Better late than never! FoS!

[Lucky]

That is, Goodwood Festival of Speed thread I suck at time, it's only relative, y'know. Anyway, this'll be the first part, second installment to come later errr... when I get it done. Need to jog on with it really, I've been to two shows since then I need to sort the pics from. arrrgh

*cough* anyways...
Okay, let's try this one on for size then shall we? I'm sure there's no-one out there on any of the forums your humble scribe syndicates to (lol, as if) who isn't aware of the Goodwood Festival of Speed and what it's about. But for those who might have recently come back from a trip to the Pleiades (or those who spent their formative lives under the faraway glow of the Southern Cross) and therefore missed the last two decades...

In 1993 Lord March managed to fluke his way onto the perfect formula for an historic motorsport event and the first Festival stumbled blinking into the bright Sussex sunshine. Held in the grounds of his ancestral seat at Goodwood House, the event took the form of a hillclimb. That's it, the oldest and most grassroots form of motorised competition, but given a distinctly grandiose twist. Stymied from his true dream of re-opening the Goodwood racetrack that was so fondly remembered from his childhood, the Earl settled for the park road from below the House to the top of the hill on which the Racecourse stands. It so happened there was historical precedent for this; his grandfather Freddie March had held a similar event in 1936 on behalf of the Lancia Owners Club, of which he was a member, and which he also won in his Lancia Augusta. Accusations of unfair local knowledge have never publicly been reported...

Anyway, all Lord March had to do was persuade collectors of priceless competition machinery worldwide to release their vehicles for the weekend, and persuade a cornucopia of drivers and riders past and present to hang up their professional calendar and risk embarrassment and even injury thrashing said priceless collectibles up the extremely narrow drive past his house. So no challenge there then. How could it not work?

Of course it did, and twenty years later the Festival is one of the essential meetings on both classic and current sporting calendars, blessed with attendance from current Formula 1 teams... old ones too... motorcycle giants ancient and modern, aerobatic displays, one of the premier concourse competitions on the planet, celebrity culture a-plenty, the chance to see machinery normally secreted away in private collections or museums on the far side of the world... the list rolls on. There is literally nothing like it in the world, and it's no wonder that once visited, people go back year after year. And that goes for the paying public just as much the stars. Nowhere else will you find genuine megastars of their chosen sports willing to give up their time again and again, and almost every interview will consist of praise for the incredibly knowledgeable and enthusiastic crowd who are as much a part of the event as the fizz of champagne, the smell of Castrol R wafting between the trees and the howl of an unsilenced V16 barrelling towards the leafy sky between haybales and hazel poles...

...this is where I dispel the myth that all crowd members are knowledgeable and wise by proving myself anything but. I'll have a go, but please try not to spot too many bits shamelessly cribbed from the excellent programme notes, lol (£15 quid, mind, might as well get some use out of the bloody thing). Sitting comfortably? Trust me, this one's a stinkah. Come on in, then


For the last few years the way in to the Festival has led through the Moving Motor Show. This is essentially a humongous hangar where manufacturers lay out little plots of showrooms and punters can take a test drive on their current models. This, unfortunately, is the limit of my interest in the place, as I've as much interest in new cars as I have in learning to juggle turds. However, the building isn't always a complete write-off as some marques try to persuade you their current line-up isn't purely identikit eco-emasculated and enviro-strangled anonymous transport for people with no interest in motoring. They do this by staging heritage models of a more glorious past on their stands. This was a particularly lean year, mind you. The only things I felt motivate to photograph were this



Which is a simply lovely example of an original unadulterated XR2 that would have made anyone of my generation king of the Chipshop GP aged 17. And this;



Which is something I'd normally shy away from, being a hybrid. And we all feel the same way about Priusses, don't we? This, however, is the first ever functional hybrid, the snappily-named Lohner-Porsche Semper Vivus. Thos humongous front hubs contain the (steered, must have appalling gyroscopic precession!) electric motors and out the back are



two single cylinder DeDion engines, each producing a stump-pulling 2.5bhp. Coupled with the 2.7bhp from each motor that made a ripsnorting ten-and-a-bit horses capable of thrusting the 1200kg behemoth up to a speed of 22mph. Before the tyres gave up under the weight. But, this was 1901 and thus a pretty impressive achievement to be fair to Professor Porsche.

Anyway, leaving this impressive beast as reconstructed by the Porsche musuem and hurrying past the crowds of proles oooh and ahhhhing over the new Ferraris and various indistinguishable Audi saloons (differing only in the number of zeroes on the sticker price, seemingly) we get to what the FoS is/should be all about. A quick hike through the leafy paths, past the Cathedral Paddock and onto the green swards before the Stable Yard brings us to the Cartier Style et Luxe. This is a concourse refreshingly different to most, in that the judges are chosen to be people who appreciate art in automotive form, not people who mark a car on the authenticity of its brake pedal rubber pattern. The cars are usually breathtaking and rare, often unique, unarguably obscenely valuable both in historic and monetary terms. Set against the backdrop of a Sussex traditional flint stately home, it's a winning formula. Here, for example, is a Bugatti Royale. Yeah, one of the six ever made...



I always try to get to the S&L as early as possible as it gets rammed quickly, so many of my photos were of cars still covered in melting dew as the July sun was just rising above the shadowing trees. I had to keep popping back as they warmed up just to make sure I'd got everything. Sadly, you'll just have to wait until the end to see the pics, as I like to end on a high point and for me that's the top of the shop.

Still, speaking of high points, Gerry Judah manages to come up with a fresh sculpture to grace the Carriage Circle lawn outside the House every year. Each year is a closely-guarded secret until the Festival opens, and each one is breathtaking in its own right (though the Jaguar made from sewer pipes was maybe a downwards blip from my humble point of view, lol). This year, the 50th anniversary of a certain squashed Beetle was the inspiration. Coupled with the teutonic efficiency and engineering excellence behind the 911s parent company, the draftsman's dividers seemed a logical plinth from which to hang some of Stuttgart's finest



OK, I think we've set the scene enough to keep you interested. Since we're saving the Style et Luxe for later, shall we wander off to the west of the stables and down into the canopied shade of the Supercar Paddock for a quick nose about?



...well, to be fair you don't get a much quicker nose than the one on the new Aventador. Arf. The supercar paddock has become pretty significant for the manufacturers over the years. It's often where new models debut in the UK, it's that important. Some marques also bring one-offs and special editions to show off as well. Such as;



the Aston Martin CC100 concept, celebrating the marques' centenary. This is a bonkers little roadster evoking the early DBR2 and 3 open-topped competition cars



but given a modern twist, recognisable historic and current styling cues, and up-to-date construction. Like, how much carbon would you like?



Oh, all of it? OK then



A closer inspection revealed that the "doors" were merely vestigial Gerry Anderson-style bars atop a gaping hole. I'm sure the aerodynamicists have rubber stamped it, but I'm not sure how comforting this strategy would be in a crash. Or a thunderstorm, for that matter.



Cockpit is another rhapsody in carbon, with modern multifunction dash but also heritage touches such as tooled leather. I have a lot of like for this car. If I was in the market for an obscenely expensive trackday frippery I'd have this over a Crossbow all day long. Lottery win dependant, clearly...



Aston did also bring some more restrained and common vehicles to show off, as well. Such as the Vantage S in a fetching shade of...



....errr, not quite sure exactly what they were aiming for there, actually. Anyway, at least they have the decency to use real carbon in the detailing of the vents. More on that later



actually, let's address it now, shall we? As we all know, fake carbon is a sin against god and nuns and kittehs die every time someone sticks farbon sheet on their M*x-ed up motor. So what the actual hell makes someone like Ferrari think it's acceptable? Like, they make the entire damned cars out of the stuff, are you telling me they couldn't stretch to making the engine beauty panels out of the real stuff. It was funny as well that there were two models side by side (couldn't tell you which, sorry, not bothered) and one had the farbon and one normal Ford-spec black plastic beauty trims. I wonder what the price difference was. At least the plastic was honest...



