View of the Festival from the Ford
tower.
Goodwood Festival of Speed 2013
Goodwood Festival of Speed had its inaugural event in 1993.
A tiny event compared to the mega event of today. But the
signs were very clear. Lord March had created a succes and
has not looked back since those days in 1993.
Over the years the Festival has expanded from 'just' some
cars driving up a country lane to these days where a proper
exhibition of luxury cars in all shapes and sizes - and
prices - has popped up. Up the hill there is a Rally track
and all over the place there are oceans of catering to feed
the hungry and thirsty visitors. It is a event that has
grown a little bit every year and one has the feel that
every single detail is checked and checked again.
Hot!
If not for anything else the Goodwood Festival of Speed
2013 will be remembered for sizzling temperatures and the
sun shining from a clear sky during the entire event. This
is a rather rare occasion, as the inevitable drops of rain
usually falls during the FOS weekends. But not in 2013 which
in part could be explained by the unusual late date for
the event in mid july.
Vulcan of the skies as well as Red
Arrows are also part of FOS:
That was due to absolutely appalling planning by Formula
1 which originally had planned the GP's so that FOS could
take place at the 4th to the 7th of July. But events in
late November saw a reschedule of the German GP, at that
date and a 20th GP to take place at the 21st of July. With
Goodwood Festival of Speed having since the start having
been centered around Formula 1 - that was a problem. So
a relocation to the 11th to the 14th of July was arranged
much to the frustration of everyone who already had flights
and hotels arranged.
The 20th GP from the 2013 Formula 1 season never took place
so the entire reshuffle turned out to be unnecessary. It
is rather pathetic that Formula 1 can't get its act together!
Don't order your hotels or planes before the Formula 1 schedule
is cast in concrete must be the lesson!
What about the future?
In all fairness the event present some problems today.
The area itself can easily contain all the visitors and
vehicles. No problems there. The problem is really the surroundings
or rather the access roads to the event which are very tiny
country roads.
There have always been made a mega job of getting the cars
into the parking areas to avoid congestion as much as possible.
But the popularity of the event caters for a lot of vehicles
trying to get into the parking areas. Even if you get up
very early you will eventually get stuck. This is bad enough
for those trying to get in - but imagine actually living
in the small towns during the weekend?
Rumours of getting stuck for more than 4 hours on the access
roads do linger around and sounds a bit like Silverstone
in the old days? I don't hope it will be necessary to limit
the ticket sales even more to reduce access to FOS. But
I'm sure the discussions in the area are intense. Specially
for those who are no fans of Motor Racing. No really - do
they exist?
Kevin Magnussen led the Danish entry
in the Lewis Hamilton MP4/23 2008 Championship car.
The Danish Edition? Yes indeed.
There might be the occasional red and white tinted glasses
present here... Originally it was planned that the by now
9 times Le Mans Winner Tom Kristensen should have taken
part in FOS, but became enrolled in an Audi demo at Norisring
in Germany.
Rumoured for a long time in advance was the arrival of
present points leader in the World Series by Renault 3.5:
Kevin Magnussen. Kevin is a McLaren young driver
- a job shared with his closest rival in the Renault series
- Stoffel Vandoorne - who were present at Goodwood FOS as
well. Kevin was a part of the McLaren 50 years exhibition
and should have shown some of the iconic winners from that
stable.
Kevin unfortunately only drove on friday as he caught a
fever for the rest of the weekend. So that was a bummer
really. A Danish TV station had taken a crew to Goodwood
to cover Kevins tracks but that came to almost nothing unfortunately.
We must hope that Kevin gets another chance next year? Not
the least to make up for the disappointment by doing som
proper donots and burnouts! Something that the 50 years
of McLaren convoy did not cater for.
Kevin Magnussen (l) and his main
rival Stoffel Vandoorne (r) in the WSR 3.5 series.
Kevin Magnussen in front of a couple
of iconic McLaren winners.
Kevin Magnussen getting ready for
the off.
Mclaren 50 years celebration
One of the greatest teams of all time in F1 has celebrated
their 50 years in racing during 2013. At Goodwood Festival
of Speed the celebrations was made up of a parade of iconic
McLaren racing cars since the very first from 1963.
Kevin Magnussen led the Danish entry
in the Lewis Hamilton MP4/23 2008 Championship car.
