The Silverstone Festival 

Friday 26 August 2023

The Silverstone Festival (rebranded from the Classic) now says exactly what it is, a festival of motorsports that has subtly changed from the original format that had been running for years. The original Classic mostly focused on race cars from a bygone era, which is not an original idea as many shows throughout the UK stage similar events.

The Goodwood Revival has been doing the same thing for some time and some would say better, mainly due to the amazing drivers Goodwood manages to assemble in their original cars, which sets it apart from all of the other Classic events. The other unique feature Goodwood has are the spectators who dress in period correct clothing.

The Donington Historic is another classic motorsports event which is very similar to the Silverstone Festival in that it, like the Goodwood Revival, invites car clubs to display their vehicles at the show. However, the Silverstone Festival is much larger than Goodwood and Donington, both physically and with the number of cars that are racing and on display.

Now that the Festival has gone in a slightly different direction to the Revival and Historic I was looking forward to what the changes had been made, and if it was the still a must-do event for me as a spectator photographer and petrolhead.

All of these classic events like to have a theme and this year’s Silverstone Festival was no exception. Celebrating 75 years of motorsport at the self styled home of British motorsport, the event team had sourced the original 1948 Grand Prix cars that took part in the very first race held at Silverstone.

They had also, like last year, managed to get the together a load of more modern F1 cars. This for me the was the highlight of the day, the sound of a V10 echoing round the grandstands was sublime and has to be experienced in person.

The F1 cars were housed at the international pits with endurance and classic race cars. In recent years the pits have been open to the public to wander round and check out the cars up close. They were still open this year but there were a lot more barriers up than usual, mostly put there by the teams.

Why? I don’t know, but the pits looked absolutely rammed with machines so it was probably a wise move with power cables, air lines and extremely hot engines presenting hazards for the unwary.

The pits at the international end of the track had spilled out to include the paddock area and beyond, enforcing my perception that there were a lot more race cars here than last year. I don’t know if there were but there were a lot and as I was only attending for one day, the Friday, I was unable to get round to see everything that was on display. I did try!

At the other end of Silverstone the National Pits were also being used, like a sleeping giant the Godzilla of races cars the R32 GT-R were housed here with the other Historic Touring Cars.

As Silverstone is so large and the organisers had utilised a lot of the real estate to house and display the cars, getting around can involve a lot of walking. To help move the spectators around, a fleet of modern and classic buses were utilised to ferry the fans around. There were a number of routes, one on the outside of the track and one inside. I jumped on the inside route to get to the international pits as it would go past the corners of the loop and village complex.

At the recent British MotoGP I was pleasantly surprised that Silverstone had lifted the restrictions on spectating here, so was interested to see if it was the same for the Festival. It was, so walking back from the International pits to the main car club display area was a must as it takes you past these areas which are great to photograph the action and spectate.

This route takes you past the family fun zone with its fun fair and food stalls. There is also a large pop up retail area, all of which I bypassed as I didn’t have any kids with me and wasn’t in the market for a oil drum that had been converted into a fridge / chair / table. 

According to the timetable on the Silverstone App, which was an excellent tool when I was planning my trip at home the night before, but absolutely useless on the day as the large crowds sucked up all of the available mobile phone data. There were food and wine demonstrations also going on, reinforcing the festival vibe.

However, I was more interested in what was on track than experiencing Saturday Kitchen Live or whatever it was, so no pictures from me of this area but my shooting buddy managed a few!

He also hit the Silverstone museum which is free to get in during the Festival. It also has a decent cafe if sitting on a park bench eating your lunch is not your thing. 

Heading back to the Luffield complex, another great area at Silverstone to take photos from the spectator area even if 99% of it has safety fences between you and the action, the endurance cars were due out so I got a move on. I have experienced them at this event for a few years and they are not only great to watch but very photogenic, and are something different to your usual race car.

As the endurance cars headed back into the pits I took a short walk from Luffield under one of the access bridges on to the old unused part of the circuit which is where some new events for this year were being held. The drift cars were warming up and soon out sliding sideways in massive clouds of tyre smoke. I have yet to go to an event where drifting is not an absolute crowd pleaser.

A short simple course of around 300m with a barrel at each end for the cars to slide round doesn’t sound too exciting, but zigzagging between them and doing doughnuts with the engines bouncing off the rev-limiters had the crowd mesmerised, especially the younger ones!

I have seen drifting on the track at Silverstone before, watching them fly into Brooklands at over a hundred miles an hour and through it sideways with tyres screaming and billowing smoke. It is great fun, but I suppose due to the packed track schedule off track this simpler course was better than nothing, maybe next year?

Also located here and using the same tarmac, which by the end of the day had a good coating of rubber, were the rally cars and the new for this year, drag cars. Due to time constraints I didn’t get to see the drag cars but I presume it would have been burn outs and a short run as the track was quite small. I will check them out next year if they return.

I will most definitely be back in 2024. I’m in the fortunate position that I have a car that meets the display criteria which allows me to drive into the event early and park up in the middle of the action. Being able to leave kit in my car, returning when I need to swap out photographic gear is so handy and a great way to break up the day chatting to likeminded petrolheads.

So, is the rebranded Festival better than last year’s Classic? I think it is. There is more to do away from the track and more on track, which is great. If you are only attending for one day you will need to study the time table as you will struggle to get everything in, but for those who have the time I would recommend two or the full three days.

I have in the past stayed for the full weekend, and viewing the endurance cars race into the sunset, then heading to the main stage to have a few beers while watching a quality band is a great way to end a day at the Silverstone Festival.

Photographic Post Script

A little unusual choice of lens for this assignment, the Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 70-200mm f/2.8E FL ED VR, the last of the 70-200mm f2.8 for DSLR. This lens was not picked by choice, but my regular long lens is in for service and awaiting parts. So I had to work with what I have. Matched to the Nikon D500, the last of the DSLR pro crop cameras from Nikon, this combination did rather well.

I did add the 1.4 and 1.7 teleconverters which will take this combination out to an equivalent maximum 510mm, which is just about enough for Silverstone. The added benefit is that this is a relatively light combination, which was great as I walked a good distance. 

As you can see from the quality, it is difficult to distinguish when the teleconverters were used. However, if you are a regular visitor to Silverstone you can probably work it out. My shooting buddy was using a D500, the 200-400mm f4 and as I was the Nikon 18-140mm for the garage shots.