Goodwood Festival Of Speed 2008
Glourious Goodwood!
More cars, more famous faces, more speed…
More photos at: http://www.motorpix.com/2008/Goodwood_Festival_of_Speed/
There’s no need to chase your favourite racing drivers all over the world – if you invited yourself over to the Earl of March’s pad in Goodwood, Chichester last weekend you could have let them all come to you! Indeed there were droves of enthusiasts catching on to this ‘Festival of Speed’ weekender idea and with more driving action per square mile than most other events they were pretty pleased to get their monies worth.
The theme of this year’s Goodwood Festival was ‘Hawthorne to Hamilton – Britain’s Love Affair With Motorsport,’ and as well as celebrating Lewis’ recent British GP win, it paid tribute to the man who became the very first British Champion of F1 in 1958 and tragically died a year later in a car crash. A statue of Mike Hawthorne has been erected in Goodwood to honour his contribution to motorsports, it faces the pits and reminds all the drivers who go by what history and legacy lies before them.
There were six current F1 teams in attendance last weekend as well as F1 favourites that have since retired like the 1996 World Champion, Damon Hill who at the time was Michael Schumacher’s main rival. Jenson Button also sped up the famous Hill Climb in his Honda RA107 and even Stirling Moss turned out in his Jaguar XK 60.
The 2008 Festival of Speed marked the Jaguar XK’s 60th Anniversary and for the occasion a precession of an XK-R-S, two XK120’s, a historic ‘NUB’ and ‘LWK’ and an XK 140 all took to the hill. The most popular of them all though was the long-nose D-type which won Le Mans in 1957 and in doing so gave the then British marque a very reputable name.
Since then Jaguar has had a very colourful and somewhat unstable place in the luxury field. When owned by Ford though it did enjoy the ‘James Bond’ associations and the XKR ice scenes will always be a cinematic masterpiece. In true British style, Goodwood also had all the film greats lined up on its lawn from the gadget laden classic Aston Martin DB5 to the sleek, sophisticated Vanquish and the water resistant Lotus Esprit.
Together with the quirky inventions for film there were also forgotten concepts of the 80’s and 90’s on show as well as modern day beauties like the Bugatti Chirron, Ford GT90 and the Volkswagen W12 coupe. Goodwood also hosted the first public debut of the Nissan GT-R on track and the new Breckland Beira super car was also the first sighting for many. Other not to be missed speedsters were the Tesla Roadster, Shelby GT500 Super Snake, Ginetta G50, Ariel Atom 500, Artega GT, KTM X-Bow and Lotus 2 Eleven.
But it wasn’t just sheer speed that pulled the crowds, the Rally Stage was also buzzing with people who came to see what the gurus of airbourne action, undulating terrain and high speed forest chasses would have up their sleeves. Old hands at the sport like Bjorn Waldegard who was the most senior driver to win the championship in 1979 ripped up the gravel stage alongside Juha Kankkunen and Hanu Mikkola and their historic rally cars. Petter Solberg also turned out to entertain his fans in the new Subaru Impreza rally car and to keep him up to pace was rival Mikko Hirovonen in his Ford Focus WRC.
Drag cars were also in favour this year, there was an arena called the Cackle Fest which was the dedicated home to a dozen immaculate models from the 50’s and 60’s. More post war racing cars will be welcomed to the Earl of March’s home on the weekend of 19th September when the Goodwood Revival takes place. Expect authentic dress, live bands and elegantly restored classics to take to the grid. In the meantime enjoy the pictures from this year’s Festival of Speed and remember to get next year’s date in your diary early.