Rather nice wheels on it though. Mmmm, better



Ferrari weren't the only guilty ones, mind you. This Jaguar, for example, had presumably eye-wateringly expensive carbon ceramic brakes on it. And farbon trim pieces on doors, wing vents, etc etc. Like, WTF is going on? It's wrong. Stop it



The Jaguar Project 7 cab next door went some way to atoning, mind. It's a bit lovely



and at least it had real carbon in the wheels. Grrr, farbon. I'm enraged again just thinking about it, lol



The supercar paddock, perhaps unsurprisingly, is one of the more popular attractions and generally gets insanely busy. For this reason I try to visit there as early as possible, too, but on this occasion it took so long with the Style et Luxe that it was already pretty busy. I gave up on some cars rather than waste my time waiting for a clear shot. Madness. You stand in a throng eight deep and shuffle your way forward like the zombie apocalypse, till you get near the front, pick out a shot... press the shutter...and.... some horrible ugly buffoon wanders right in front, finger outstretched towards some fascinating detail, socks pulled firmly up within brown sandals, kagool clutched over one arm (well, it might rain), authentically weathered F1-team-of-your-choice baseball cap still retaining enough LSD colour splurge to clash with everything else within a five-mile radius. You, sir, are ruining my life. So that's why there are a lot of detail shots here and not many wide panoramas, lol. Here are some Bentley noses, you don't need to see the entire car, they're all identical more or less since the relaunch.



As if by way of proof, some details...



Maserati carbon bonnet is the real deal. Proper stuff. Bulbous manifold is very errrm. Organic



One car that I feel is actually rather more palatable for being a disjointed series of detail shots rather than the overall car is....



the Pagani Huarya. Which still sounds like regurgitation to me, anyway. I've wittered on about this before, how in isolation every single component is amazing,



gorgeously sculptured, made from the most exotic and expensive of materials,



absolutely the pinnacle of design indulgence and expression, combined with performance excellence,



a rhapsody in carbon and titanium and all sorts of rare elements melded into one-off automotive pornography.



But, and it's a big but, sweet baby Cheebus, the overall car is goppingly ugly. I mean, really, indescribably, bottom-feeder-in-a-truck-accident ugly. The only way to make it even more unappealing than the standard silver is clearly to paint it in random Italian flag tricolore stripes that neither follow any of the lines of the bodywork nor hide the distorted grotesqueness of it. Fail.



I mean, I'd probly still have one, like, you understand. It'd do. Spyker prove year after year that the cray-sshhy Dutch reputation for doing their own thing continues unabated



A little-publicised debut was the Sin R1, a car I know shamefully little about. I can tell you that I think it features an LSx engine, but then what doesn't? It'd be easier to list the makes of car that haven't seen an LS lump at some point than those that have. However, mated to Porsche transmission and tubular chassis/carbon-composite tub it's alleged to be 200mph capable. It certainly looks the part, albeit strong Enzo overtones in there?



Apparently a German/British collaboration, the Sin wasn't the only thing to feature significant componentry from Stuttgart's finest. Ruf usually bring along one of their toys each year, this year was the Incredible Hulk



More farbon. What, like you couldn't source the bonnet emblems from the same guys who laid up the rest of the bodywork, then? Weird stuff is weird



Under the skin you start to realise they're probably well justified in painting it such a lairy colour. This is the automotive equivalent of a Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster



Enough imitators and exploiters, lets go right to the source



Porsche themselves gave a UK debut to the new 918 Spyder here. Shockingly, it actually doesn't look exactly the same as every other Porsche ever. (Me and Clarkson agree on almost nothing. That's one of the crossovers right there). This is a hybrid too, but a bit friskier than the Lohner-Porsche. This one makes 875 bhp...



Interior has fallen prey to a severe infection of chavvy taste bypass, sadly. Maybe the target audience still love their red braces, but I can't excuse the livid yellow piping. Fail.



Face of robotic owl found sculpted into new Porsche 918 rear deck shock



Cruelly, considering they've been a staunch presence at the Festival since their launch, the Koenigsegg Agera didn't even get a mention in the programme. Which is a shame, cos it's one of my personal favourites



Everything a supercar ought to be: barking mad engine, insane powerz,



top-notch componentry all round



enough shock and awe inside and out to guarantee bedroom wall poster material in a hundred countries, basically styling to die for,



...and most importantly of all, the rear reflector/reversing light assembly from a Mazda RX-7 FD. This is actually true, and gives me a lovely warm feeling every time I see it

[Lucky]

Another car I can't help taking pics of every little section and detail is the Aventador



It's mainly because every line, scoop, vent, swoop and widget seems to magically pull off being full of shock, awe and interest both in isolation and as a whole (Pagani designers, you watching?)



Even the humble petrol filler (something I'm guessing you see a lot of if you own one) has been thought about by someone, and has a personality all its own, yet manages to merge in with the car perfectly



The headlight seems to be full of dilithium crystals or magic krptonite rods or some other sort of witchcraft



Strangely, the interior is actually the most subdued bit of the car, though I've a lot of time for the aircraft-style caged switches. Funky



and not forgetting, of course, wheels like a giant spider cast in unobtanium alloy.



So somehow whilst looking broadly like every other Lamborghini since the Countach, it still manages to also look fresh, unique, and of course pant-wettingly gorgeous and desirable. Which is not a bad trick to be able to pull off in anyone's money



At the opposite end of the spectrum we have the ground occupied by Lexus, who seemingly want to make their LFA look like the most anonymous way you can spend 300K. Many people deride it as being a glorified Toyota with all the panache of that most dour and economical eco-conscious of shopping trolleys...



...but I think that's underselling the car. The more I look at LFAs the more they speak to me, to sound pretentious and arty for a moment. It's a bit like a Syd Barrett solo album; at first listening it seems like the disjointed ramblings of a lunatic, but the more you listen the deeper you get into realising it is in fact a genius-like melding of Virginia Woolf stream of consciousness, James Joyce melancholy and haunted English whimsy torn from a fracture in art accessible only by a truly esoteric mind. The LFA is like that. If you can't see it then I'd recommend a course of LSD



Y'see? You're not going to get the sheer joie de vivre whipcrack energy of this sort of line from a bloody Toyota Prius, now are you?



McLaren had a couple of cars, although they had an entire paddock to themselves (more later). That didn't stop their entries to the supercar paddock being mobbed. This was the best I could do...



This was the Sprint version of that car that's named after a Casio calculator. I think that means it's a "trackday" special with loads of stuff missing but with an inflated price tag. I could be wrong



A new feature in the supercar paddock seemed to be this giant turntable. Every so often a flunky would change which car was on it so us punters could watch it slowly rotate and get our oohs and ahhs out of it. Here's a Noble M600 hogging the limelight



Which was just as well, since all my attempts to photograph it in its bay had come down pretty much to this...



and I happen to think it's a very pretty car so I took one of its bum as well



Some dude would witter on over the tannoy about each car for a bit, but that felt a bit too much like being at school, so I ignored him. And learned nothing. You're only cheating yourself, you know. After a while the Mercedes SLS gullwing took centre stage, showing off its party piece doors



Whilst this was a useful gimmick for a bit, the fact they swapped cars only every twenty minutes or more meant we'd have had to spend all day there to see them all. So we didn't



Finally Spain has a supercar to call its own again after the sad return to the truck world of the Hispano-Suiza enterprise. The GTA Spano is a proper supercar with an eight litre V10 to thrill and evocative lines to seduce



The Ferrari SP12 EC was here, proving that even great hallowed names like Ferrari and Pinifarina can still get it horribly wrong at times



Based on a 458 Italia with bodywork adulterated from the 512 BB and designed as part of the One-Off Programme for Eric Clapton, this car apparently has several top-secret developments hidden within and cost a reported 4.8 million US$. Shocking. I've never forgiven Clapton for all that awful loose guitar string slapping that blighted the Pros and Cons of Hitch-hiking, personally. This does not go any way to redeeming him



There was a one-off there that did speak volumes to me, though, and those who've heard me rant on about French cars will know it must be something superb indeed to make me soften my stance. However, gentle reader, I give you... a Peugeot



Can't tell you a thing about it, sadly, no idea what engine or chassis it runs (even whether it has an engine) but it certainly looks most excellent. The use of patinated brass panels and high-tech gizmos made for a brilliant overall look in my opinion. Such as these reversing camera "mirrors" for example



Projector lights nestle in semi-polished, semi-verdigrised copper. Good for reflections, too. Excellent car, love it. Worryingly, it's not even the only Peugeot I felt moved to photograph either!



