Has FoS grown too big?
Discussion
Anyone who laments not being able to see the action, not being able to mingle in the paddock & not being able to sit down and relax while enjoying the atmosphere needs to walk further up the hill & hang out at the rally stage.
You don’t get any closer to the action than having to put your hand over you beer to keep the dust out!
You don’t get any closer to the action than having to put your hand over you beer to keep the dust out!
I have a system of working my way round, perfected over about a decade, and it works pretty well to see most stuff and actually access some viewing spots. It did fail at 7.45 when the supercar paddock was already ridiculously busy, leading to another pinch point at the bridge near there.
I deviated slightly in the afternoon yesterday and I quickly saw how frustrating an event it can be.
Crossed at crossing point 9 to the 'house side' at about 2pm to see what the viewing was like there, despite the hill being closed for a further 20 minutes they shut the crossing... 'wait an hour or go down to the bridge'. You then have masses of people all winding their way down to the bridge which is in itself a fairly epic pinch point. I then started to head back up the hill to find some viewing, walked for a solid 20 minutes and couldn't even get sight of the hill. Had a grandstand pass and was turned away from 2 grandstands because they were at capacity, Flint Wall benches have never let me down but that area was busier than I've ever known it, carried on right to the top and it was still 4 or 5 deep all the way up. Brutal, effectively wasted well over an hour just walking, went over and watched the off-road shoot out instead.
With the top end being rammed they need to add facilities, there are no loos up there and one food outlet. Also I'm sure they had a mid-way bridge last year, but nothing this year, which is just piling more people down to the bottom.
Loved the rally stage, lovely and quiet, but at some point you want to see all the other stuff you've paid for.
I deviated slightly in the afternoon yesterday and I quickly saw how frustrating an event it can be.
Crossed at crossing point 9 to the 'house side' at about 2pm to see what the viewing was like there, despite the hill being closed for a further 20 minutes they shut the crossing... 'wait an hour or go down to the bridge'. You then have masses of people all winding their way down to the bridge which is in itself a fairly epic pinch point. I then started to head back up the hill to find some viewing, walked for a solid 20 minutes and couldn't even get sight of the hill. Had a grandstand pass and was turned away from 2 grandstands because they were at capacity, Flint Wall benches have never let me down but that area was busier than I've ever known it, carried on right to the top and it was still 4 or 5 deep all the way up. Brutal, effectively wasted well over an hour just walking, went over and watched the off-road shoot out instead.
With the top end being rammed they need to add facilities, there are no loos up there and one food outlet. Also I'm sure they had a mid-way bridge last year, but nothing this year, which is just piling more people down to the bottom.
Loved the rally stage, lovely and quiet, but at some point you want to see all the other stuff you've paid for.
It’s clear to me that at Goodwood, like every other ticketed event, it’s a better experience if you have some form of hospitality in your admission.
I’ve been to Wimbledon to watch tennis having won tickets in the public ballot. I’ve also been to a men’s final with hospitality. Same event. Different experience.
I first saw Springsteen at Villa Park in 88. We stood for ages and due to waiting- for hours- we were close enough to the stage to actually see Bruce.
Took my daughter to see him at Hyde Park a few weeks ago. The area close to the stage is premium. You can’t get close to it by arriving early. You pay for proximity. Quite a lot I’d imagine.
Goodwood is a better experience with access to the Le Mans cafe or even Kinrara. Of course it is.
The Lotus stand used to be tiny. And you were given soft drinks and what not on production of your key. That was over 20 years ago. Things change.
I’ve been to Wimbledon to watch tennis having won tickets in the public ballot. I’ve also been to a men’s final with hospitality. Same event. Different experience.
I first saw Springsteen at Villa Park in 88. We stood for ages and due to waiting- for hours- we were close enough to the stage to actually see Bruce.
Took my daughter to see him at Hyde Park a few weeks ago. The area close to the stage is premium. You can’t get close to it by arriving early. You pay for proximity. Quite a lot I’d imagine.
Goodwood is a better experience with access to the Le Mans cafe or even Kinrara. Of course it is.
The Lotus stand used to be tiny. And you were given soft drinks and what not on production of your key. That was over 20 years ago. Things change.
I've only ever been once, on a Thursday about 4 years ago after I was generously gifted the tickets from someone who couldn't go. Drove up and back on the day. I thought it was great, wasn't too busy, got to see everything pretty easily. Getting in and out was fine also as well as moving about.
Having seen a lot of the comments and videos from this one it does look busy enough to put me off going back anytime soon, but that's my issue and not theirs. I'm the same with the F1 at Silverstone now, it's just not worth the cost and hassle compared to sitting at home watching it in comfort.
It was a brilliant day out though and I'm very appreciative of being able to have gone and experienced it in person.
