The Goodwood Festival of Speed is one of the motoring world’s best-loved events and the biggest of its kind in the UK. Held in the grounds of Goodwood House in Sussex, the event for 2019 ran from July 4-7.
Though the heart of Goodwood is the famous hill climb, it has grown into a massive showcase of some of the world’s rarest and most beautiful classic cars, as well as an occasion for manufacturers to display their latest and greatest metal to an adoring crowd.
Monaco past masters honoured at Goodwood
Ninety years have elapsed since William Grover Williams claimed honours in the first-ever Monaco Grand Prix back in 1929. This year, Goodwood celebrated the blue-ribband race’s rich history by bringing together a remarkable gathering of past winners. These span everything from a straight-eight-engined Bugatti Type 35B to the 2009 Brawn BGP 001. Lotus was also well represented, with Damon Hill piloting the Classic Team Lotus 49B aboard which his father Graham won in the principality in 1968 race. Formula 1 and IndyCar legend Emerson Fittipaldi, meanwhile, is drove the squad’s 72E which Ronnie Peterson steered to victory in the 1974 race.
Other stars out in action in the Masters of Monaco class included Indy 500 winner Takuma Sato in the ex-Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda MP4/4, David Coulthard aboard the McLaren-Mercedes MP4/15, and the great Sir Jackie Stewart in his son Mark’s Tyrrell-Cosworth 006. Karun Chandok, meanwhile, drove the Williams-Cosworth FW08C which Keke Rosberg guided to victory in the 1983 race. The Finn did so after making an inspired gamble to start the damp race on slick tyres. The track dried and he scored the model’s sole race victory.
Abarths swarm the Cartier Style et Luxe arena
The much-loved Italian marque Abarth had a class of its own in this year’s Cartier Style et Luxe contest. The A Sting in the Tail category encompassed some of the finest and rarest models from the past 70 years of the storied Latin brand, ranging from the sublime 1950 205 Monza coupé to the bizarre 750 Goccia with coachwork by Alfredo Vignale.
Other classes included Cent Ans d’Avant Garde which honoured the fabulous Voisin marque in its centenary year, and Aston-ishing with a display of 1970s and ’80s Newport Pagnell classics powered by Tadek Merak’s legendary – and long-serving – V8 engine design.
The judging panel included Star Wars actress Anna Brewster, design superstar Marc Newson, the Earl of Snowden and male supermodel David Gandy.
Shock and awe with Nascar
Nascar racing has developed a huge fanbase at Goodwood, and this year the festival celebrated 70 years of this never knowingly subtle race series in the biggest way possible.
16 stock cars took to the hillclimb course, the oldest being the STP-liveried Buick Regal in which Richard ‘The King’ Petty won his seventh – and final – Daytona 500 in 1981. It was being driven at the festival by the great man’s grandson, Thad Moffitt. Nascar royalty Bobby Labonte, meanwhile, steered the Chevrolet Monte Carlo which bagged the blue-ribband ‘500’ – the race all stock car drivers most want to win – in 1998 with Dale Earnhardt at the wheel. This victory ended 20 years of frustration for ‘The Intimidator’ who had led the race previously but famously never won it.
Other, markedly less oval-orientated aces mixing it with the Good ol’ Boys in ‘stockers’ included former BTCC hero Anthony Reid in the ex-Joe Gibbs Toyota Camry, Le Mans legend Tom Kristensen in the ex-Chip Ganassi Chevy Camaro, and all-rounder Nicolas Minassian in the similar car owned by Will Spencer of the Winston Cup Museum.
Marches hare up Goodwood Hillclimb course
March Engineering was once one of the world’s most prolific manufacturers of racing cars. 2019 sees the marque reaching its Big 5-0, and Goodwood honoured this milestone with a raft of significant models in a dedicated class, with cars either appearing on the hill or on static display. These spanned everything from Andy Gilberg’s 1969 693 which competed during Formula 3’s ‘screamer’ era to a mid 1980s 86C Champ Car via a monstrous 707 Can-Am blunt instrument and Katsuaki Kubota’s ex-Ronnie Peterson 761 Grand Prix winner.
Founded in 1969 by the highly-ambitious quartet, Max Mosley, Alan Rees, Graham Coaker and Robin Herd, March Engineering was much mocked when it announced bold plans to build cars spanning umpteen disciplines. The naysayers weren’t laughing when five 701 Formula 1 cars appeared on the grid for the 1970 World Championship season opener in Kyalami. Even less so when Jackie Stewart won in his Ken Tyrrell-fielded example next time out in Spain.
Aston Martin takes centre stage
Aston Martin and Goodwood are inextricably linked, the much-loved British marque having enjoyed stellar success in West Sussex in period. This year’s spectacular Aston Martin Central Feature stretched 30 metres into the air, topped with one of the most celebrated sports-racers from its rich back catalogue – the DBR1.
On terra firma, a mouthwatering array of machinery spanning the entire history of the British brand was on display or stormed the hill. These encompassed everything from the famous ex-Count Louis Zborowski 11HP ‘Green Pea’ from 1922 to the DBR4 Grand Prix weapon from 1959, via three Project Cars and current GT fare which competed in the FIA’s 2018-2019 WEC ‘Super Season’.
Several ‘period’ drivers were also reunited with old flames, with driver/designer Ray Mallock surviving a ‘moment’ at Molecomb Corner in the Bovis-liveried Nimrod-Aston Martin C28 which he campaigned in the World Endurance Championship in 1982-84. Well-known dealer/racer Gregor Fisken was also out in the glorious ex-works 6-litre DBR9 which he raced at Le Mans in 2007.
Porsche monsters invade Goodwood
The awe-inspiring Porsche 917, the sports-prototype that dominated the International Championship of Makes during the early 1970s, was honoured at the 2019 Goodwood Festival of Speed. The Flat-12-engined monster first ventured trackside in 1969 and won the Le Mans 24 Hours a year later. It marked the first outright victory for Porsche in the endurance classic, the marque repeating the feat in 1971. After the model was outlawed following a change of rules regulating engine size, variations on the theme went on to dominate in Can-Am and Interserie. Every possible permutation of 917 was on display or took to the hill during the festival weekend, with 1970 Le Mans winner Richard Attwood and 1971 victor Gijs van Lennep among the star drivers making them sing.