Rolls-Royce were another debutant in the Supercar paddock, choosing to unveil the new small-sized Wraith here;



Well, it's small for a Rolls anyway. The car's not the only thing that's shrunk either, the Spirit of Ecstasy is an almost-vestigial shadow of her former glory



Interior looks to be as nice a place as you'd expect, with millimetre-perfect alignment of the woodgrain veneers



No gearstick concept is a bit disconcerting. i-drive Bimmer-style multifunction widget does everything you'd apparently need. Except keep your attention focussed on the road... Cupholders look like they'd have the most satisfying action of any cupholder you'd ever use, lol. Weird leather is weird. Is that ostrich or something?



But wait, what's this? No, not the Fisher-Price clock (though that'd enrage you having to look at that on a car this expensive wouldn't it? My six-year old has more convincing dials on his toy car). Yep, it's more Farbon. Angry now

[Lucky]

Next to the Supercar Paddock is the Laundry Green (yeah, you need a separate annexe just for laundry when your house is this large, apparently). Every year there's a little mini-themed display here, and this year it was dedicated to McLaren, it being 50 years since Bruce McLaren started the company that bears his name and has been at the forefront of motosport ever since. Ron Dennis has always brought top schmutter to the Festival since its inception, and there is of course an especially poignant connection between McLaren and Goodwood as Bruce McLaren was killed in 1970 whilst testing his Can-Am car at the Goodwood Circuit just up the road



They really pushed the boat out for this display: giant TVs with McLaren biopics and historical racing documentaries running, commentary, plinths with significant cars on display... even the McLaren coffee bar was very good and the wife enjoyed their sandwiches. Perhaps pride of place was taken by the debut of the new P1 supercar, but every single photo I took sucked massively. You can see a bit of it in this one of the MP4-12c though. Yeah, I'm rubbish



Rather better photographed is the M8m a car built to compete in the ferocious Can-Am series. At a time when they were approaching 1000bhp, the M8 made around 740 from its Chevy V8, but the F introduced titanium and magnesium into its construction and weighed in at only 700kg-ish with fluids and made considerable advantage from McLaren's instinctive understanding of aerodynamics, exhaustive testing and inspirational mechanical team.



This was the car that an the final year (1971)of McLaren's domination of Can-Am, winning just about every race (8 out of 10). It ran with the integral "batmobile" wing rather than the huge overhead one mounted on fragile bodywork that is believed to have been a contributing factor to McLaren's fatal crash



There were one or two other things of interest here, for example, a longtailed F1 GTR seen here still being polished by a flunky



and what I imagine is last years' F1 car. I don't follow or have any real interest in F1 so I dunno what it is exactly.



What I do find fascinating is all the engineering solutions that go into one. It's about all those details again! This is a good chance to have a close-up and reasonably private nose around what is supposed to be the pinnacle of motorsport design. In the F1 paddock at the Festival you can't get anywhere near the current cars. Carbon brake ducting is nice...



I'm sure every single swoop, vent and nobble on this wing serves some purpose to aerodynamic efficiency. It certainly makes for a fascinating object



So, after my very nice McLaren-branded Americano and the wife's equally nice McLaren-branded BLT we wended our way through the leafy shade of the giant estate Lime trees down into the startling open space of the Cathedral Paddock. This was opened around 2000 or so to cope with the increasing size of the Festival and accommodate the overspill from the main paddock. I love the Cathedral Paddock; it always seems to have the best cars (IMHO) with sportscars and "real world" cars, vintage stuff and mad eccentricities. It's also consistently less busy than the Main paddock, and thus makes the job of getting close to the exhibits and more importantly, taking a good photo, easier. By way of illustration, even the non-exhibit shop trucks are pretty fine



You'd be pretty pleased with that Stepside at any other show, after all! Right, on witht he exhibits. Alfa Romeo always bring plenty of glory to the FoS, as befits one of the oldest racing marques. From the "humble" GTA



to the achingly beautiful but awkwardly-named 8C 2900B LeMans Coupe



Alfa's Musee Storico always spoil the punters with a breathtaking selection of cars. In fact, I could fill an entire thread with shots of the LeMans coupe



not only are the overall lines absolutely wonderful



but all the little details and styling features are too



This car had built up a frankly ridiculous 100-mile lead at the 1938 LeMans before being brought down by technical problems. How very Italian



Just one more, then and we'll move on, promise



How about an Alfetta Tipo 159. The straight-eight was devised by Enzo Ferrari in an attempt to combat the overwhelming German competition cars, and took the '50 and '51 drivers championships. It also made it onto the cover of the Festival Programme this year



Comes complete with nonchalantly cool minder from the Musee Storico sitting on the wheel! Only an Italian... on which note, only an Italian single-seat open car would have such a beautifully upholstered interior!



Here's an old 'un, the Alfa Tipo B



This car, in 1934, was the first centre-line single-seater in competition and proved extremely successful with it's 8-pot supercharged 2.7 litre. Personally, I love the patination on it



It's the sort of marvellous wear that only comes from something being extremely old and used hard



Of course, Alfas weren't the only red Italian thoroughbreds in here...



The Maserati 450S is all-ends-up beautiful from any angle. This car started as the 350 that Stirling Moss and Denis "Jenks" Jenkinson contested in the 1956 Mille Miglia. After crashing it in the mountains, it became the testbed prototype for the 450. And even this isn't an end to the Rosso Red icons...



Johnny-come-lately marque Ferrari was pretty well represented, not least with Nick Mason's gorgeous 250GTO. This was driven by his wife on the hillclimb, the both of them being staunch FoS supporters since the beginning. Nice to see such a rare and valuable car being used as it was intended, but in a way it's not all that rare in this company. Yeah, so there were only 39 ever made and yeah, it's some sort of collector car acme but it's rubbing shoulders here with cars that are genuinely unique. That's a thought that's hard to get your head round, an "ordinary" 250GTO!



It wasn't even the only 250 either, next door was a rather lovely GTS SWB/C. Sir Stirling Moss won the Goodwood Tourist Trophy in this very car in 1961



Going back a bit further was this '50 166MM Barchetta. This Michelotti-styled and Touring-built model was a mainstay of sportscar endurance racing for years, and this particular example, driven by owner Sally Mason-Styrron, was the very first car ever up the FoS hillclimb in 1993



This 312PB used the flat-12 engine from the then-current F1 car and won every sportscar world Championship race it entered!



The 512S launched in 1970 and managed to win at Sebring at took 4th and 5th at LeMans but had the misfortunate to be up against the insanely fast Porsche 917s. Born at the wrong time, lol



..and speaking of Porsche sportscars, this year marks the 50th anniversary of the 911 and you couldn't visit almost any class without finding one in some flavour or other. This is one in proper Safari Rally trim. You wouldn't want one running over your foot...



One of Germany's automotive strengths has always been its ability to make effective competition cars from the most unlikely of sources, hence such greats as the bonkers 3.0 CSL Batmobile



This particular car won the 1973 ETCC, wresting it away from the mighty Capri, won the Spa 24 Hours that year and its class in LeMans



Despite being a big fan of American muscle cars, I tend to fall into the trap of dismissing their sporting heritage as confined to turning left twice a lap in 800bhp shopping cars... and then of course you see a few things that remind you there's much, much more to the States' motorsport contribution. For example, there's the small matter of these



Everyone knows the story of how Ford built the GT40 specifically to beat Ferrari after Henry Ford had been stymied at buying his way to sporting heritage by il Commendatore. This is the very GT MkII that crossed the line first at the head of a Ford 1-2-3 at LeMans in 1966. Co-driven by Chris Amon and Bruce McLaren (him again). Perhaps equally iconic (and with an equally British connection to the GT40 which were designed and built by Lola in Darkest Bromley) is this little number;



Carroll Shelby's inspired concept of wedging a beastly Ford V8 into an already-proven but underpowered AC Ace chassis gave us the Cobra, and immortality was assured. This is an early car with "only" a 289 cubic inch motor (4.7 litres!). They later grew to a truly beastly 428 ci. Less well-known an American open-top sportster is the Cunningham C6R;



The excellently-named Briggs Cunningham had the dream of winning LeMans in a car bearing his name, and came close with his C4R in'53 and '54, finishing third. The C6R was ludicrously fast, pushed along by a 3-litre Offenhauser engine running methanol, but sadly failed to finish in '55



This next car is what many people would think of as a fast American car, I guess. This Camaro GT raced in Trans Am competition before coming to Britain to run in the BTCC in 1968 and even won in 1972 before it was shipped down to Australia. Where it continued to win. Who says Yank cars don't handle? A truly well-travelled car this one!