Having seen a lot of the comments and videos from this one it does look busy enough to put me off going back anytime soon, but that's my issue and not theirs. I'm the same with the F1 at Silverstone now, it's just not worth the cost and hassle compared to sitting at home watching it in comfort.
It was a brilliant day out though and I'm very appreciative of being able to have gone and experienced it in person.
I attended the first FOS after seeing it advertised in a classic car magazine. I was into classic cars when my mates were hankering after XR2s and the like, so this event was right up my street. Being close to the sort of machinery I'd only seen in books and magazines was great but seeing them driven in anger was even better. Not only that, I could see them being driven by their famous drivers.
I was delighted to see the event carried on the following year, so much so that I splashed out on so called VIP tickets giving me access to the Kinrara enclosure (this was before the GRRC was established), although I felt somewhat out of place.
I attended every FOS for about the next 20 years only missing one during that time for my honeymoon.
Eventually, kids came along and my attendance became sporadic. The wife wasn't enamoured with traipsing around with pushchairs and together with the high price of the tickets and refreshments, my enthusiasm waned.
The kids are now teenagers and are not interested at all in cars. Two of them are old enough to drive but don't wish to, even though they have a car at their disposal. I sometimes wonder whether Goodwood have missed a trick here, catering for families.
The FOS has moved with the times though and inevitably some things have changed. It must be difficult balancing the interests of multiple generations with varying spending capacity, whilst at the same time generating enough income to make a healthy profit in order to attract those corporate investors.
Ultimately yes, I think the FOS has become too big, certainly for those who have seen it grow.
I went last year to see if i could fall back in love with it. Strangely, I found the new car displays and the technology stands of more interest than the hill runs and competing cars.
The sheer volume of people meant I had to walk up the hill to guarantee any sort of view of the track. I don't see the point of watching it on the big screen - I can do that at home.
Although I enjoyed it, to me, it's become one of those events which I might attend once in a while, perhaps every five or ten years.
I now get my Goodwood fix from the Revival (although that's possibly going the same way) and the Members' Meeting which hopefully won't become too corporate.
I was delighted to see the event carried on the following year, so much so that I splashed out on so called VIP tickets giving me access to the Kinrara enclosure (this was before the GRRC was established), although I felt somewhat out of place.
I attended every FOS for about the next 20 years only missing one during that time for my honeymoon.
Eventually, kids came along and my attendance became sporadic. The wife wasn't enamoured with traipsing around with pushchairs and together with the high price of the tickets and refreshments, my enthusiasm waned.
The kids are now teenagers and are not interested at all in cars. Two of them are old enough to drive but don't wish to, even though they have a car at their disposal. I sometimes wonder whether Goodwood have missed a trick here, catering for families.
The FOS has moved with the times though and inevitably some things have changed. It must be difficult balancing the interests of multiple generations with varying spending capacity, whilst at the same time generating enough income to make a healthy profit in order to attract those corporate investors.
Ultimately yes, I think the FOS has become too big, certainly for those who have seen it grow.
I went last year to see if i could fall back in love with it. Strangely, I found the new car displays and the technology stands of more interest than the hill runs and competing cars.
The sheer volume of people meant I had to walk up the hill to guarantee any sort of view of the track. I don't see the point of watching it on the big screen - I can do that at home.
Although I enjoyed it, to me, it's become one of those events which I might attend once in a while, perhaps every five or ten years.
I now get my Goodwood fix from the Revival (although that's possibly going the same way) and the Members' Meeting which hopefully won't become too corporate.
It's worth mentioning that FoS was doing an actual moving motorshow years ago (a decade or so ago?!) I'd love to know when it was 'pure Motorsport', I'm guessing you'd need to go back 25 years.
A quick glance at my pictures from 2007 onwards (my first year) and also looking at the site map each year shows that it was way, waaaaay more road car / manufacturer focused back around that time than it is now. Thursday was literally road cars doing test drives up the hill at one point, Fridays had extensive road car batches on the hill at the expense of quite a bit of the motorsport stuff.
This year quite possibly had the smallest number of regular 'non performance' road cars on the hill that I can remember from Friday onwards, there was a time when you'd have an entire batch of regular Kia's and Toyota's on the hill.
Complain about many things, sure, but whilst I've no doubt the really early days were heavily motorsport focused, it's simply wrong to suggest that there has been a step change very recently, if anything it feels like in some respects they've gone back to those pre motorshow days, the colossal size of the event and expansion of hospitality areas aside.
A quick glance at my pictures from 2007 onwards (my first year) and also looking at the site map each year shows that it was way, waaaaay more road car / manufacturer focused back around that time than it is now. Thursday was literally road cars doing test drives up the hill at one point, Fridays had extensive road car batches on the hill at the expense of quite a bit of the motorsport stuff.
