2011 Goodwood Festival of Speed
#1
07-05-2011, 06:19 PM
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Northern Virginia
Posts: 1,473
Rep Power: 76 
2011 Goodwood Festival of Speed
My wife and I just got back from the Goodwood Festival of Speed. I took a LOT of pictures - posted here -
Pictures by robert_collum - Photobucket
If you haven't heard of it, the Festival of Speed is held in England every year, on the estate of the Earl of March. The main event is a hillclimb, and they have lots of standing space all along the hillclimb route, as well as several grandstands. Bikes, racing touring cars, and F1 cars (old & new) alll participate in the hillclimb. This year, Goodwood honored the Indy 500, and there were a couple dozen Indy cars from the 1930's thru the present running the hillclimb. There were even a couple of Nascar vehicles present. A lot of current and prototype supercars also ran the hillclimb - everything from the McLaren MP14C, the latest Koenigsegg, the Exige-based Hennessey Venom, and the Ferrari FF.
Because the Festival is held the week before the British F1 race, F1 teams are always present. 10 current F1 teams, including drivers, were present.
Cartier (the jewelers) sponsored an amazing static display of some interesting cars. All were important in a way (VW bug, Citroen 2CV), some were hideous (Guyson E12), but many were gorgeous (Alfa Tipo 33 Stradale!).
There is a forest rally stage, with various spectator areas. Rally cars from the Group B era were there, including Audi Quattro and Lancia Stratos. Modern rally cars ran, too.
There were pavilions set up by car manufacturers, and Lotus had one. They displayed two JPS-liveried F1 cars, an Esprit V8, an Elise Club Racer, and three Evoras - 'regular', Evora S, and GT4. They also had the mockup of the proposed new Esprit on display.
The Festival of Speed runs three days (there is a Thursday 'travelling motor show', but the displays stay, so we skipped Thursday). There is so much going on - vendors selling the typical t-shirts and models, special technical exhibits (some nice displays on hybrid/electric vehicles, inclusing a cutaway Evora with an electric motor, including Lotus' own noise-generating hardware). The EU wants electric vehicles to be required to make some noise, to alert pedestrians that a vehicle is approaching. The Evora was switchable between making a V6 noise, a V12 noise, and some other electonic noises.
We spent between 7 to 9 hours per day, for 3 days, and it took that long to see most of the displays. It was great!!
The featured marque at the FOS was Jaguar, and they honored the 50th anniversary of the XKE. Below is a picture of the giant sculpture of an XKE coupe in the front of Goodwood House, the Earl of March's home.
--Bob Collum
Pictures by robert_collum - Photobucket
If you haven't heard of it, the Festival of Speed is held in England every year, on the estate of the Earl of March. The main event is a hillclimb, and they have lots of standing space all along the hillclimb route, as well as several grandstands. Bikes, racing touring cars, and F1 cars (old & new) alll participate in the hillclimb. This year, Goodwood honored the Indy 500, and there were a couple dozen Indy cars from the 1930's thru the present running the hillclimb. There were even a couple of Nascar vehicles present. A lot of current and prototype supercars also ran the hillclimb - everything from the McLaren MP14C, the latest Koenigsegg, the Exige-based Hennessey Venom, and the Ferrari FF.
Because the Festival is held the week before the British F1 race, F1 teams are always present. 10 current F1 teams, including drivers, were present.
Cartier (the jewelers) sponsored an amazing static display of some interesting cars. All were important in a way (VW bug, Citroen 2CV), some were hideous (Guyson E12), but many were gorgeous (Alfa Tipo 33 Stradale!).
There is a forest rally stage, with various spectator areas. Rally cars from the Group B era were there, including Audi Quattro and Lancia Stratos. Modern rally cars ran, too.
There were pavilions set up by car manufacturers, and Lotus had one. They displayed two JPS-liveried F1 cars, an Esprit V8, an Elise Club Racer, and three Evoras - 'regular', Evora S, and GT4. They also had the mockup of the proposed new Esprit on display.
The Festival of Speed runs three days (there is a Thursday 'travelling motor show', but the displays stay, so we skipped Thursday). There is so much going on - vendors selling the typical t-shirts and models, special technical exhibits (some nice displays on hybrid/electric vehicles, inclusing a cutaway Evora with an electric motor, including Lotus' own noise-generating hardware). The EU wants electric vehicles to be required to make some noise, to alert pedestrians that a vehicle is approaching. The Evora was switchable between making a V6 noise, a V12 noise, and some other electonic noises.
We spent between 7 to 9 hours per day, for 3 days, and it took that long to see most of the displays. It was great!!
The featured marque at the FOS was Jaguar, and they honored the 50th anniversary of the XKE. Below is a picture of the giant sculpture of an XKE coupe in the front of Goodwood House, the Earl of March's home.
--Bob Collum
Last edited by rcollum; 07-06-2011 at 01:04 PM.
#6
07-07-2011, 05:16 PM
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Northern Virginia
Posts: 1,473
Rep Power: 76 What area are you going to? Lots of car stuff to do - depends on your area. For instance, Caterham holds drifting classes every few weeks, at various locations. You use their Caterham Sevens. They were set up at Goodwood, but only allowed Goodwood Drivers Club members to participate (damn it!).
McLaren opened up their first sales showroom in London - might be worth a call; they probably require an appointment to come in.
Car factory tours - you should be able to arrange these thru dealers here in the states.
--Bob Collum
#7
07-07-2011, 05:29 PM
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Northern Virginia
Posts: 1,473
Rep Power: 76 OK, the 1000+ pictures I posted on Photobucket were less than half of what I have. Here are some more -
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#8
07-07-2011, 05:38 PM
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Northern Virginia
Posts: 1,473
Rep Power: 76
...and I love the competition cars...
BMW had a display with an old M1, as well as the BMW Turbo show car it was based on. The last picture here is this year's auto show car, an homage to the original M1. It's a shame they won't be making it - it's beautiful.
--Bob Collum
BMW had a display with an old M1, as well as the BMW Turbo show car it was based on. The last picture here is this year's auto show car, an homage to the original M1. It's a shame they won't be making it - it's beautiful.
--Bob Collum
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