A preposterous concept for a sportscar is the Galaxie, buoyed along on the principle that if something's worth doing it's worth overdoing. These massive beasts are well worth watching on a racetrack, especially in the saloon class at the Revival where oddities of definition of what constitutes a "saloon" sees them monstering Mini Coopers about the size of their bootlid!



A more modern take on brute strength was represented by the Coyote-Chevrolet Corvette



These compete in the current US Rolex Sports Car series. Don't make the mistake of associating these with overpowered, under-handling chest wig chariot Corvettes of yesteryear; this is a proper mid-engined spaceframed purebred



One of the most legendary motorsport events in America is the Pike's Peak hillclimb, held up the Rocky Mountains. Rod Millen, one of New Zealand's finest exports and legendary rotary racing hero, held the record for years in this spaceframed turbo Toyota Tacoma "based" "pickup".



Despite the old boy getting on a bit now, he still has to clamber in through a two-foot by one-foot hatch in the roof (there are no doors and a centre driving position in a carbon tub) and he still drives it like he absolutely hates it. He regularly troubles the top of the FoS leaderboard, having held the fastest time overall at least once. He crashed this a bit this year, then jumped into an electric car to set a blistering time in the group winners shootout. He crashed hard last year after the Tacoma went on the grass. True to his all-out-attack style, he kept his foot planted and it was only when the nearside tyre got back onto the tarmac and "caught" traction that the tankslapper finally caught up to him. Awesome. True legend, especially at 62!



Of course, no British motorsport event would be complete without some British representatives. How about the unmistakeable nose of an XK120?



to give it its full name the XK120 "Montlhéry" FHC, in fact. This car was driven by Jack Fairman, Leslie Johnson and Stirling Moss (him again!) at an average of over 100mph for seven days and nights in 1952, driving non-stop day and night to give Jaguar a world endurance record and priceless PR material



I love the way the beauty of the lines in no way prevented practicality being applied. Need a quick-release fast-filling fuel cap for an endurance record attempt? No problem, bung one on an alloy plate and attach it to the bodywork with pop-rivets. I always found the coupe roofline slightly awkward compared to the droptops but in this bronze for some reason it seems to work



The XK120 wasn't the only quick Jag in the Cathedral. There were a breeding pair of Silk Cut XJRs from the halcyon days of Group C racing nestling in one corner. This is the XJR 8/9 which won the '87 and '88 World Sports Prototype championship. Today it relived past glories as Justin Law took it to the fastest time of the Festival up the hillclimb, driving an inspired run full of barely-controlled aggression



and why is it, by the way, that almost everything looks best when it's painted in the livery of either booze or fags? Damn you, censorship. Damn you, I say! Here's the later XJR 9 developed from the earlier car, and winner of the '88 LeMans.



Plenty of other rare Jags here, too. Pre-empting the current trend for "re-imagined" E-Types was the Lightweight Concept developed as a direct answer to the 250GTOs



and the very original prototype D-type that was the development mule for Jaguar's domination of sportscar racing culminating in three consecutive LeMans wins



No matter how many times you see that classic XK twin-cam shape with gaping bellmouths (and it's been in a LOT of cars, let's be fair) it never gets dull



One of racing's cruellest stillbirths next, the incomparably beautiful XJ13. This is simply one of the most beautiful objects in the world, not just in car terms but in the context of any man-made object. Makes my eyes water just to look at it



Sadly, it never got to race. Perhaps just as well for the artisans who would have had to hand-make such gorgeous curves every time it caught a barrier or a nudge



The fuel injected four-cam 5-litre V-12 is not only one of the most wonderful-looking engines ever under it's glass rear screen, but also sounds absolutely fantastic. Hard to photograph properly well though



At the total opposite end of the spectrum is the blunt instrument of the Broadspeed XJ12C that bludgeoned its way through the ETCC in '76 and '77. They had massive power (around 560bhp) and stiffened chassis but still ran with walnut dash and power windows! Sadly, reliability proved their Achilles heel, despite several poles their potential was never realised due to failures.

[Lucky]

Jaguar weren't alone in representing past British manufacuring glories, of course. Here's the DB3S that was (I believe) a fair part of inspiration behind the centenary special CC100, driven by FoS regular Tony Brooks



and the achingly gorgeous Project 214, a car that was hoped to recapture Aston's former WSCC glories (it had last won in '59. This car bravely failed at LeMans in '63 and '64 but won the Inter-Europa Cup at Monza. Perhaps more interesting than its racing history is the sheer loveliness of its shape. I tell you, it's easy to run out of superlatives in a place like this!



And another British icon, the humble... in this company... Lotus Cortina. Perhaps a car many of us can relate to rather more than the exalted company all around it. This car is also celebrating its 50th birthday this year



Sharing the pie-plate rear lights of the MkI Cortina, but with very little else in common was this rather unusual oddity;



from the front it's relatively unassuming, the nice swoopy lines of a late 60s sportscar reveal little of the madness within. Which actually consists of a helicopter gas turbine engine. This is the Howmet TX that set a 194mph speed record at Talladega and raced at both Brands Hatch and LeMans



Not every dashboard is as well laid-out as this, nor do many require gauges for "Power Turbine" and "Gas Producer Turbine" pressure and outputs!



Part of the theme of this years' FoS, in keeping with the 20th Anniversary, was "Previous Festival Favourites" and this one's a surefire winner;



Named after its creator, the Milliken MX1 was promptly nicknamed the "Camber Car". Built to explore the outer limits of cornering via extreme wheel geometry, it could generate 1.3G of cornering force without any aerodynamic aid whatsoever. And you thought your tucked wheel stance was righteous, eh?



It runs on a two-stroke outboard motor, and uses a VW transaxle. From such humble beginnings... Perhaps my favourite part is the cockpit, though, which is so delightfully of it's time. Ribbed leather FTW!



On the subject of Festival favourites, making their own repeat appearances were a pair of proper old school hairy-chested 60s American dragsters, Rat Trap



and Pure Hell


Both Austin Bantam Roadsters (yeah, right) and Fuel Altered dragsters running nitromethane, they have one gear so it's simply a case of how hard you can hang on!



Pure Hell's supercharged Hemi fires it up the quarter mile in 6.1 seconds at a terminal of 238mph. And still manages to look immaculate and awesome even stood still



Lest we forget, one of the odder entries is a reminder that it's not just the superpowers of Germany, Britain, Italy, etc that have contributed to keeping racing fresh and innovative over the decades



Yep, a 1949 Skoda Sport using a supercharged 1.1 litre four-pot, these were very successful cars in domestic competition. Endearingly cute too, lol



The Cathedral Paddock is also home to ancient behemoths, the earliest relics from sport and speed records. Such as this recently resurrected legend...



BABS, or to give her her more official name, the Thomas Special, was a 1923 speed record car built originally by the legendary eccentric Count Zabrowski as "Chitty Bang Bang IV", it was originally called the "Highham Special". Powered by an extremely sensible 27-litre Liberty aeroplane engine, it developed between 5oo and 600 bhp. It was run by John Parry-Thomas to 171mph on Pendine Sands where it tragically crashed hard in 1927, killing Thomas. At the time it was thought he was killed by the final chain drive breaking, but it was later discovered to be untrue and the chain likely broke after the car was already in the crash. BABS was left on Pendine Sands, buried in a salty grave beneath the silica, and was unearthed 42 years later by Owen Wyn Owen, an engineering lecturer from North Wales. The magic of cathodic electrolysis meant the salt grave had horribly corroded all the alloy parts, but this had protected the steel in the car, and it was remarkably well preserved. Now restored to former glory, the thing makes an impressive sight clobbering the Goodwood Hill



BABS isn't the only speed record car here, as always these pioneers are well represented. Many were in a static display on the Goodwood Cricket Pitch, but this beast always impresses;



A 1907 grand prix racer rebuilt in 1923 as a speed record car, the immense Fiat "Mefistofele" set the last speed record to be recorded on a public road, 145. 89mph at Arpajon in France. Fantastic wear and patination again!



