Chichester, 26th - 29th of June, 2014
When the Earl of March and a few like-minded started the Festival
of Speed 21 years ago, little did they know about the dimensions
the annual event should take more than two decades later. On the
last weekend of June more than 200.000 visitors followed the
siren call of the sports car racers, formula 1 bolides, touring cars,
motorbikes and rally cars of the last 120 years to the south-west
of England, the Festival of Speed should be the biggest event of
its kind in the classic car calendar of the whole year. Although
the FoS surpassed the traditional classic car event several years
ago, latest with the end of the London Motor Show the major
manufacturers saw the potential of Goodwood for the marketing of
their products. In the last few weeks they set up an entire car city
on the grounds of Goodwood house including huge temporary
show rooms and outside activities. Some purists might complain
about this development but the huge success certainly proofs the
Earl and his team right. Back in the days the typical marketing
slogan was “Win on Sunday and sell on Monday” but here you
can even attract the potential clients directly from the race track
to the show room, the additional day upfront with the moving
motor show and especially the Michelin Supercar Run also
attracts a younger public that might not go to a pure classic car
event.
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But also the purists profit from the development as every year the
manufacturers open their treasury to show their most iconic cars,
where else can one see the legendary pre-war Silver Arrows, the
Group C Sports Cars of the 1980s and single seater of the
Turbo-era and contemporary F1 and Le Mans winners? The FoS
also attracts a lot of drivers from all eras including Sir Stirling
Moss, Jackie Stewart, Emerson Fittipaldi and Giacomo Agostini
on one side but also current aces like Mark Webber, Jenson
Button and Filipe Massa on the other, especially local hero Lewis
Hamilton certainly is a crowd puller every year.
For one jubilarian this year had a special treatment: John
Surtees. 50 years ago Surtees became the first driver to win a
championship both on two and four wheels, something no one
else ever achieved before or after. Surtees got an own class
featuring his cars and bikes but as he is also the oldest living
Ferrari Champion the idea came up sending him up the hill with
the youngest, Kimi Raikkonen, both driving in their original
championship winning cars, the 158 on one side and the F2007
on the other. One was really impressed by Surtees that weekend
about his approach to the younger drivers and mechanics and his
patience when he had to wait for almost one hour in the sun for
his special run up the hill after the program was delayed because
of some crashes. Whereas Raikkonen appeared shortly before
the run, 80 year old Surtees was chatting with old friends, giving
interviews and posing for the photographers.
But not just drivers are jubilians, so a special class for the
centenary of Maserati could not be missed. Both in the hill climb
and the Concours d´Elegance “Cartier Style et Luxe” several cars
with the trident were lined up and especially the concours cars
were spectators’ favourites, the 1953 A6 GCS Pininfarina Low
Roof Coupe finally winning Best of Show.
Also 100 years ago was the 1914 French Grand Prix that was
dominated by a triple triumph for the Mercedes works team, now
100 years later the winning Mercedes was brought over from the
US to be reunited with its two sister car. This is just one part of
the rich motorsport tradition of Mercedes-Benz and this year’s
sculpture in front of Goodwood house symbolized the 120 years
of Motorsport with the first Silver Arrow W25 and the latest GP
car.
About 15 years later Bentley Motors was the dominating team at
Le Mans with no less than 5 top finishes at La Sarthe. After the
first success with the 4-cylinder engined 3 and 4 ½ litre finally in
1929 the straight-6 Speed Six got to race at the end of his
production. Originally built to carry heavy coachwork the larger
capacity model was used in 1929 due to W. O. Bentley´s
aversion against the upcoming superchargers. Both in 1929 and
1930 the very same car won, this weekend “Old Number One”
was reunited with the number 2 and 3 team cars to form the 1930
works team.
Today, 85 years later, the technology has changed very much as
the hybrid cars are running for the crown in the long distance
race. Traditionally the current Le Mans winner is coming directly
from the track to Goodwood, this year the Audi R18 e-tron was
driven up the hill by Andre Lotterer followed by its competitor, the
Toyota TS040. Although this year’s favourite the Toyota just
finished on the podium, technical problems prevented the desired
victory. The third competitor, the Porsche 919 unfortunately
stayed silent in the infield so Mark Webber was driving the latest
Porsche Le Mans Winner, the 911 GT1 from 1998 instead.
Although most of the drivers use the 6 runs on the three days for
some demonstrations and some even do donuts or burnouts,
there are a few chasing the record of Nick Heidfeld. In the special
shoot out of the fastest car live on television it was Sebastian
Loeb in the 875 HP Peugeot 208 T16 Pikes Peak who took the
best time in front of the Maserati MC12 of Michael Bartels that
was specially prepared for this weekend including special
Goodwood/Maserati100 livery and Kenny Bräck in the McLaren
F1 GTR. So Loeb is not just the fastest at the top rally stage but
also on the hill that day showing his special talent.
At the end of the weekend one could not see many disappointed
faces, just a few crashes caused some lengths in the program
and not all batches could be run to the end because of oil on the
track. For the first time the Supercar run was also timed and
some drivers might have overestimated their abilities.
At the final winners ceremony the Earl of March had to thank
higher powers for the weather. The forecast for the entire weekend
was very bad including thunder storms but for some reason there
was a spot over Goodwood that stayed dry when all the
surrounding areas had pouring rain. Just a few dark clouds could
be seen but even most of the time there was some sun. At the
end one could even see a small tornado showing that there was
some movement of cold and warm air in the area.
Now that this year FoS is history Goodwood is preparing for the
next major event in September, when the Revival will be held on
the motor circuit but plans for the 2015 FoS are certainly well
under way and one could be curious what special classes we will
see next year.
Report & images … Peter Singhof
www.ClassicCarPhotography.de
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