Goodwood Revival

[Lucky]

Right, so part 2 then...

Heading north from the posh paddocks we passed by the staging area, the fence of which was lined six deep and life was genuinely too short to try forcing my way through and get any meaningful photos


Falcon by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

That Falcon is the only one that was even half-way worth repeating. Dunno, maybe I'm spoiled by the Festival of Speed where the paddocks are all so accessible and kinda expect the Revival to be similar. Of course it can't be because it's a functioning race meeting and safety cuts down the ability of people to blunder about. I also think the race circuit is hopelessly inadequate to contain the vast numbers of people it needs to. The FoS has more room to spread out and less infrastructure impeding flow. Plus it doesn't have a working airfield slap bang in the middle of it...

Anyway, round the back of the paddock hedge was a massive array of Ecurie Ecosse vehicles, everyone's favourite underdog story privateers. Although the first one we encountered wasn't what you'd expect


J40 Ecosse by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

Aha, more C-Types. That more like it!


Ecurie Ecosse C-Types by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

Or D-Types, if you prefer your Jaguars be-finned


Ecurie Ecosse D-Types by Nick Liassides, on Flickr


Ecurie Ecosse D-Type 3 by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

Honestly, such a pure shape makes you wonder why modern cars really need so many strakes and lines and canards and god knows what else. After all, it's not as if D-Types were especially slow... they managed a good 10mph more than the contemporary Ferrari on the Mulsanne (172 vs 160) despite giving away almost a litre in displacement


Ecurie Ecosse D-Type 6 by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

And just to prove Jaguars were not the only Ecurie Ecosse liveried beasties, how about a wonderfully sculpted Tojeiro Buick?


Tojeiro-Buick GT by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

Sticking with ludicrous American-engined oddities, heading further up into the paddocks alongside the airfield yields a bonkers Studebaker Silver Hawk with a distinctly Latin flavour and impossible to ignore livery


Silver Hawk by Nick Liassides, on Flickr


Silver Hawk d by Nick Liassides, on Flickr


Silver Hawk wing by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

Not even the top of the line Golden Hawk, but it still rocked my world. And featured one of the coolest (literally) steering wheels ever. You know that racing's furnace heat isn't exaggerated when people need to fit ventilated steering wheels!


Silver Hawk st wh by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

People-watching interlude... Sooooo Goodwood that even the golf buggies look like period artefacts


Ladies day by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

So the Goodwood Trophy race that we saw some entrants for earlier was for GP cars from 1930 to 1950. The Brooklands Trophy is for endurance racers and sportscars "of the type" that raced the iconic Byfleet track prior to 1939. Hmmm. Spot the differences. No, me neither


Maserati 8C 3000 by Nick Liassides, on Flickr


Maserati 8C 3000 d by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

Some things remain consistent with the time this race is supposed to encapsulate; when Alfas turn up, they win...


Alfa 8C 2300 MM d by Nick Liassides, on Flickr


Alfa 8C 2300 MM by Nick Liassides, on Flickr


Alfa 8C 2300 Monza by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

...and that even though later models of Bugatti were essentially papering over the cracks of compromised handling and brakes plus lower power outputs, they were still in anyone's language incomparably elegant and beautifully engineered things


Type 50 by Nick Liassides, on Flickr


Type 50 blower by Nick Liassides, on Flickr


Bugatti casque by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

Halfway along the paddock, we dropped into the Members enclosure for a spot of lunch. Which, oddly, turned out to be curry. Quite a nice curry, as it turned out. In typical Goodwood style, the Members caff thing might look like a large tent from outside (guarded by gentlemen in pinstripes and bowlers, no less) but inside it's dressed as authentically as anywhere else. As are the nurses


Nurse the screens by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

Various sections had various national themes... anything you like to set the ambience so long as it was rusty and chod-based. Lovely!


Chod of England by Nick Liassides, on Flickr


Chod of Italy by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

So, duly curried up ... that most English of inventions, chicken tikka masala, lol... I foraged forth into the paddocks while Mrs L sat and drank tea. Honestly, wimmin. Go to a car thing... and not just any car thing but a really busy and hideously expensive car thing... and they want to spend half the time in a tent drinking tea. Still, it gave me some alone "me" time with the cars I suppose. Just me a thousand other punters


Talbot AV90 Brooklands &AV10S by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

Talbots are a bit baffling with their convoluted family tree. Some were French, some were really French with their Darracq heritage, some were English, some were Sunbeams, many were all three under the STD banner (which didn't mean what it does now) and many were designed by a French dude living in England. And later, many more were Italian/French after Antonio Lago brought the defunct marque. Then they were Rootes and finally American but we don't need to worry about that newfangled stuff. Phew.