This year quite possibly had the smallest number of regular 'non performance' road cars on the hill that I can remember from Friday onwards, there was a time when you'd have an entire batch of regular Kia's and Toyota's on the hill.
Complain about many things, sure, but whilst I've no doubt the really early days were heavily motorsport focused, it's simply wrong to suggest that there has been a step change very recently, if anything it feels like in some respects they've gone back to those pre motorshow days, the colossal size of the event and expansion of hospitality areas aside.
Ian Wegg said:
The first Moving Motorshow was 2010.
Feels like only yesterday I was at the end of the tent when the Civic R took its detour.Like one of the posters above I remember the good old days when I was a schoolboy going on the Friday without any crowds and being feet away from the cars. I seem to recall Jeremy Clarkson was filming a programme with a blue Diablo the first time I went, maybe 1995?
Like everything it has evolved but I still get the same excitement seeing something new including the static classic Supercars on the lawn.
I remember this year very well....at this time it was possible to sign up to drive certain cars up the hill.
I arrived at the Honda stand to drive the Mugen Type-R to be met with ashen faces...and to be told I would not be able to take the car up the hill after all.
They were very coy about what actually happened and other than the car hitting a lovely E-Type I never did find out exactly what happened.
Never did get my drive up the hill though.
I arrived at the Honda stand to drive the Mugen Type-R to be met with ashen faces...and to be told I would not be able to take the car up the hill after all.
They were very coy about what actually happened and other than the car hitting a lovely E-Type I never did find out exactly what happened.
Never did get my drive up the hill though.
moffspeed said:
Irrespective of your attitude towards the contemporary event a gentle reminder of how it all started.
1993 and Salvadori/Brooks make tha ascent in a DB3S. The “crowd” watch on, protected by safety sticks and really tough tape.
Ahh yes, the Castrol tape with the strategically placed hay bales.1993 and Salvadori/Brooks make tha ascent in a DB3S. The “crowd” watch on, protected by safety sticks and really tough tape.
On the excitement point, if anything the fastest stuff is going way, waaaaaaaay too fast for some waist high hay and a bit of rope between it and a couple of hundred people at any given point. It's actually amazing to me that it can still run the way it is, I imagine there are some circuit owners who attend who look around and wonder how the hell there still aren't fences.
We're a freak incident or component failure away from the unthinkable. I wouldn't call it luck as I know they are particular about drivers in the shootout and do kill off true competition to stop it becoming an arms race (I'd be surprised if McMurtry didn't get a telling off for their dry 'demo' run).
Some moan about that, as winning cars aren't invited back or truly quick stuff is effectively banned, but I think ultimately that's a good thing if we want the hill in particular to continue looking the way it is.
We're a freak incident or component failure away from the unthinkable. I wouldn't call it luck as I know they are particular about drivers in the shootout and do kill off true competition to stop it becoming an arms race (I'd be surprised if McMurtry didn't get a telling off for their dry 'demo' run).
Some moan about that, as winning cars aren't invited back or truly quick stuff is effectively banned, but I think ultimately that's a good thing if we want the hill in particular to continue looking the way it is.
ch37 said:
On the excitement point, if anything the fastest stuff is going way, waaaaaaaay too fast for some waist high hay and a bit of rope between it and a couple of hundred people at any given point. It's actually amazing to me that it can still run the way it is, I imagine there are some circuit owners who attend who look around and wonder how the hell there still aren't fences.
We're a freak incident or component failure away from the unthinkable. I wouldn't call it luck as I know they are particular about drivers in the shootout and do kill off true competition to stop it becoming an arms race (I'd be surprised if McMurtry didn't get a telling off for their dry 'demo' run).
Some moan about that, as winning cars aren't invited back or truly quick stuff is effectively banned, but I think ultimately that's a good thing if we want the hill in particular to continue looking the way it is.
I completely agree.We're a freak incident or component failure away from the unthinkable. I wouldn't call it luck as I know they are particular about drivers in the shootout and do kill off true competition to stop it becoming an arms race (I'd be surprised if McMurtry didn't get a telling off for their dry 'demo' run).
Some moan about that, as winning cars aren't invited back or truly quick stuff is effectively banned, but I think ultimately that's a good thing if we want the hill in particular to continue looking the way it is.
I was absolutely amazed at Travis Pastrana’s run, it was right up there with Nick Heidfeld and Olly Solberg’s previous for being spectacular in the extreme.
However, it’s only down to the drivers absolute skill which is keeping these cars in the park.
One small mechanical failure?
As we saw, that errant wheel from the Mk 1 Jag could easily have been a whole different outcome.
LukeBrown66 said:
It was too big about 20 years ago.
