A look back at the Goodwood Festival of Speed – Part 2 – 2013 to 2015

Report by David Harbey

26 November 2020

2013

By 2013, we decided to make a full weekend of it; found a local B&B with excellent fry ups for breakfast and plunged head-long into all the Festival of Speed 2013 had to offer over all three days.

The central display honouring the Porsche 911 however, was a little under-whelming.

The Typhoon however, was very loud and very impressive !

The paddock contained the usual mix of cars old and new. The Gulf McLaren Le Mans car, the Toyota TS020 and a detailed shot of the exhaust of the Howmet TX gas turbine engined car.

Le Mans winners Derek Bell and Alan McNish were spotted getting ready to head up the hill along with John McGuiness.

The Red Arrows were present …

Down by the start line there were old cars – Julian Majzub in the Sunbeam Indianapolis, Lukas Huni in the Maserati 250F, Gabriele Tarquini in the Honda RA272 and Harm Lagaaij in the CanAm “roller skate” AVS Shadow

There were famous names – Rene Arnoux in the first turbo F1 Renault, Nelson Piquet in the Brabham BT52 and Sébastien Buemi in the Red Bull.

Less well known to some, but still significant – Henry Mann in the distinctive red and gold of Alan Mann Racing, Steve Soper – touring car and sports car racer in the Le Mans winning BMW and Bruno Senna in the Aston Martin DBR9 carrying a tribute to Allan Simonsen, who had sadly died at that year’s Le Mans race just a few days previously.

A trip to the top of the hill for the rally stages revealed a Paris Dakar Peugeot 405 trying the wide line.

There was a familiar Escort...

and a Toyota Corolla GT – a less well known rear wheel drive car that preceded the winning Celicas.

Perhaps some of this is getting a little familiar; whilst we were seeing new cars each year, there were also some old favourites re-appearing.

The event was also changing with significant manufacturer stands making it into an outdoor motor show. There was the soap box derby though ! The VSCC entered into the spirit with their GN Spider inspired entry.

Simon Diffey entered a Lotus 64 inspired vehicle and the Porsche Club had their Speedster. The soap box derby had previously run from 2000-4 when the teams took it all very seriously and hit speeds of 70mph.

High speed spills called a halt and so for 2013 they ran as demos only.

My two wheeled photos were somewhat limited that year; we have a Norton SG2 (and what a story that company would go on to have), Alan Cathcart’s Taylormade Saxon Triumph and John Surtees on board his Norton.

On four wheels, we had Jackie Stewart in his Tyrrell 006, the thundering 9.2 litre March Chevrolet 707, the Gerry Marshall Firenza “Baby Bertha” and the frankly whacky Miller Aerodynamic Coupe aka the Golden Submarine from 1917.

To round out this section, there’s stuntman Terry Grant getting back into his Legends car which has been doing donuts without him in the car and a hint of what was to come in GT racing - the launch of the glorious sounding Bentley Continental GT3.

2014

2014 was another full on year - three days at the event; the last time we did it this way. The crowds were now much bigger (more than 200,000 over the weekend) although, to be fair, there was much to see.

The purist in me was sad to see the crowds leave the side of the hillclimb once the F1 cars had smoked and donut-ed their way past ignoring Le Mans winners and other superb cars. We did get the Vulcan though !

We probably reached peak central feature though for the 120^th anniversary of motorsport for Mercedes. A 1934 W25 was accompanied on the sculpture by Lewis Hamilton’s 2013 W04 car.

The Alfa Romeo 4C with Rupert Keegan at the wheel and the camo Nissan GT-R with Jann Mardenborough (the original gamer turned racer) turned heads.

Historic racer Chris Ward was in the Lexus, Tiff was out in an M4 and Derek Bell was in a Bentley. One thing that is hard to keep up with, unless you are a whizz on race driver’s helmets is who is driving what.

Some are obvious – but some cars have multiple drivers over the weekend.

Toby Moody kept the crowd up to date with what was running up the hill while the start line marshals line up the cars ready for the signal to go !

My photos of bikes are again thin on the ground (but wait for 2015 !) 

We do have two motorcycles from very different disciplines. John McGuinness on the Team Honda CBR1000RR SP which he took round the Isle of Man TT that year at an average speed of over 130mph and Kevin Schwantz's 1990s Suzuki RGV 500 from the golden age of MotoGP racing. Ridden here by Michael 'Neevesy' Neeves – Chief Road Tester for Motor Cycle News.