Sitting behind what seems like a four-foot diamter steering wheel, back in those early days the pilot probably never even worried that the floor was wood, and so indeed was the "firewall" separating him from the not-insubstantial 21.7-litre six-cylinder engine!



all of which must have really upset René Thomas, who set a speed record at Arpajon of 143.31mph at the wheel of this V12 Delage... only for Mefistofele to trump him a week later! All cars used to have string-covered wheels and doorbell switches back then, lol



No discussion of aero-engined monsters would be complete without one of my personal favourites



The Napier-Railton from Brooklnads Museum. Powered by a 23-litre W-12 Napier Lion engine, this is the fastest car ever around the Brooklands Long Circuit (at a frankly prepsoterous AVERAGE 143.44 mph!), and set 47 speed records in the '30s



I love the chance to poke around these very early motoring pioneers, and see how much has changed over the years. For example, this Mercedes "Grand Prix" from 1908 brings home just how little brass is used in modern engines...



Massive 12.8 litre engine used only the four cylinders to achieve that displacement, and must have fired on alternate lamposts! You probably didn't want to get a finger caught in one of those valve springs!



Spark plugs I recognise, the plumber's nightmare of the fuel system is rather harder to fathom



The Avions Voisin C6 Laboratoire, besides having a preposterous name, has great historical significance because it was the first true monocoque racer. Made back in 1923, its advanced design was let down by the poor Voisin engine, and reliability proved elusive



Aeronautical design heritage duly observed in kitsch motif



No discussion of pre-war GP cars is complete without a Bugatti Type 35, of course, the definitive privateers special and winningest car of its time. Plenty of innovation made these a success; the alloy wheels, roller-bearing crank, etc. This 35C is nicely worn and used-looking...



...in stark contrast to the neighbouring Type 59 which is just immaculate and perfect in every respect.



The Type 59 signalled an end to Bugatti's glorious GP domination, as the Silver Arrows of Germany re-wrote the rulebooks shortly after. This car normally adorns a museum plinth, and rightly so. Perfect is a word not to be used lightly, but I couldn't find a single flaw on it



Ettore Bugatti was famously prompted to snub the Bentley 4.5 litre as "the fastest lorry in the world" and placed alongside the elegant lightweight Type 59 maybe he had a point. But they do look mighty fine nonetheless and their list of achievements needs no justification.



and a decade later another famous marque came up with a shape that looked even better in British Racing Green. This 1939 Lagonda V12Le Mans is another stalwart of the FoS. "Old Number 5" was prepared by WO Bentley himself for competition and won its class at LeMans, finishing third overall. A second Lagonda V12 was fourth



And it's another one of those cars where every line, curve and proportion is just perfect. Along with the Jaguar XK13, I think this is one of those shapes that simply cannot be bettered in any way. Absolute, utter splendour



Occupying the opposite end of the ethos to Bentley's rather Americanistic "no substitute for cubes" philosophy (WO himself disliked the Blower Bentleys that everyone else seemed to love so much, believing that if the car wouldn't go fast enough then the engine needed to be bigger, not force-inducted) is this superb Delage 15 S8



The 1.5 litre straight-eight supercharged engine is like a Swiss watch in its meticulous design and precision of its componentry



One of the great draws in the FoS is that the paying public are free to wander literally touching distance to these priceless classics, even when they're being worked on and prepped. Here, the six-pot supercharged Era Type D gets some fettling by a splendidly authentic period mechanic, lol



likewise the incomparable and very packed engine bay of the BRM V16. The noise this thing makes is still one of the best and most spine-tingling sounds you'll hear



As I was typing this up it began to dawn on me there might be rather a lot of vintage stuff in here. I did take a load of other things, too, the range is pretty broad. From NASCARs to saloon racers to Group C... a lot of pics are clumsy and spoiled by people in the way and suchlike, so I haven't burdened you with them. Also, when you visit the paddock depends on what is parked and what's staging for their run or already up the Hill. Some cars will pop up later in this thread elsewhere! In an ideal world you'd revisit a couple of times for completeness, but time just doesn't always allow. The FoS is so big you struggle to take it all in in one day, and have to prioritise. Sadly, one of the things I most wanted to see I completely missed. Bob Riggle's Hurst Hemi Under Glass is a Plymouth Barracuda with a Hemi engine in the back. Capable of a ten-second quarter on the back wheels, it's one of the cars I most wanted to see and missed completely. Bummer

anyway, just to show that I didn't just take ancient relics, here's the brave Honda-engined ARX LeMans Prototype car.



and some random Citroen thing, just to prove I'm not completely racist against French cars, lol

[Lucky]

So we leave the leafy shade of the Cathedral Paddock and out into the arid baking heat of the lawns up to the Main Paddock. This means wending our way through the Style et Luxe (taking the chance to snap a few things I missed) but not lingering too long as there's some sort of jazz band noodling away aimlessly now and it makes me sad. I'm irresistibly reminded of the cantina scene from Star Wars but this lot don't seem to have a blue elephant on keyboards, so we move on

To get to the main paddock you have to pass the front of the house, crossing sere and yellow lawns and circumventing the giant Veuve Clicquot tent (a longtime Festival sponsor. You can get caviar and oysters and stuff too. This is how the other half live, by the way). This walk brings home just how massive and impressive the central sculpture is. Rising high above the flint and verdigris towers of Goodwood House, white glimmering stark against the superheated blue sky, trio of 911s hanging high above the thousand aiming camera apertures



We pass by the main footbridge over the "track", already resonating to a herd of people shuffling over, past the Goodwood Shop selling eye-wateringly expensive hats, stickers, basically any memorabilia you can fit a black-and-white chequer onto, past the Winners Enclosure and up into the welcome shade of some of the old estate limes and sweet chestnuts. Here is the ancient flint wall, modern fabric gates and polite uniformed flunkies of the Blackrock Drivers' Club. Where the great and good go to escape the crowds and heat and chill out a bit. You can't get in, not the likes of you. The flunkies may be polite but they're large and unyielding. When my wife jokingly asked what they'd do if she just ducked under the fence one of them only half-jokingly replied that Lord March had very large and fast dogs.

...you get the impression he was half-hoping she'd try it.

Anyway, what you can do is poke your camera through the gap in the gates and fence and see what's lining the exclusive red-carpet walkway to the Club;



Well, that'll do then. A lineup commemorating Lamborghini's most significant supercar contributions over the last 45 years or so, starting with this lovely 400GT



And culminating in this marvellous fruit pastille congregation of colours from Countach through to Aventador



We decide to stop taunting the flunkies before they keep their promise of setting the dogs on us, and continue up to the paddock. It's busy here, mad busy. The fences and walls and trees create a bottleneck and we're reduced to shuffling along like a scene from Metropolis, trying not to tread on the heels of the punters in front. Finally a gap in the fence is reached and the slow-motion throng funnels out into the canopies and noise of the paddock. We've come in half-way up, straight into a tent full of Lotus classic GP cars.



The Lotus 72E had a career unthinkable in modern F1 terms, running over five years and providing three constructors and two drivers world championships for the team (Rindt and Fittipaldi, the latter of whom is driving this one today). The Lotus section not only provides a reminder of how good the best-ever sports livery looked (booze or fags, remember?) but also to see things you'd never get to see anywhere else, such as the fantastic under-the skin construction of a 70s grand prix car;



There's a whole class in the FoS dedicated to "the Cosworth Years" this year; not just the cars Cosworth made winners but also those in competition against them at the height of their powers. This Lotus-Cosworth 49B was an instant success in '67



This is the car that Graham Hill drove to his second F1 title in '68, but with the more "sensible" wing rather than the eight-foot high version



The car that beat the Lotus 49 in its inaugural '67 year was the Brabham-Repco BT24, whose chassis tech was outdated but reliability gave it the edge over the fast but initially fickle Lotus, giving Denny Hulme the title



When Ken Tyrell found he couldn't buy a competitive car he decided to build his own, and many legends were given potential off that single decision. The Tyrell-Cosworth 001 was driven by Jackie Stewart in 1970, and we all know where that led...



Honda have long-time been staunch festival supporters and always bring some excellence from the Honda museum. This year was no exception, including the very first Japanese car to win a grand prix, the RA272, which won in Mexico 1965. The car manages to fit a 1.5 litre, 48-valve transverse V12 revving to 14k within those svelte lines



Ferrari were going through one of their fallow periods in F1 during the late '60s. The 312 only scored three wins in four seasons. But it was certainly a looker



although I suspect something of a mechanics nightmare, not just working around the gloriously insane exhaust routing, but remembering how to fit the snake's nest back together once it had been stripped!



