Tuesday 4th September 2007

Goodwood Revival

Piston Heads attend the prestigious historic race meeting

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an expensive grid

PistonHeads were at the Goodwood Revival over the weekend, enjoying some first-class racing featuring the fine and rare cars of the pre-66 era. As usual, Lord March attracted some legendary figures to the grid, from Sir Stirling Moss to Rowan Atkinson.   

The charm of the event was enhanced by the time-warped atmosphere, with no anachronistic vehicles allowed on site. Fifties-style shops and bands were dotted around, and the open paddock allowed spectators to get close to the cars. The crowd were encouraged to dress up, and there were some spectacular outfits to be seen. The races featured some of the most expensive historic cars in the world, most notably the TT Celebration, which had two Ferrari 250 GTOs and a Shelby Daytona Coupe Cobra, of which only six exist.

The whole event cultivates great enthusiasm for motor racing, and with good reason. It is a chance to see cars uncluttered with advertising racing wheel-to-wheel. Being older cars on cross-ply tyres, they slide dramatically through corners, and there is overtaking without the contact that is so prevalent in modern touring car driving. An unavoidable problem with the meeting is that the age of the cars means the circuit becomes doused with oil, causing accidents and race stoppages.

 In his drivers’ briefing, Lord March emphasised the theatrical nature of the event. Rules are loosened in the name of spectacle, and cars with unrealistic performance are allowed, in order to entertain the crowd. And entertained they are. How about seeing Derek Bell dice with John Whitmore in identically-liveried Mustangs, and Stirling Moss driving a multi-million pound Ferrari with the only surviving Lancaster Bomber flying overhead? You would be hard pressed to find better racing, especially for half the price of a Grand Prix ticket.

The vintage atmosphere continued to the end, when everyone walked onto the track for the prize-giving. Free champagne flowed, Marilyn Monroe kissed the winners, and almost everyone went home satisfied.

[Marc W]

I'd really love to go to this one day, but it always clashes with the BTCC and that has to come first for me.

Edited by Marc W on Tuesday 4th September 13:12

[speedster986]

I was there on Sunday and had a great day. Some fantastic racing with close finishes. Hilarious watching a mini cooper s dicing it with yank tanks in the touring car races. Was not to fussed with the 'authenticity' of the event before attending but seeing how it looks and the effort taking you can't help but smile - they even had a 50's hairdressers. Plenty of uber-expensive machinery including a row of aston martin dbr1's and 2 ferrari LM's. The car park was also even more spectacular than the festival of speed which is saying something. One for all the petrolheads!

[zac510]

Those Minis got whipped by the American cars!

[DavidLScott]

Having seen the last few laps of the BTCC on TV on Sunday afternoon I remarked to my wife about how sanitised and over-accomplished it was compared to what we had seen on Saturday at Goodwood. I would love to have seen the pre-66 cars over the hill at Knockhill.

We used to go to a fair bit of BTCC a few years ago but they are too good at what they do now and the sight of such fantastic cars sliding their way round Goodwood was superb. A completely different event to the FoS but I will now be going to both. Will have to dress up though as I felt out of place even in decent, but not period, clothes.

[FWDRacer]

zac510 said:

Those Minis got whipped by the American cars!

The first year it rains at the Goodwood Revival they won't. The yanks won't see which direction they went it...

[zac510]

That's true - it rained on Sunday last year and the St Mary's Trophy was a helluva race

[markh1]

I went on sunday and had a really enjoyable day. Dressed up as a driver - white boiler suit googles and flat cap. I covered my face and boiler suit in black crayon in the appropriate places. It was very realistic - had people taking pictures of me and when I was wondering the open top cars I got random people asking me questions like..."how long have you owned the car?" "what races have you done today?" etc etc
I was in the hospitality tents opposite on the straight just after the start line and I was very supprised at the lack of people in that area that dressed up - boring corporate types not wanting to risk damaging their ego's???

[andynormancx]

Erm, there are actually around 17 complete Lancasters left, two of which are still flying. One is PA474 of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight and the other is FM213 of the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_Lancaster

[M Powered]

Mint weekend!

No one on the circuit appeared to be "hanging around", including the open-wheel pre-war machines with no seatbelts!!...

Bit of a close call for a number of expensive motors following the Jag dropping its engine at Lavvatt bend. (sp?)

Anyone got any news on the driver of the Bizzarini that crashed around midday Sunday? The 'wire went dead' on the commentary following the release of the safety car?

[JADCampbell]

The driver of the Iso Bizzarini was injured, but apparently not seriously. Was taken to hospital for safety's sake. They only mentioned it about 2 hours after the accident, during the race with the old F1 cars.

Edited by JADCampbell on Tuesday 4th September 17:39

[gemini]

Thats why we didnt get attendance!

or a write up on the home page then

[kenthardy]

Marc W said:

I'd really love to go to this one day, but it always clashes with the BTCC and that has to come first for me.

Edited by Marc W on Tuesday 4th September 13:12

Errr wot???!!!

Reality check required - dodgem derby or serious cars? No contest!

[anonymous-user]

That depends if he is working in the BTCC though, if he isnt i have to agree.

What a wonderful weekend again, i was there running the Mercury Comet Cyclone that Andy Rouse and Nick Whale shared, both putting the car on the front row in their first outing in the car, it was Andy's first race on the historic tyres too. Sadly for Andy the Alternator failed in the assembly area, so he could only do a couple of laps with a misfire before entering the pits. Nick had 2nd in the 2nd race until it was red flaged, then finished the race 3rd, which was a great result.

I also ran Nick in the Whitsun Trophy in the little McLaren Chevrolet M1B, another superb race saw him finish 2nd just behind Ray Belm's GT40.

[anonymous-user]

JADCampbell said:

The driver of the Iso Bizzarini was injured, but apparently not seriously. Was taken to hospital for safety's sake.

Martin is home and relatively OK, with an arm injury. Hopefully he will be quickly on the mend and back out racing again soon.

[F355GTS]

There's some pics of Martin Stretton's crash at http://www.pbase.com/steephill/strettoncrash ........quite frightening and I'm happy to see his injuries were relatively minor


My pics of Friday and Sunday are on the Web at

http://www.collinsclan.co.uk/pages/Cars/revival200...

and


http://www.collinsclan.co.uk/pages/Cars/revival200...

[dandarez]

Martin didn't have a very good weekend - he went off in the Loti 26R on Saturday while leading -

highlight of that race though was the Ginetta G4 return to Goodwood.

seeing the tiny car with more curves than Marilyn Monroe take one of the Ferrari 275GTB/Cs twice on the same corner was magical.

Couple short Vids up on YouTube already.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRl9EN6Cjho

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDwLtNLvAQ0

[deviant]

Wow Martin Stretton certainly was a VERY lucky bloke to walk away from that one.

Is the car going to be restored?

[shouldbenicholas]

Was there Friday, my first revival.

Absolutely loved the event, the outfits, the smells/sounds of the older machinery - was a sense of occasion I haven't seen at any other motoring event.

Will be there next year, this time in tweed!!

[Eric Mc]

I'm sure the car will be fixed. I've seen worse "write offs" reappearing later.

[Marc W]

kenthardy said:

Marc W said:

I'd really love to go to this one day, but it always clashes with the BTCC and that has to come first for me.

Edited by Marc W on Tuesday 4th September 13:12

Errr wot???!!!

Reality check required - dodgem derby or serious cars? No contest!

Erm, I do work for various teams (Race reports, photos etc.) Thats why it has to come first.