On the way up to the rally stage, the off road area was running buggies this year – again a ride was available for a price – again I didn’t take it up.

On the rally stage, the Steve Perez Datsun 240Z was back but now in Amigos branding, there was an Impreza and, harking back to earlier days, the bark of the Metro 6R4 could be heard in the trees.

And still there was more – the imposing presence of the Nissan GT-R GT3 racer – that sounds as good as it looks, Damon Hill re-united with his Championship winning Williams FW18, the innovative March 2-4-0 car which saw success at hillclimbing and has been seen more latterly in historic racing and one of the finest touring cars of the 70s – the BMW 3.0 CSL Batmobile.

Finally, cars heading the right way – up the hill – the Auto Union Type D. The Mercedes W196 grand prix car with the distinctive streamliner bodywork used at Rheims and Monza.

Finally, one of the finest sports cars every made – the Ferrari 333SP with its glorious V12 engine – that was a sound at Le Mans as it passed the pits and the sound reverberated around the grandstands !

2015

2015 and all change ! I’d taken a package from my long term employer the previous year and was now on short term contracts. I decided to volunteer as a driver for the event and in exchange for free tickets for the weekend, worked a couple of afternoons driving people with expensive tickets between their special car park and the event in a Ford Kuga.

It was a fair swap and I got there Thursday afternoon (practice day), whereupon I snapped the central display. Mazda were showing the Le Mans winning 787B alongside the (fictional) LM55 from Gran Turismo.

2015 was probably peak-Festival of Speed with Valentino Rossi, the Doctor, due to attend on Sunday, but we are getting ahead of ourselves.

A wander round the paddock found the 1968 Belgian GP winner’s trophy (I was there !), Mercedes drivers Hans Herrmann, Jochen Mass and a familiar looking chap called Moss.

Elsewhere, Geraint Owen contemplates taking Babs, the infamous Parry Thomas land speed record car excavated from Pendine Sands, up the hill; Didier Pironi seems perfectly happy in the 1978 Le Mans winning Alpine Renault and the Le Mans winning 2015 Porsche 919, 

I’d tended to avoid the loud noisy GAS (Goodwood Actions Sports) arena in previous years - but really should have been there to view the considerable skills on show !

The rally stage has something old, something new and on the hill, something very large !

This time, I excelled myself with lots of motorcycle photos – Agostini, Kenny Roberts, Casey Stoner, John McGuinness, Leon Haslam and Greg Hancock on his speedway bike from Saturday.

Mattie Griffin impressed with his bike skills.

Of course, most people were waiting for Sunday and Vale. Unsurprisingly, he proved to be the centre of attention !

Some seemed to be a little pensive, although Sammy Miller, a regular, seems more relaxed. Steve Webster and Paul Woodhead were on their LCR Yamaha outfit.

Stirling was present along with Jackie Stewart to drive Mercedes up the hill. I spotted this note Moss had penned on the Mille Miglia winning car in tribute to Denis Jenkinson, without whom that victory would not have been possible.

So another Festival was over. What would the future hold ?  Well, not going to the Festival for the next few years. I’d discovered hillclimbing at places like Prescott and Shelsley Walsh where in the top class, 600+bhp cars are hustled up narrow tracks at incredible speed. It’s the purist in me, you see …

Footnote

I did actually go back to the Festival of Speed in 2019 on the Thursday practice day. There and back in the day with an early start and the M25 car park. It was good to go back and with limited time I concentrated on the paddocks and hillclimb.

The central feature highlighted Aston Martin’s win in the World Sportscar Championship in 1959.

There were rally cars …

James Wood was out in the Don Lee Special (an Alfa Romeo in disguise raced in the US) …

There were glimpses of some of my favourite cars …

There were road cars too …

There was a quiet, but very fast electric Volkswagen that went on to take the hill record, although there remains a sneaking suspicion that a British Hillclimb Championship car let loose could also set a very, very quick time …

And there was a clue that I had changed camera brands from the trusty Olympus E500 used from 2009 to 2015 to the Nikon D850. I had decided to travel light that day and used the Nikkor 24-120mm zoom for all these photos.

A longer zoom might have been better for some of the panning shots !

And that was that – 2020 as we know didn’t happen along with many other events and we shall see what happens in 2021. The online and televised Speedweek might offer some glimpses of what the Goodwood future might hold.

I have perhaps had my fill of Festival of Speeds, but if you haven’t been and you do get the chance, do go !

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