In another era, the Brabham-BMW BT52 was the first turbo car to win a title. It has been restored recently and was reunited with driver Nelson Piquet at the Festival this year



It's getting horrendously crowded again, so we trundle down the hill a bit to the relative calm of the bike paddocks. Ever since the very first Festival when Lord March got the incomparable John Surtees on-board to organise the motorcycle entry, the FoS has featured some of the most significant and desirable of two-wheeled exotica. Not just competition bikes, either, but street machines and one-offs as well. For example, there were a brace of helicopter-engine turbine bikes here this year! However, as previously mentioned, Honda are always one of the mainstays, and since they started on two wheels before turning to four, there's quite some heritage behind the first Japanese marque into Grands Prix.

Such as this trio of early RCs; Mike Hailwood's insane 17k rpm RC174 290cc-six; Luigi Taveri's bonkers inline-five RC149 that revved to 18k, had eight gears and produced 30bhp from a 125cc engine; and Hailwood's almost sensible four-cylinder RC162 250cc. All three represent Honda's hatred of two-strokes, and their desire to win with four-stroke technology. If they couldn't up the capacity, they'd up the number of cylinders and thus the rev limit, giving us these Swiss-watch precise pinnacles of engineering excellence



Honda have always had a tradition of doing things their own way, whether or not it contradicted current wisdom. In keeping with this, in 1984 they gave Freddie Spencer the "uspide-down" NSR 500cc two-stroke to compete the GP season on. The idea was that the fuel tank went under the engine to lower the centre of gravity and the expansion chamber exhausts went over the top under a dummy cover where the fuel tank normally sat.



In practice, sound though the theory was, they ran against all sorts of unforseen problems. Not the least was that the bike was a mechanics nightmare, with everything completely inaccessible and red-hot exhausts right where you didn't want them. This also made it hard for the rider who was essentially being broiled all the time he was on the bike. And lastly, Honda uncovered some hitherto little-understood physics on two-wheeled dynamics, namely that there's such a thing as too low a CofG and the bike would cheerfully plough straight on regardless, unwilling to turn. No-one short of Spencer's unfathomable talent could have made the thing anything like as successful as it was, but as one of racing's blind alleys it's a fascinating object



Of course, Honda have a glorious history not just in Grands Prix but also in production racing. I always felt sorry for Aaron Slight, if he'd raced some other time in World Superbikes he'd probably have more than the three third and two second title places he managed. Sadly, he raced the amazing but flawed RC45 at a time when not only the big twin Ducatis had a capacity advantage, but a weight advantage as well... and he was up against white-hot competition from the likes of Fogarty, Corser, Kocinski et al. Still one of my favourite bikes ever, and Slighty remains one of new Zealands' prime exports. Shame he wasn't here to ride the bike this year like he normally is



In the realms of innovative engineering, to the best of my knowledge this thing is still a one-off. Derived from Honda's brave but doomed New Racer (NR) programme, the NR750 is one of the most astonishing vehicles ever produced, not just on two wheels but in any format. It's also downright beautiful



Why so special? The NR was Honda's last attempt to beat the two strokes with four stroke technology (Soichiro Honda hated 2Ts so much technicians had to lie to him that they were working on lawnmower or generator engines if he toured the workshops). They exploited a loophole in the rules to basically siamesed a pair of pistons together on twin conrods, thus massively increasing flame front but keeping the displacement and number of cylinders within the rules limits. Thes resulted in oval pistons (shaped rather more like a tuna tin than a true oval, hence the unkind nickname of "spam-can special"), with 32 valves in a V-four configuration. The bikes were a noble but utter failure, being fragile, overweight and underpowered, and eventually Honda had to cave in and built two-stroke racers.... which went on to dominate GP racing for over a decade. But the tech was revived to build the incomparable limited edition roadgoing NR750, and being Honda, they threw the Fairy Book Of Glittery Magic Spells over it. The bodywork was all-carbon, with the logos stencilled off for paint so the weave showed through, the screen was sprayed with titanium, everything that couldn't be made of some exotic rare composite was the finest aluminium and the styling was so gorgeous that in later years Tamburini clandestinely admitted it was his inspiration for the Ducati 916, often held up as one of the most gorgeous bikes ever. Well, I'm here to tell you, this is better!



And bang up to date is John McGuiness' TT-winning Honda Fireblade, complete with compliment of murdered insect life.



Before Honda's domination of GPs there were the fire engines of the MV Agustas. 35 world titles are commemorated in the silver stars on the tank badge. Agostini himself won 15 titles (admittedly the last two being on Yamahas) on 350 and 500cc MVs. This isn't his own bike which he enters every year, but the model that Phil Read took two titles on in the early 70s



Seems everyone recognises quality even Private Meeke of the Wacky Racers, of whom there is now a complete compliment at the FoS, complete with authentic vehicles. I missed getting a pic of their full lineup. Which is a shame, I've always had a thing for Penelope Pitstop



The FoS range is not just filled by the more well-known bikes, though. There are always oddities and more obscure examples of the racers' art, such as this '50s NSU Rennfox 125, which took two titles and was capable of 110mph thanks to its dustbin fairing streamlining



and the post-dustbin period RennMax, as ridden by Werner Haas to the 1954 250cc World Championship. The RennMax won every single GP that year. Funny beak nose is funny, though



AutoUnion didn't only build fearsome aero-engined four-wheelers. Post-war in the guise of the DKW marque they pioneered two-stroke technology. And massive fairings



always an innovative team... look at features such as the vented brake drum, for example, or the beautifully machined headstock friction steering damper. The 350-triples were fearsomely fast but fragile against the four strokes that still dominated back then. Honda resurrected the three-cylinder 2T three decades later. And won



But I have to say the tank is one of my favourite ever man-made objects. The hours that must have gone in to shaping that, by hand, to end up with something not only functional but wonderful and organic-looking, as if it was grown like a gourd on some obscure alloy tree



Another bike that ploughed its own furrow (sometimes literally) in the face of conventional wisdom was the hub-centre steered ROC-Elf Honda. As ridden by greats like Ron Haslam, it was an answer to a question that perhaps didn't need answering. Many engineers have tried to find a better solution than the humble telescopic front fork in an effort to separate braking, cornering and bump absorption forces. Usually they end up with elegant but ultimately non-advantageous setups like this. And in racing, like in evolution, anything that doesn't offer an advantage quickly becomes selected out



...or does it? I give you Phil Read (Junior)'s Auto Performance Rage Superbike



Powered by a modern 160bhp Ducati twin, this is a result of decades of development on the original Bimota Tesi ("Thesis") project. It uses giant spherical bearing in the hub and a complicated lattice of conrods to taking braking and suspension forces though the engine as a stressed member, meaning the main frame is a super-lightweight pair of alloy subframes. Incredible piece of engineering, as hard to get your head around as thinking your way round a Mobius loop without tracing with a finger



Some kind of acme in the motorcycling world of how it's possible to buck the trends and come up with your own solutions to great effect is a truly impressive bike from the most unlikely of sources;



The late and sorely missed John Britten was an engineer from New Zealand who saw clearly many of the compromises and weak points that blighted racing motorcycles, and decided the only way to get the big players to listen to him was to build a bike that would beat them on their own terms. Hence the Britten V1000 was born



Look beyond the lairy colours if you can and there's plenty to admire on this bike, quite apart from the fact a tiny staff from the farthest-away corner of the world managed to source and manufacture the componentry almost entirely privately funded. Some concepts were not new, such as the frameless structure using the engine as the stressed frame member (this appeared on plenty of bikes, such as the legendary Vincent Black Shadow) or the blade front fork isolating braking and cornering forces (them again) but rarely do they all come together with such vision and purity in a single bike. Everything here is the ultimate expression of what it can be



Everywhere you look there's something performing two jobs, which is the holy grail of bike componentry where lightness and space are the goals. The seat unit, swingarm, front wishbone fork, every scrap of bodywork are carbon fibre enabling the seat unit to act as a mount and ducting for the radiator, for example. This bike held several landspeed records, was the fastest recorded top speed on the Isle of Man, won at Daytona, came first and second in the New Zealand Superbike championship. If it had ever got the big money it deserved, and if John Britten hadn't been tragically snatched away at such a young age this could genuinely have been a contender. One of the most tragic stillbirths.