I was lucky enough to attend when it was majority all pro drivers or legends int e cars
Now it tends to be a bit of that but also very rich men or their wives who have no idea how the drive the expensive cars they are driving, and are probably ruining them.
Also, I have see a guy in a 92 or 93 Benetton, I have seen that car several times and I have never seen it running properly, now either he is so thick he doesn't know which is perhaps close to the truth or doesn't care as he gets an invite etc etc.
Regarding crowds, it has always been bad, for me I would make people who want to take pictures as amateurs go somewhere in particular or at least have an area for people who actually live their lives, rather than spending the entire time holding up a bloody phone or even Ipad. It is annoying, ride selfish and all the lovely things you associate with modern people sadly.
It is a shame, as it is a great event in base terms, but March will do anything he can to squeeze every last penny out of the thing, I thankfully realised this about 20 years ago and haven't been since.
I was lucky enough to attend when it was majority all pro drivers or legends int e cars
Now it tends to be a bit of that but also very rich men or their wives who have no idea how the drive the expensive cars they are driving, and are probably ruining them.
Also, I have see a guy in a 92 or 93 Benetton, I have seen that car several times and I have never seen it running properly, now either he is so thick he doesn't know which is perhaps close to the truth or doesn't care as he gets an invite etc etc.
Regarding crowds, it has always been bad, for me I would make people who want to take pictures as amateurs go somewhere in particular or at least have an area for people who actually live their lives, rather than spending the entire time holding up a bloody phone or even Ipad. It is annoying, ride selfish and all the lovely things you associate with modern people sadly.
It is a shame, as it is a great event in base terms, but March will do anything he can to squeeze every last penny out of the thing, I thankfully realised this about 20 years ago and haven't been since.
Wow. So blinded by his own snobbery and vitriol he can't even see the world around him.
When I grow up, I don't want to be like you.
No, it hasn't grown too big. Evidently more and more people agree as attendances continue to grow.
Hopefully it will put off all the people who take the opposite view and they can attend a charity event with 40 cars on their local village green. Everyone will be happier.
Please, if you don't like it, don't come back and don't bore the rest of us with your moans about what is one of the finest events of its kind anywhere in the world.
Hopefully it will put off all the people who take the opposite view and they can attend a charity event with 40 cars on their local village green. Everyone will be happier.
Please, if you don't like it, don't come back and don't bore the rest of us with your moans about what is one of the finest events of its kind anywhere in the world.
I've been a GRRC member for so long they've given me a medal 
I go every year usually for two or three days and take a different family member, everyone I've taken seems to enjoy it. We have family in Farnborough, so we stay for a few days and have a family weekend.
We always leave their place at 6am and drive down via Petworth, into Car Park M by the Porsche stand, which takes an hour. As a GRRC member I park in the forward parking and have a two minute walk into the event at Molecomb.
No queues on the way in and usually only a few minutes queuing up to the traffic lights on the way home.
I always buy roving Grandstand tickets as it's great to have somewhere to sit down and watch as well as to shelter from the weather.
It's my favourite event of the year, nowhere else do you get such a variety of cars and people- and nobody is grumpy !
I go every year usually for two or three days and take a different family member, everyone I've taken seems to enjoy it. We have family in Farnborough, so we stay for a few days and have a family weekend.
We always leave their place at 6am and drive down via Petworth, into Car Park M by the Porsche stand, which takes an hour. As a GRRC member I park in the forward parking and have a two minute walk into the event at Molecomb.
No queues on the way in and usually only a few minutes queuing up to the traffic lights on the way home.
I always buy roving Grandstand tickets as it's great to have somewhere to sit down and watch as well as to shelter from the weather.
It's my favourite event of the year, nowhere else do you get such a variety of cars and people- and nobody is grumpy !
Maybe it's not too big, but it's perhaps a bit too busy.
Hypothetically I wonder if events like this could get away with having a day where they limit the number of people who can enter, but they charge a higher ticket price to balance the books, would folk pay more to have it less crowded? Obviously the traders wouldn't like this.
Hypothetically I wonder if events like this could get away with having a day where they limit the number of people who can enter, but they charge a higher ticket price to balance the books, would folk pay more to have it less crowded? Obviously the traders wouldn't like this.
The Gauge said:
Maybe it's not too big, but it's perhaps a bit too busy.
Hypothetically I wonder if events like this could get away with having a day where they limit the number of people who can enter, but they charge a higher ticket price to balance the books, would folk pay more to have it less crowded? Obviously the traders wouldn't like this.
The Members' Meeting is exactly this, and it's absolutely wonderful.Hypothetically I wonder if events like this could get away with having a day where they limit the number of people who can enter, but they charge a higher ticket price to balance the books, would folk pay more to have it less crowded? Obviously the traders wouldn't like this.
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