Ok, so it happens every year, but it’s getting bigger and more interesting each upon each. Even the most jaded of motoring hacks will get a little bit excited at the prospect of the Goodwood festival of speed. There’s no better opportunity in the whole of the calendar to get up close and personal with such a broad variety if incredible vehicles, and to see them being driven to the limit. Call me old fashioned, but Goodwood does it for me every time. Get your tickets!
The Race Retro show has been getting better and better over the years, with everything the tweedy obsessive of all things automotive and old could wish for. This year as well as the usual gems from the history of British motorsport, from Mk 1 Cortinas to Formula 1 classics, the show is going a step further into the olden days by featuring an amazing range of truly significant Karts from way back in the day.
Karting is of course the grass roots motorsport par excellence – the great traditions of British racing flow from this oil soaked and fragrant root. So, it makes sense that karts should get their proper moment in the spotlight at a show like this.
Organises tell us that the display on the club’s stand will include a 1959 Keele Mk1/Bultaco, similar to the one raced by Sir Stirling Moss, which was restored for Sir Stirling’s 80th birthday celebrations at Goodwood. Also from 1959, a Progress Kart similar to one raced by Graham Hill in the first official British kart race at Lakenheath, Norfolk. There will also be a 1967 Cobra raced by Bobby Day and Mickey Allen, both former British Kart champions. The Cobra is one of only three built and has an unusual chassis design and steering arrangement taken from Ronnie Peterson’s Robardie kart. The final kart displayed is a 100cc Dale Scorpion. Built in 1963, it was Dale’s first class one kart and features an all-in-one integral seat, floor tray and petrol tank manufactured from fibre glass.
For the fast paced live action demonstration, around thirty karts from the humble 1960 Trokart to the 1970s Barlottis and the 140mph Yamaha 250cc twin powered Zips will be on the circuit, with one of Martin Hines’ Zip Hermites to be amongst the examples from that era.
We can almost smell the two stroke fumes from here.
It’s opening day here at the Goodwood Festival of Speed 2009. No matter how often you come to these verdant Sussex hills, and no matter how part of the annual motorsport circuit the event becomes, it keeps getting better.
The mugginess of the latest heat wave of the summer has passed, and even at 8 AM this morning, the punters were like bees round the honey pot (and mostly brandishing digital SLRs). The nectar they’re all here to gather are images of what must be the most complete collection of sports cars, supercars, racers and concepts — from the very beginnings of the twentieth century bang up to the present day.
On show and flying up Lord March’s mile-long hill climb. Highlights in terms of pure automotive loveliness for me so far include the incredible collection of 917 Porsches running here as part of the fortieth anniversary celebration of that classic, all conquering racer. Another top show was the 2008 Ferrari F1 car, the driver of which put on a terrifying power slide in the finish area of the paddock at the top of the hill (much to the crowd’s jubilation.)
A particularly intense early assault on the senses was the warming up of the pre-war Mercedes and Auto Union ‘silver bullets’. These stratospherically powerful testament to early modernism’s need for speed were almost disgustingly loud and brutal. The exhaust fumes belched with a physical force that had the punters running for cover. That’s the beauty of Goodwood. You can get up close and personal with priceless, rare and beautiful historic cars, chat with the owners, drivers and mechanics, and generally get to breathe the air as the people who run and cherish these icons of automotive history.
As well as the intimate paddock and the hillclimb, you can check out Rally icons like the Group B Ford RS 200 on the forest rally stage at the top of the hill and drool over other Group B monsters like Walter Rohl’s Quattro. Sebastian Loeb is on scheduled to put on his current world champ act, and our Jenson and Lewis Hamilton are due to take a ride up the hill on Sunday.
It’s unlike any of the other events of the summer. If you haven’t got your ticket for 2009 yet, don’t worry. Look out for a broader selection of pics from this event right here next week.
Vauxhall will use this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed to unveil the all-new, 325 horsepower Insignia VXR for the first time in the UK, and provide visitors with the chance to see two stunning historic concepts that have not been exhibited in public for many years.
The high-performance version of this year’s European Car of the Year winner will be displayed in the popular Supercar Paddock throughout the event, which runs from July 3 – 5, ahead of its official media launch the following week.
In time-honoured FoS tradition, the Insignia VXR – which has just completed a final 10,000 kilometre shakedown at the Nürburgring – will demonstrate its exceptional Adaptive 4X4 chassis twice a day at 9.00am and 1.25pm on Goodwood’s notoriously tricky hillclimb course.
Joining the Insignia in the Supercar Paddock will be Vauxhall’s most powerful production car ever, the supercharged, rear-wheel-drive, 6.2-litre V8-engined VXR8 Bathurst S Edition. Rumour has it that the Bathurst has been commissioned to create a new ‘Smoke Gets in Your Eyes’ display in front of Goodwood House, although this has been strongly denied by officials…
In pride of place on the Cartier lawn, just across the way from the latest VXRs, will be two historic Vauxhall concepts that have not been seen outside its Luton-based Heritage Centre for nearly two decades.
Originally shown at the 1966 Geneva Salon, the XVR was largely the work of David Jones, Vauxhall’s charismatic head of design in the 1960s. Featuring gullwing doors, pop-up headlights and all-independent suspension, the XVR’s unique dash treatment was used to test reaction to ideas he had for the later Firenza.
Joining the VXR will be another wholly in-house Vauxhall concept, the radical SRV (below). First shown at the 1970 Earls Court Motor Show, the sleek, imposing shape belies its four-door practicality. But with an aerofoil, electric self-levelling suspension and a ‘manometer’ to measure air pressure on the car’s hull, the SRV illustrated a very particular brand of period futurism.
Here’s hoping the Insignia’s success can underwrite the Luton based company’s future.
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