Talbot AV90 Brooklands radcap by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

So, that was British Talbot designed by a Frenchman. These are French Talbot financed by an Italian. As if European cross-breeding is a new thing...


Talbot-Lago T150CSS by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

Funny to think how anal MOT testers get nowadays about dodgy fonts on M*xed-up Saxos (are they still a thing?). Best numberplate ever! I can see the local MOT biting through his clipboard in unrestrained fury when that thing rocks up. Now wonder classics are looking at exemption


Talbot-Lago T150CSS d by Nick Liassides, on Flickr


Talbot-Lago T150CSS st wh by Nick Liassides, on Flickr


Talbot-Lago T23 by Nick Liassides, on Flickr


Talbot-Lago T23 d by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

Of course, some French things are resolutely French, always were and so always shall be. Delahaye is one of these things. It might have been a more fashion than sports marque for most of it's life but the purchase of Delage and their hard-won GP knowledge and engineering finesse certainly gave Delahayes some clout on the circuits


Delahaye 135S by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

*people watching interlude!*


Hippy families by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

Ze Germans have always had the capacity to dominate the racetrack when they put their minds to it. Mercedes especially so. After all, Herr Daimler did kinda invent the motor car after all. Once the German marques had finished piddling around with domestic hillclimbs and waded into the global scene with the Kaiser Preis, there was no real looking back.


Mercedes 710 SSKL by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

Loving the chassis "drilled for lightness". You still wouldn't want one running over your foot!


Mercedes 710 SSKL bdg by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

You can almost hear the supercharger scream from here


Mercedes 710 SSKL bay by Nick Liassides, on Flickr


Mercedes 710 SSK msct by Nick Liassides, on Flickr


Mercedes 710 SSK by Nick Liassides, on Flickr


Mercedes 710 SSK d by Nick Liassides, on Flickr


Mercedes 710 SSKL dsh by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

[Lucky]

Invicta is not something I know a lot about (like most things in fact, some might say). It's just a series of random facts jumbled together in no particular order of significance or passage of time. In fact, it's rather like what I imagine the thought process of a goldfish to be; a series of staccato burps of fact followed by periods of wondering why I even knew that and what the significance of it was... sugar money from Lyles...famous lady driver Violette Cordery...based at Cobham and thus ran at Brooklands a lot... moved to Chelsea when the founder went to Railton...had more resurrections than plaid...oooh, look, a little castle and treasure chest...best enameled badge ever...shame the new plastic supercar one never worked out...have I seen that castle before?


Invicta S-Class by Nick Liassides, on Flickr


Invicta S-Class bdg by Nick Liassides, on Flickr


Invicta Low Chassis by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

Looks rather like the badge on this Low Chassis S-Type might have been touched in when the enamel chipped off. Shame it seems to have been done by Humbrol Enamel rather than Faberge


Invicta Low Chassis bdg by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

And then, Spitfires happened!


Spitfire 2 by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

Now, I know Goodwood was a WWII airfield and played its part in the Battle of Britain and all that malarkey. And I know Lord March is clearly keen on aviation, like his predecessors. And I know lots of toffs arrive at such junkets by private plane or helicopter. Don't get me wrong, I'm just as happy as the next man to listen to Merlin engines clatter by on full honk, but when space is as tight as it now is at the Revival, it seems quite annoying that a massive amount of paddock space is taken up by static displays of planes and "pilots clubs". I didn't come to a car thing to see planes, funnily enough. Clear all that old chod out and let us get near the damned cars, thanks. Anyway, I've spent enough time already ranting about the irritations of the Revival. Have a Curtiss Warhawk


Curtiss P40C Warhawk by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

Unarguably a damn cool name! Anyway, the plane display was cool in a way because it gave me a chance to take some pics in otherwise crowded paddocks while everyone else was outside gawking into the sky. And then nip out at the last minute to snap some planes. And there's always people watching, of course!


Pink Ladies by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

nice to see The Kidz getting into the swing of things. Vauxhall isn't really a name one tends to associate with sporting heritage, but of course there was a time... and not just in the early pioneer days when the Prince Henry was a quantum leap in sportscar design. Plenty of big Griffins performed copiously well in competition between the wars before the marque turned beige


Vauxhall 30-98 Brooklands by Nick Liassides, on Flickr


Vauxhall 30-98 Brooklands d by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

I only took this next pic because I wanted the Lea Francis hippocampus (that's as in "seahorse" not as in "big chunk of brain" kinda hippocampus) badge for my collection of automotive badges that one day I might even finish. But then I was so enamoured of the vicious bacon-slicer radiator release lever that I had to include it here!


