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Goodwood , 03 – 05 July 2009

Where to begin? The spectrum of cars, bikes, personalities, air displays, road and rally track action, auction and all the other peripheral activities is so great at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, that it is difficult to know where to be and what aspect to cover first! Add in a decent spell of weather, with only one brief shower on Saturday morning, and you had Nirvana for the petrol head.

Celebrations
– As the traditional sculpture on the lawn in front of Goodwood House is the main focal point, let’s start with that. Last year it was a complex girder structure celebrating Land Rover, and this year it was the complete antithesis, a simple but beautiful grey swept crossing arc to celebrate the centenary of Audi, with a thirties Streamliner at one end and a R8 Coupé at the other. 2009 is also the centenary of Morgan, and there was a line- up of their cars on the walkway up to the drivers club. It was also the centenary of Bugatti with a fine selection of cars from the company’s history, ranging from a Type 16, through a Type 35C, Type 54, and Type 59 to a pair of the latest Veyrons. Another anniversary was 40 years of Frank Williams in Formula One, with a display of their F1 cars in the F1 paddock, including the FW11B in which Nelson Piquet won the 1987 Drivers’ Championship, and the 1996 FW18 which Damon Hill drove to his Drivers’ World Championship. Another 40th anniversary was that of Matra’s first Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championships with Jackie Stewart and the MS80 respectively. One more 40th anniversary was that of the legendary Porsche 917, with a great display of variants in the F1 paddock. There was also a celebration of 75 Years of the Silver Arrows, featuring a superb display of Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union Silver Arrows cars in the F1 paddock, which were demonstrated throughout the weekend by the likes of David Coulthard, Jacky Ickx, Jochen Mass and Sir Stirling Moss. Audi Tradition also had a strong presence in other classes, including examples of their R8R, R8, R10TDI and R15 TDI in the Legend of Le Mans Class, a pair of Quattros in the International Rally Cars Class, an R8 LMS in the Contemporary GT Racers group, DTM saloons, the Quattro “Pikes Peak”, plus the 200 Quattro TransAm and the 90 Quattro IMSA GTO. There were also a pair of Quattros in the Legendary Group B Rally Cars group.

Personalities Aplenty – The list of drivers and riders in attendance quite literally read like a motorsports Who’s Who, with legends from virtually every field of the sport. Apart from those names mentioned elsewhere, there was the only man to have won World Championships on both two and four wheels, John Surtees, current F1 Drivers’ Championship leader Jenson Button, 2008 World Drivers’ Champion Lewis Hamilton, 1980 World Champion Alan Jones, ex-F1 drivers like Eddie Irvine, Takuma Sato, Martin Donnelly, Jacques Laffitte and rising star Bruno Senna who drove his Uncle Ayrton’s JPS Lotus-Renault F1 car. Then there were drivers better known for their sports car activities, like Richard Attwood, Derek Bell, David Brabham, Jacky Ickx, Allan McNish, David Piper, Emanuele Pirro and Vern Schuppan, rally stars like Stig Blomqvist, Hannu Mikkola and Walter Rohrl, plus motorcycle giants like Max Biaggi, Carlos Checa, Mick Doohan and Phil Read, to name but a few. One of the non-motoring stars with the crowd was “Easy Rider” film star Peter Fonda, who did demonstration runs on his chopper from the film, “Captain America”.

The Paddocks
– There are three main paddock areas, the F1 Paddock, the Cathedral Paddock and the Supercar Paddock. As the name of the first implies, this is where one will find most of the F1 cars, but it holds a lot more as well. Apart from the breathtaking display of “Silver Arrows” and the great selection of Williams F1 cars and Porsche 917s, there were the participating current F1 team areas, Brawn GP, Ferrari, McLaren, Red Bull, Toyota and Williams. Another big attraction here was the 1965 Indianapolis 500 winning Lotus-Ford 38, driven to victory there by Jim Clark. The Cathedral Paddock housed historic race cars, including the freshly restored Ferrari 512 S, chassis # 1006, of Shaun Lynn, the Ferrari 250 GT “Breadvan, chassis # 2819 GT, the beautiful little Abarth 205 Monza Coupé, plus many other desirable machines and the Matra anniversary display. The Supercar Paddock name is self explanatory, with a wide selection on current production, high end performance cars, like a pair of Bugatti Veyrons, a Grand Sport and a Pur Sang, a pair of Alfa Romeo 8Cs, a Competizione and a Spider, a trio of Ferraris, a Scuderia Spider 16M, a California and a 599 HGTE. Pagani showed their Zonda R, whilst Mercedes showed a quintet of SLR McLaren variants, and there were concepts like the Stile Bertone Mantide and the wild Citroen GT.