It takes something to make something as excellent as a racing Yamaha R7 look ordinary, but in this company that's what happens. There is a bit of continuity in terms of lack of fulfilled promise. The R7 could and should have swept the boards but just never quite came right. Still gorgeous though. here's Nori Hagas, which he rode the year the rules lawyers stole the title from him and gifted it to Colin Edwards' Honda



...and James Haydon's BSB bike, which when he stayed on, was fearsomely fast. All too often he overrode it, with inevitable consequences. You may remember his horror crash that made New At Ten, when he famously managed to run over his own head quite severely



And still one of the most beautiful and desirable production-based motorcycle racers, one of Carl Fogarty's many World Superbike title-winning Ducati 916-derivatives. This one's a 996 from his last title year in 1999



Still one of the best (non fags-or-booze) liveries in racing, the yellow and black speedblocks of the Yamaha America YZR750;



these things dominated Formula 750 racing for seemingly ever, giving greats like Kenny Roberts something to ride at Daytona and other non-world championship events.



But if your of an age similar to me (I ain't saying, you'll make me blush) you wanted a bike like the ones winning on the telly when you started riding proper bikes. And that meant a blunt-nosed four-pot late 80s early 90s two stroke widowmaker. probably the hardest bikes ever were to ride, with stupendous power delivery utterly overwhelming frame and tyre development, they were ridden by true heroes. And they still look the business three decades on. This twin-crank OW03 is similar to the one Wayne Rainey took his trio of titles on in the early 90s. Fag packets, see?



and of course, driving Rainey on to superhuman feats was his bitterest rival, and seemingly everyone's GP hero, the man who put everything into overriding the wayward Suzuki...



(every bike ought to have one exhaust per cylinder, shouldn't it?) ... a man who had his racing number of 34 retired with him when he went, too broken and pained to ride like he meant it any more. And a man who's making a comeback at the unbelievably gruelling Suzuka 8-hour this year...



Yep, a brace of Kevin Schwantz's RGV500 Gammas in spot-on Lucky Strike livery. The later bike is the one he finally won his much-deserved title on, in a time when Rainey was Mr Consistency, Doohan was fast but wayward and crashed a lot, Schwantz was the living embodiment of rostrum-or-haybales. He won more than anyone else, but if he wasn't first he was usually on the floor. When asked how the hell he'd managed his unbelievable late-braking manouvre on Rainey into the stadium at Hockenheim, he nonchalantly replied in that Texan drawl "You just wait till you see God, then brake"

[Lucky]

Enough with the bikes? OK then, let's try something else for a bit. Here, have some awesome valvegear



No idea what car this is in, I cleverly forgot to take a photo of the actual vehicle and I can't remember. I've slept since then. Nice though, innit. Here's the exhaust side, too



Here's something you don't see every day, either. The very first car. Ever



This gets that honour from Daimler's effort by dint of being a purpose-built vehicle rather than Daimler's adapted horse-drawn carriage that he bolted an engine into, though they both hit the roads in the same year of 1886. This is a fully-working replica of that first ever car, the Benz Patent-Motorwagen. Keep your finger away from all those moving parts, scary horizontal flywheel and planet gear is scary! And just check out those massive exposed counterweights whizzing round. In 1888 (also famous for being the year of the Ripper, giving the historical context) his wife took this car on a 196km drive thus making the first ever long-distance car journey. Hardcore.



The company Benz began then, now bearing the dual name bequeathed by Mercedes Jellinek (or to give her full and rather elaborate name, Mercédès Adrienne Manuela Ramona Jellinek) , the daughter of Benz's Austrian distributor and salesman extraordinaire, has one of the most enviable records in motorsport. The Silver Arrows dominated racing in both pre and post war eras. With innovation like on this quad-cam twin-supercharged V12 that was capable of over 200mph back in 1939, it's not hard to understand why



Or this straight-eight 2.5litre W196 from 1955, as driven by Stirling Moss (him, again) amongst other luminaries like Hans Herman, Nico Rosberg and Jackie Stewart



I guess the competition Mercedes most people think of is the SLR300, partly because of the stupendous win in the Mille Miglia for Moss and Jenkinson, partly because of the closed-roof coupe's party piece...



Funnily enough, Moss requested a closed-roof car for the '55 Carrera Panamerica after having been turned to leather in the open-top car on the Mille Miglia. Mercedes cancelled their racing involvement following the tragedy at LeMans that year before the car could enter competition, though. This became the company car for designer Rudolf Ullenhaut. Not a bad perk, spawny get! Still never understood the tartan...



When you see the immense manifold and contorted plumbing for the early mechanical fuel injection on the straight-eight, laid over to the offside for the low bonnet line racing demanded, it's easy to see why it was impossible to fit a steering column in there for RHD. In fact, it's very much a car defined by its compromises; the only reason for those iconic gullwing doors was that the spaceframe chassis with high, wide sills made conventional doors impossible on the fixed-head cars



You can see the immense inboard front drum brakes in this pic, too. Intensely finned for cooling, they still suffered for being mounted directly behind the radiator!



Moss (him again) was driving the sister car of his Mille Miglia-winning one, Fangio's Number 658. When you're SIR Stirling Moss, you get a flunky to hold a brolly for you in the sun!



...whereas if you have a Chapparal, you bring your own shade with you wherever you go. The marvellously bonkers Chevrolet-engined Chapparal Can-Am car designed by genius innovator Jim Hall was a pioneer of downforce, the semi-automatic transmission meant that the driver's left foot was freed up to use a control altering the wing's angle of attack



Another piece of insane Americana snapped waiting in the staging area for a run up the Hill was the Golden Submarine, or "Miller Aerodynamic Coupe" to give it's true name. It's super-slippery bodywork was created by Henry Miller for daredevil Indianapolis racer Barney Oldfield, who insisted it be painted gold.... as if anyone would have failed to notice it. Certainly it looked like nothing else on the tracks in 1917! Sadly, this is the best I could manage as the crowds were by now something else!



In fact, there was a great representation of American racers this year, spread over two classes. The Sunbeam Indianapolis finished fourth at the 1916 Indy, Sunbeam somehow contriving to keep building race engines despite the war. Lovely radiator hood, wonderful patination. This car's apparently genuinely only had two owners from new!



Bit of a behemoth for "only" a 4.9 litre six to push around



People (me included) tend to think of Duesenbergs as the giant baroque saloons and coupes that bequeathed us the "it's a doozy" phrase as homage to their acme of opulence, but they did once have a racing interest as well



This Duesenberg 8 won the 1921 French Grand Prix and the Indy 500 in the hands of American racer Jimmy Miller



It was powered by a DOHC engine for the Indy. Engine looks like an early iteration of hot-rodders art



American Racers all seem to gain expansive names that are part nickname, part description, part sponsor's details. This, for example, is the Watson-Offenhauser "Kaiser Aluminium Special"



With typically understated livery, lol. A.J.Watson was an accomplished engineer whose cars won Indy four times. Roger Ward drove this one in 1963



The 4-litre four-pot Offenhauser engine was laid-over to keep the frontal area low, and the car overall reflected the sleek lines that were becoming de riguer worldwide



Looking positively bloated in comparison from only a decade earlier, the Ferrari 375 "Grant Piston Rings Special" (see what I mean?) was the Italian marques' attempt to win at Indy. They found Amrican racing very different to the Grands Prix; four cars were entered in '52, three by private American teams, but only the mighty Ascari in the works car qualified, and he was forced to retire after 40 laps whilst lying twelfth



Now, I suspect I'm going to have to let you down a bit here. I have to confess, I gave up on getting any contemporary F1 cars snapped. By now the crowds were simply ridiculous and you just couldn't get anywhere near the cars, let alone take any meaningful photographs. So I didn't bother. F1 hasn't really moved me for some years now, and there was plenty of other stuff to look at. It was mega hot by now, and the throngs of people exaggerated this. The womenfolk went in search of lunch, and I was getting painfully aware it was now early afternoon and I'd been on my feet around six hours non-stop already. Fortunately, being the heroic sort I am I soldiered on for a bit trying to get all the main paddock had to offer down before giving in to the lure of a bacon sarnie (yes, it is possible to get something so crude and proletarian at the Festival. You have to search for it, though it's worth it when you find one. Very nice. Seven quid, mind you!)

