on a grandstand. Food and drink is always dear at large events, the caterers pay a fortune for a spot, just bring your own sarnies and a flask.
The BMW stand, nice display of cars but the inclusion of the beatboxing act and banging tunes was a bit too cringe for my liking, not sure what BMWs brand image now but it seems to be basically brash styling, yoof, gym owners in diesels with M stickers etc.
The toilets though, I’ve seen worse but they definitely need more or get them emptied out more as the blue stuff was up to the rim on a lot of them!
Diesels with M badges, hahaha! Spot on. The BMW stand, nice display of cars but the inclusion of the beatboxing act and banging tunes was a bit too cringe for my liking, not sure what BMWs brand image now but it seems to be basically brash styling, yoof, gym owners in diesels with M stickers etc.
The toilets though, I’ve seen worse but they definitely need more or get them emptied out more as the blue stuff was up to the rim on a lot of them!
I wonder if the classic M3 ran out of battery, I noticed they'd left it locked with the lights on.
toasty said:
My personal take on Goodwood is that, for a day, you're allowed to escape the mudanity of everyday life and dream you're loaded.
Where else are you going to see 5 McLaren F1s within feet of each other, one off Pagani Zondas in the car park, Rolls Royces in colour schemes only The Joker would choose, hear the wailing sounds of V10s climbing the hill and the President of the AA persuading us to slow down to save money and extend electric mileage capacity?
It's Goodwood, it's not going to be cheap to attract a billion pounds worth of automotive porn. Even multi-millionaires can feel hard done by there.
If you want 99p pints, go to Wetherspoons. Nowt wrong with that either but sometimes it's worth splashing out.
I get what you're saying but my point was the complete opposite of your first sentence.Where else are you going to see 5 McLaren F1s within feet of each other, one off Pagani Zondas in the car park, Rolls Royces in colour schemes only The Joker would choose, hear the wailing sounds of V10s climbing the hill and the President of the AA persuading us to slow down to save money and extend electric mileage capacity?
It's Goodwood, it's not going to be cheap to attract a billion pounds worth of automotive porn. Even multi-millionaires can feel hard done by there.
If you want 99p pints, go to Wetherspoons. Nowt wrong with that either but sometimes it's worth splashing out.
I'm loaded in Wetherspoons, but at Goodwood I couldn't feel further away from being loaded, pretending or not, their attitudes towards the great unwashed was just so obvious.
Even if they weren't being brazenly obnoxious about their wealth, it seemed that simply having that status made them particularly unpleasant. Perhaps my subconscious jealousy was popping up every so often, but it wasn't generally fun to be reminded that you can't be an actual part of it, really.
sahajesh said:
Wheee else in the world will you find an event like this, with the cars on display, drivers and others happy to talk and getting close to the cars from all ages and drivers.
If the cost is too much for a bit of food and a programme (that you don’t actually need), you’re free to go to Fast Ford at Santa Pod or wherever.
You're just not a part of it, not really, and you're reminded of that every second. If the cost is too much for a bit of food and a programme (that you don’t actually need), you’re free to go to Fast Ford at Santa Pod or wherever.
I'm alright for Fast Ford, sounds s
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