Goodwood Festival of Speed 1998

Phil Hill and the Carrera Panamericana

The most famous 250 GT

Reminiscence to the Turbo era

Andretti at Goodwood, Ickx missing

The Ferrari at the Festival of Speed

Phil Hill and the Carrera Panamericana

Already for the second time in a row, the Goodwood Festival of Speed was hit by heavy rain which turned the lawns surrounding Goodwood House into a mud bath.

But, being British, one did keep a stiff upper lip and celebrated the festival despite of the poor weather conditions. 16 Ferrari were brought to the garden of the Earl of March near Chichester to participate in the revival of the famous hillclimb or in the "Cartier Style de Luxe" concours d'elégance. In the latter event one could admire the oldest Ferrari present at Goodwood: 166 Inter s/n 021S, bodied by Stabilimenti Farina. This very early car from Maranello still features the then common steel wheels instead of the later Borranis. The only other Ferrari in the concours was the 340 Mexico s/n 0266AT.

 

 

 

The owners of the remaining 14 examples preferred to race their cars or to have their cars raced: So, Phil Hill piloted the 375 MM Spider Vignale s/n 0286AM in which he had gained the 2nd position in the 1954 Carrera Panamericana. Until this car left Europe 40 years ago, it had been a works car which took Ascari and Farina to a 1st OA in the 1000 Kilometres of the Nürburgring. By the way, s/n 0286AM was shown by its owner Bruce McCaw (owner of the PacWest Champcar team) in Europe for the very first time since the mid-1950's!

Phil Hill enjoyed the ride in "his" car which he had driven already once after its resurrection in 1997 during the historic races at Laguna Seca.

 

 

The most famous 250 GT

Another 375 MM present at Goodwood was the Pininfarina Berlinetta of Jean Sage. A 750 Monza from the same era was s/n 0518M: The car was seen for the first time in public since a total restoration. The (former) four cylinder car owned by Brit Paul Kunkel is now fitted with a V12-engine.

Also attending the event: The probably most famous 250 GT, the 1956 LWB Berlinetta s/n 0677GT in which Olivier Gendebien did win the 1957 Tour de France Auto and the Gran Premio Tazio Nuvolari, the final stage of the Mille Miglia.

The majority of the other Ferrari at Goodwood were younger. "Pink Floyd" drummer Nick Mason had brought two cars: His 250 GTO '62 s/n 3757GT and his 512 BBLM s/n 27577; he piloted the latter while he had handed over the wheel of his GTO to his wife Annette. The famous musician eventually became the fastest (competing) Ferrari-pilot of the weekend since it took him 62.34 seconds to absolve the 1.16 miles hillclimb. Even Ferrari's F1 test-pilot Luca Badoer - Maranello's official representative at Goodwood - needed eight more seconds to absolve the demonstration run up the hill! Badoer also drove Ray Belm's 333 SP s/n 021.

McLaren was the only other F1 team to attend on the event. Test pilot Nick Heidfeld stormed the hill with the 1997 MP4/12 in a mere 48.3 seconds. The most advanced Ferrari at Goodwood did not compete, but stayed in its dry tent: The 412 T2 s/n 161, alleged to have been Jean Alesi's car in the latter's first and - up to now - only win at Canada in 1995.

Reminiscence to the Turbo era

The former F1-pliot Stefan Johansson steered a 156/85 Formula 1, s/n 082, in which he had become 2nd twice thirteen years ago. After just 100 metres the car smoked like a steel mill and reminded the spectators of the Turbo era. A Scuderia-mechanic present at Goodwood assured that this was no serious problem, but just normal for a Turbo car that spent many years undriven as a "hangar queen".

 

Sally Mason-Styrron's 246 Tasman s/n 0010 suffered several problems, too, prior to the start. But in the end, it did perform well.

Andretti at Goodwood, Ickx missing

Pierre Bardinon's 312 B s/n 001 had been brought to Goodwood from France for Jacky Ickx to drive, but the Belgian legend of motorsport had had to cancel his attendance due to a lack of time, and so the 1970 Grand Prix car was abandoned in the paddock.

Another legend missing this time: David Piper, who was kept busy by another event abroad. But at least he had handed over his 330 P4 replica s/n 0900 to Andrew Fletcher, who eventually absolved the hillclimb in this Ferrari "made by David Piper" in less time than Luca Badoer in the Formula 1...

Mario Andretti and John Surtees, two other former Ferrari-pilots, were present at Goodwood as well, but piloted cars of other makes.

By the way, the Festival of Speed was not the only event at Goodwood this year: In September, the Earl of March will celebrate the re-opening of the Goodwood Motor Circuit after 30 years of slumber. One may look forward to this event, too, and one should certainly not miss it.

Gregor Schulz

The Ferrari at the Festival of Speed