Right, so on with the cars then. It's not all about one-off purebred racecars, y'know, there are plenty of apparently humble roadcars that have accrued legendary status around themselves. It's funny how what was essentially a completely miss-timed failure can end up so iconic, innit? The BMW M1 must be on many of our "phwoarr" lists, but in fact they couldn't use it for what they wanted, couldn't homologate it for Group 4, so had to invent a one-make support series for it instead. Of course, this attracted stellar talents such as Niki Lauda, Nelson Piquet, Jody Sheckter and this cars' drive Ricardo Patrese. And who wouldn't want one as a road car, for that matter?



Another German legend from a very different discipline lurked just along the row of canopies...



again, Cederberg and Blomqvist's Quattro would "do" for any of us, I'm sure.



Up one row of tents was the sportscar/enduro/Group C area. I think this pic of the Porsche 956 neatly illustrates the problem of taking photos here. While the USP of the Festival that it's possible to mingle right in amongst the "exhibits" is great and I wouldn't change it for the world, it does mean that the more popular cars are almost impossible to get a clear shot of. Anyway, this aluminium monocoque racer dominated Group C and Stefan Bellof set a lap record of the Nürburgring in this car, at 6 minutes 11 seconds. Before crashing



The crowds here meant again I was reduced to snapping little details, or trying for entire cars that then got thrown away cos they were rubbish. With this in mind, have a detail from a 911 GT1/98, a car that gave Porsche it's record 16th LeMans win.



See? It's all in the details. Fag packets or booze. Who the hell drinks Martini, though? Superb, evocative colourscheme; hateful, nasty drink...



Few cars have such a reputation as the Porsche 917. An utter apex predator, the early cars were amongst the most beautiful things on wheels, in there with the Lagonda and XJ13 as a shape that simply cannot be improved. Sadly, the early "long-tailed" cars were horrifically unstable at speed, aerodynamics still being little understood. Their flat-twelve 4.5 litre engine cooled by a huge horizontally-mounted fan in the rear deck, produced frankly obscene amounts of grunt, the cars were 19mph faster than anything previously seen at LeMans but they were lethally vague at full honk. They were blighted with crashes, indeed, the first 917 privateer JohnWoolfe crashed and died in his. They kept losing to outdated and theoretically outclassed Ford GTs and Ferrari were bringing on their fearsome 512s. Something needed to change. It was a serendipitous breakthrough that turned them around; crew chief John Horsmann noticed the pattern of flies crushed by the airflow did not extend onto the tail of John Wyer's Gulf 917, indicating the airflow was not sticking over the whole length of the car. The car was literally modified lap by lap in the pits with tin snips, tape, rivets, and ally, and the K-variant 917 was the result... K standing for "Kurzheck" or "short-tail". The rest really is history, they went on to sledgehammer everything before them into submission and were produced a completely ridiculous 1100bhp by the time their star began to fall. This 4.5 litre K gave Porsche their first LeMans win in 1970, ironically after the supposedly better-prepared and more powerful 4.9 litre works cars had failed



No discussion of LeMans domination would be complete without a mention of the four linked rings, of course



It's a long-held tradition at the Festival of Speed that the winner of that years' LeMans comes pretty much direct to Goodwood still covered in grime, flies and oil from the race. And, not very unusually for this day and age, the winner was an Audi



The extravagantly-named Audi R18 E-Tron Quattro, in fact. So wrong; if someone had told you fifteen years ago that after twelve wins this century, the winning Audi would be a hybrid of turbodiesel and electric, you'd have struggled to have believed it



Even the cupholder setup is complex in here, lol. Easier to leave the drinks bottles in situ and swap feeds with the driver. Everything designed to shave vital seconds away. Although you start to feel the likes of Kristensen and McNish could win LeMans in a pedal car by now...



Rumours that the steering wheel/dashboard layout were inspired by the Knight Industries Two Thousand are hitherto unfounded



Audi might currently be winningest but the others have to turn up to make it a race. Aston Martin blow in and out of sportscar racing, but when they field a car one thing will be certain; it'll be a looker. This Lola/Prodrive collaborative DBR1-2 boasts a fantastic-sounding 6 litre V12 and finished 4th at the 2009 LeMans



Perhaps more what you think of from Aston racing are the DBR9s in good ol' Gulf livery. Perhaps the one colourscheme to rival booze and fags. I want a car with an air jack system, the ultimate in function and uber-cool. Plus all that faffing around with bits of wood and low-access jacks would be a thing of the past



Of course, GT racers are supposedly based on production cars but the GTR35 cars bear almost no relation to the slightly flabby Datsuns you could wheel out of a showroom. The GT1 cars run a race-only N/A 5.5 litre V8, dispensing with the twin-turbo 3.8 litre V6 of the street cars



As already mentioned, this years FoS was honouring 50 years of McLaren and there was an entire class dedicated to various triumphant cars from the marque. Possibly my favourite was this McLaren-Oldsmobile M1A from 1964. This was the first car to run under McLaren's name, propelled with a 5.7 litre Oldsmobile engine. Often the forgotten marque in American power terms, Olds actually had very innovative engineering very early, such as nitrided barrels for durability and shot-peened gearbox components. I'm sure their forward-thinking would have appealed to the engineer in Bruce McLaren



In a similar style was the McLaren-Chevrolet sportscar, using the same body and chassis but designed to be a customer option that allowed the privateer to fit their choice of Olds, Ford or Chevy engines as required



Badge honours the great mans' homeland



I love this aspect of the McLaren-Ford M2B, their first F1 car. So no nonsense. And loud!



And this is the business end of the first McLaren to win a world championship Grand Prix, the Cosworth M7A. Driven by Bruce McLaren himself the car won at Spa in 1966. His team-mate Denny Hulme finished the Championship third that year in an identical car, behind only Graham Hill and Jackie Stewart



and of course no McLaren display would be complete without an F1. Gordon Murray only ever envisaged the F1 as a road car, but pressure inevitably led to a GTR customer version. Ray Belm won first time out in this car, at Jerez, shortly before F1 GTRs took four from the top five places at LeMans in 1995



My final offering from the Main Paddock before I finally gave in to my aching feet and the allure of grilled pig products in a roll is not a race car of any description, but is certainly a rare and unique vehicle



In fact, it's something designed to transport racecars, seen arriving with a 300SL stuck on its back. What a bonkers thing from the allegedly humourless Germans!



It seems to be made up itself from leftover bits of SLs, who knows? Write in and say, lol.



Looks like the cab would fall over on its nose, given the massive overhang, and what's going on with that insane window glass? Must cost a fortune for one-off extravagance like that!




Part Two to follow....errrrm... eventually. Stay tuned, groovers, lol

[KiwiDave]

While Nik is inserting new batteries into himself after that marathon effort, here are a few things that I saw. Very hot day ... far too much walking up and down hills and too much to see in one day really but I was on a bit of a mission.

Quite like these, engine where the back seat should be, crazy


I like a nice 635 CSi too


For Xmas please ... one of these and white will be fine












Group A giant killer




Best car/caravan combo ever






Supercar paddock


















Made in NZ by association












Lotus Gas Turbine .. ran at Indy








Ready ... aim ...


The one from the India Special




Various Reasonably Fast Cars












Various Reasonably Famous People
OMG !! It's Derek Bell


Nico , over here mate


Can you sign this mazda shirt please?


Damon, Damon umm over here mate


Can you sign the mazda shir..... ok thanks bye!


Tyre testing ....
















































Remember I said that I was on a bit of a mission? Spent most of the day trying to track this old dude down ..and in the process, missed important type photos like the Mercedes C-111. Didn't care in the end 'cos here's my new BFF OMG, it's Rod Millen!!!!

[ian65]

Epic photos and thread gents....... also somewhat depressing as it serves to highlight my lack of social mobility..... the only one, out of all those cars that I've actually owned was an identical red XR2.

[Lucky]

Yeah, but that XR2 was one of only two cars I snapped in that entire exhibit, and that included Ferraris and Rollers and God knows what. Which means you clearly have impeccable taste I love Fiestas, great little cars

Excellent addition there from Dave, it's funny how many of the same cars we snapped there! My part II update has suspiciously similar pics of the Toyota 2000GT and the Ferrari caravan towtruck, for example. Glad you got to meet up with Rod Millen, dude. The guy's a genuine living legend. He crashed again this year (having sternly bashed up his Tacoma last year) but dusted himself down and still nearly set the fastest time in some hybrid racer thing

Just working on Part II as we speak, it'll be along soon as I can finish it

[spoddy]

great pics and enjoyable write up as ever.
looking forward to part 2.