Lea-Francis Hyper by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

This is a superb looking thing and I was going to say "bet you'll never guess what it is" but of course that doesn't really work now I've had to switch to Flickr and it puts the pic title along the bottom


Dolomite 8C SS Corsica by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

Errrr.... yeah. Definitely not what we would think of as a Triumph Dolomite, then!


Dolomite 8C SS Corsica bdg by Nick Liassides, on Flickr


Dolomite 8C SS Corsica bay by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

Here, have a Corsair...


Goodyear Corsair FG-1D by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

....so it must be time for some more people watching then. Mmmmm, robo-wellies! Très chic…


Cyber wellies by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

…and a Mustang. No, not that kind.


P51D Mustang by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

The Chichester Cup is for “rear-engined drum-braked Formula Junior cars of a type that raced between 1958 and 62”. Which on the face of it doesn’t sound all that exciting. But to be fair to the little devils, they have so little power that they have to rely on never slowing down. Ever. For any reason whatsoever. So they actually make quite a spectacle all buzzing around in a swarm. And the quality of the engineering is exactly like any other single-seat race car, only shrunk


Cooper-BMC T56 by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

And amidst the hordes of Lotusses and Coopers and ubiquitous Ford engines, there are some oddities too, such as a Fiat-engined de Tomaso


De Tomaso-Fiat by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

Have you seen the price of these little Austin J40s? Even tatty rusted ones that even the most ferocious of eBay empire builders would struggle to describe as “barn find” rather than “needs complete restoration” go for thousands! Fortunately, one of my kids is too big and the other too lazy. Reckon I’ve dodged one there


J40 No11 by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

Round about here, I had to dodge out from the shelters to avoid being run over by a Jaaaag… one that had been racing in the highly entertaining St Marys Trophy race that had been keeping us entertained on the screen in the Members Enclosure while we ate our curry… and it’s not something you really want running you over. It’d hurt, although maintain an air of elegance and slightly louche whatever while it happened


Jag MkI by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

But that was OK cos otherwise I might have missed the Lockheed Lightning flying past


Lockheed P38 Lightning by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

Which made for a pretty impressive sight as the fading light glimmered off its silvered flight surfaces as it disappeared into the gathering gloom of a lowering sky


Lockheed P38 Lightning 2 by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

Oooh, poetic. But wait; lowering sky? Oh yeah. Then it pissed down. Like, properly deluged us to the point I even abandoned my fag half-smoked and took shelter … along with everyone else… under one of the errrrrmmm… shelters. And that was OK cos it meant more people watching


Gilding the lily by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

Eventually we had to leave as annoyingly thoughtless drivers kept wanting to park their cars in their own shelters. I mean, honestly. Fortunately, the rain had eased off though the clouds remained ominously dark. Still, it gave us a chance to see the winning flame-spitting Alfa come home


Alfa Giulietta Ti by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

As well as the irrepressible Justin Law’s Jag, slightly lopsided and toothless from a last-lap nerfing at the chicane


Jaguar MkI damage by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

By now, Mrs L7 had been wearing my jacket and complaining about the cold for quite some time, so I finally relented and agreed we should go and peruse the stands selling stuff. I always find this slightly a waste of time… I’m at a car event to look at cars, not overpriced apparel for nobs… but she was starting to look a bit blue-tinged so it had to be done. As we were at the furthest-away spot in the circuit, it was quite a walk anyway and gave me plenty of chances to fill in some gaps in my photorecord


Triumph flat-tracker by Nick Liassides, on Flickr


Alfa 8C 2300 r by Nick Liassides, on Flickr


Jag SS transporter by Nick Liassides, on Flickr


BMW 700 by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

It has to be said, you have to love the British spirit and willingness to race absolutely anything with wheels on it. Who ever looked at a Moggy Minor lowlight and thought “yeah, that’s a race car that is”?


Minor 1949 Lowlight by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

Or for that matter, an Austin Westminster?


A95 Westminster by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

Complete with bonnet ornament/disemboweler


A95 Westminster d by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

Then again, maybe it isn’t such a uniquely British peculiarity. Especially when you see such behemoths as these in full race livery. And see the improbably velocity that top-notch lunatics like Kristensen can coax out of them


Falcon & Tbird by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

Normally I’d pretty much argue that Tbirds lost their way even before Ford started putting too many seats into them, but I have to admit this particular beast held my attention!