Style Et Luxe
– The Cartier Style Et Luxe Concours comprised of eight classes, embracing a wide variety of cars, including one to celebrate the centenary of Bugatti with a sextet of pre-war models. Another featured the iconic Mini, with period variations on the Mini theme, including a Wolseley Hornet Convertible, a Mini Moke and a Unipower GT, and another class was “Alfresco Exotica” featuring elite performance cabriolets between 1965 – 1975, in which there was one man’s interpretation of a Jaguar “E” Type, the Guyson E12, he probably would have done better to leave well alone! On the Sunday there was an addition to the concours field with the arrival of “Chris Evans’ Magnificent Seven”, seven Ferraris which had just completed a charity run organised by the radio personality to raise money for Children in Need.

The Lawn
– Surrounding the cricket pitch on the opposite side of the track to Goodwood House, is where one finds all the trade stands and manufacturer pavilions, together with other activities stretching up the hill towards the rally stage. This year the feature display on the cricket pitch was the “Wacky Racers”, the cartoon like cars and their equally wacky drivers, which are a great hit with young and old alike. Adjacent to this was the BP Ultimate FoS-TECH pavilion, which featured a range of cars and motorcycles promoting green technology, like the Lexus LF-A, the Porsche based RUF Greenster and the Mini EV. On the way up the hill there was the Land Rover Driving Experience, the Porsche Driving Experience, the Junior Activity Field and the Audi 4x4 demonstration Area, so it can be seen that this side of the track alone provided plenty to keep one occupied.

Track Action
– The action on the track and on the rally stage at the top of the hill was fast and furious throughout the weekend. The rally stage has increased in popularity over the years, and this year one of the stars in attendance was World Rally Champion Sebatian Loeb, together with team Citroen mate Dani Sordi. On the hillclimb the F1 teams always put on a great show, and it great to hear screaming F1 engines at such close quarters. Performing donoughts and burning rubber is also part of their spectacle, and one of the star turns this year was Timo Glock in the Toyota TF108 F1 car who really laid some rubber on the tarmac. Outside the F1 cars it was a close call as to who created the largest clouds of rubber smoke, but I think that it went to Dirk Mueller in the BMW M3 GT2, which had its tyres spinning virtually all the way up the hill, whilst Peter Kox in the Prodrive built 550 Maranello GTS ran him a close second on Sunday morning, all great crowd pleasing stuff, even appreciated by those downwind of the acrid smoke!

Reach for the Sky – As if there wasn’t enough going on around you on the ground, the Red Arrows performed their always spectacular aerobatic display on both the Friday and Sunday. Saturday was the turn of the really impressive Eurofighter, whose roar whilst doing low passes and amazingly steep climbs quite literally made the ground shake. Once again, the Goodwood Festival of Speed organising committee and staff, headed by Lord March, showed that only the sky is their limit when it comes to putting on a great weekend of motor sport based entertainment for the whole family.

David O’Neill
07/2009

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Ferrari Entry

Model Colour Entrant/Driver(s) Chassis #
312 F1 Red J-F. Decaux 0007
312 T3 Red-White Ten Tenths/E. Irvine 084
126 C4 Red L. Prandina/A. Merzario 072
F300 F1 Red P. Masselli 183
F2008 F1 Red Met’ Ferrari SpA/Display 268
F2008 F1 Red Met’ Ferrari SpA/M. Gené 270

166 MM Barchetta Red/Tan S. & D. Mason-Styrron 0040M
312 P Red A. Meier/D. Franklin 0872
512 S Red-White/Blue Stripes S. Lynn/D. Clark 1006
250 GT SWB “Breadvan” Red K. Werner/M. Werner 2819GT
250 GTO Red Ten Tenths/A. Mason & M. Franchiti 3757GT
550 GTS Red Prodrive/P.Kox 113136
F430 GT2 Yellow-Black Dunlop Display 2408
599 HGTE (LHD) Grey Met’/Tan Ferrari North Europe 159058
16M Scuderia Spider (LHD) Yellow/Black-Yellow Ferrari North Europe 166877
California Red/Beige Ferrari North Europe 167148

Cartier Style & Luxe Concours

365 GTB/4S (LHD) Red/Black Cars International 14605

Sunday Only – “Chris Evans’ Magnificent Seven”

250 GT California Spider SWB Black/Black C. Evans 2377GT
250 GT SWB Berlinetta White/Pale Blue C. Evans 3401GT
250 GT Lusso White/Pale Blue C. Evans 5377GT
275 GTB/4 White/Pale Blue C. Evans ?
Dino 246 GT White/Pale Blue C. Evans 04552
GTO (288) White/Pale Blue C. Evans 55233
F40 White/Pale Blue C. Evans 95249

Bonhams Auction

Model Colour Chassis # Price
Dino 246 GTS Red/Beige 07398 £73000
365 GTB/4 Red/Beige-Black 15381 NS
456 GT Dark Blue/Black 103611 £24275
456 M GTA Blue Met’/Tan ? £25300