Thunderbird 1959 by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

And so we found ourselves over the other side of the track, where the Glamcabs girls briefly offered appealing diversion

Glamcabs 2 by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

Well, for males anyway. Mrs L wasn’t quite so diverted


Glamcabs by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

Anyway, having parted with an eye-watering amount of money for a (admittedly very warm and stylish) coat, she now felt well-disposed enough towards me to actually watch some racing! Finally…
It so happened that the RAC TT race was on. Which was handy, because it’s an hour long so that gave us enough time to worm our way to the front of the crowd and actually see some of it before it finished. Did I mention that there are too many people at the Revival? Anyway, it barely mattered because after all that effort, you line up a shot of a lovely lowdrag E-Type and some clown in a honking great Cobra blats rudely right through the middle of your pic


E-Type lowdrag lightweight by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

It was fortunate that we were right opposite the pitlane entrance actually, because otherwise I’d have failed to get any even half-way decent photos as the cars blurred past at ridiculous velocity and I tried to fake a shot through the tiny aperture afforded me between other people’s elbow, hats and umbrellas.


250 GTO-64 by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

I was glad I persisted though, because the Lister Tigers alone were stunning and well worth the wait. Not to mention rarer than a rare thing


Lister Tiger by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

Oh yeah, and there were some of those common vulgar Italian things, too


250 LM by Nick Liassides, on Flickr


250MM pitting by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

And Cobras. Absolute phalanxes of Cobras, noisy brash brutish things that they are!


AC Cobra by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

Eventually, however, Mrs Ls patience for standing in the thickening drizzle was exhausted and I had to agree even in the best spirit of optimism that the weather looked set to only worsen. We had imposed on a military-grade complicated overlap of babysitters to get away from the kids (I genuinely can’t imagine a worse nightmare than dragging children around somewhere like the Revival and sincerely wish other people would stop doing it too) so had to get away anyway. It seemed a good time. As much as anything, I was simply tired of the constant crush and bustle. We’d been several hours now with scarcely more space to ourselves than if we’d found a nice secluded phone box to spend the day in, and it was just becoming wearisome. So we left.

I would have expected more in the way of diversion; there are usually all kinds of things laid on across this bit of the circuit (hotrods, themed bits, dancers, whatever). This year there were just Fiat 500s. A LOT of Fiat 500s


500s by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

And whilst they did come in a bewildering array of flavours marques and licenses (this one’s a German one)


Steyr Puch by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

I have to confess I’ve never really got them at the best of times. A thousand of the damned things left me rather cold to be honest and it gave the distinct impression someone was trying for a “record for most Fiat 500s on an anniversary parade” rather than maybe using the (considerable) space for something a bit more interesting. No disrespect, but when you’ve seen one 500 you’ve kinda seen them all. Except, to disprove my own Victor Medrewing, it appears that you haven’t…


Abarth 1000otr Protipo Bertone by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

…until you’ve seen the excellent Bertone-styled Abarth-powered prototype one. Like, how did this never make production? Weird. And I have to confess it was nice to see an example of the original cinquecento, the little Toppolino (“Little Mouse”)…


Toppolino by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

…but overall I went Over The Road towards the capark with a feeling of disappointment being my overriding memory of the day. By now it was absolutely chucking it down with rain, which didn’t help. And neither did the stalls of companies restoring e-Types from a single aircleaner wingnut. Or selling you barn-find E-Types. Or selling reconstructions of E-Types for a modern age. Or selling furs and leather driving gloves to complement your outfit as you drive you E-Type around. Thank God I managed to find a nice Karmann Ghia to keep me sane


Karmann Ghia by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

… and as an aside, is there really any justification to be promoting the fur trade in this day and age? I really thought society had moved on a bit from the days when we were living in caves and having to sleep in a scooped-out deer for warmth. It appears High Society still like a bit of inhumane murder round their necks [/rant]. This would have been the time when I prowled around the carparks taking pics of all the astonishing vehicles people had made the trip to Goodwood in. But it was persisting down, I was wet, fed up and the carparks had finally given up what little structural integrity they’d been clinging on to and turned to quagmire. And to greet us was the cruelty smashed in rear end of the Lady’s F*rd, poor thing.


The rear end by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

Fortunately, the poor thing was parked near to a gateway from the field, and it was mostly downhill and every other car seemed to be heading for the gate we’d come in through, sheeplike, despite that it was miles away across mud and mire and there was a massive queue there of people getting stuck. We sneaked out the nearby gate, mostly sideways, and slithered off home to rescue the babysitter. That was the Revival then. Do it again? Hmmmmmm….


Probably not. Ask me again next year, but even now a month on my overwhelming feeling is that if you like the cars you're much better off watching it on the live stream from the comfort of your home. And if you can't see or don't like the cars and the racing, then it's a bloody expensive way to go to a fancy dress party

[A7RXY]

Great photos .....

[DKWW2000]

Nik.......a car show reporting legend in your own lifetime..................Excellent

[codge]

X 3 for those tributes.
Love it Nik

Dave

[KiwiDave]

If Carlsberg did Goodwood Revival reviews, I'm sure you would be in the credits Nik

[ROTARY_ADDICT-1]

Great pictures