Sergio Perez had an outing in Sennas
old MP4/4 from 1988.
This McLaren Offy M16C that legends
Mark Donohue and Johnny Rutherford drove to victory at Indy
in 1972 and 1974 was
at this occasion driven by owner/entrant Patrick Ryan
Due to the sick Kevin Magnussen,
Stoffel Vandoorne took over the driving of the MP4/23 saturday
and sunday
This picture is Goodwood pure. A
little boy gets his heros signature and runs away with a
loud 'YES' to the amusement of the crowd.
Bright orange legendary Can Am M8D
with Bruce McLarens name on the body driven by Jenson Button
Le Mans winning McLaren from 1995.
Danish edition no. 2 - Porsche young driver Michael
K. Christensen
Maybe not a household name like Kevin Magnussen and Tom
Kristensen... yet! But Michael is a very succesful Porsche
Young Driver who have made his name through strong showings
during 2013 in the Porsche Super Cup series that races during
GP weekends. A very handy stage to show his considerable
talent!
As a Porsche driver, Michael was summoned to drive various
historic Porsche machinery up the hill and was literally
'a kid in a candystore'. Michael is tall - above 6 ft, so
he had some trouble getting inside the cramped Porsche 917
cockpit. But even if he had to lean his head to be able
to close the door it was not a occasion that he would abandon.
Eagerly 'taping' the glorious sound of the Boxer 12 cylinder
engine on his Iphone in the process.
Barely fitting inside the 1970 Le Mans winning Porsche
917. Michael had a blast.
Even more blast in the mighty Porsche 917-30 Can
Am.
Perfect reflection.
Michael in 'Moby Dick'.
Formula 1
As ever the event centers around Formula 1 and yet again
a lot of wellknown teams were present with newcomers Marussia
joining Ferrari, Lotus, Mercedes, McLaren, Caterham and
Red Bull. All the contemporary stuff. But Goodwood Festival
of Speed is naturally 'old F1' as well where the absolute
highlight of the weekend was the restored Brabham BT-52
World Champion car of 1983. Yes 30 years old!? Surely can't
be, can it? Together with that old car came the original
driver - Nelson Piquet - present at Goodwood
FOS for the first time in 10 years.
Nelson
Piquet in the beautiful 30 year old Brahma BT-52
US hopeful Alex Rossi got a taste
of F1.
Ferrari Goodwood regular Marc Gené
drove the 2010 Ferrari.
Charles Pic was the other driver
in the Caterham over the weekend.
Marussia made their debut at FOS.
This is the view most other drivers
in F1 have of the Red Bull these days.
A nosey Red bull.
Sportscars and Le Mans
A lot of the hundreds of cars present
at Festival of Speed will fall into the
Sports cars and Le Mans category. Nothing bad at all in
that. An annual feature to add to the already impressive
lineup is the expected presence of the most recent Le Mans
winning car. And not a copy - not a mock up. No the ACTUAL
winning car travelstained with tattered bodywok and smattered
in squashed bugs. Lo and behold the no.
2 Audi from the recent Le Mans was there. And as an added
bonus we had the Toyota as well.
So if that was not an impressive lineup I don't know what
would be!
The winged wonder Chaparral 2E driven
by Jim Hall jr.
Much to the amusement of onlookers
Le Mans winner Alan McNish was much too late for his drive.
Almost Le Mans winner from 1998 -
Toyota GT-One TSO20
Also a 2013 Le Mans entrant Aston
Martin in exuberant colours
Audi no. 2 Le Mans winning car 2013.
Battledamage!
Little 'Ant' and his Toyota.
Legendary noses in summer sun. Glorious.
Fun stuff
An established part of Festival of Speed is the presence
of the wacky characters from Wacky Racers. The 'Laurel and
Hardy' lookalikes doing their very best to get into the
way of hardworking photographers!
British three time Superbike Champion
John Reynolds rounded up by the Wacky guys.
Motorcycle racer Stuart Graham as
the meat in a Wacky sandwich.
Sebastian Buemi got caught up by
Wackys
A very special van. Below the anonymous
bodywork lurks a roaring Jaguar XJR-220.
British humour at it very best.
Terry Grant demonstrated that it
is not necessary to stay inside the car to drive it!
Bob Riggle did his best to stay excited
but had to reduce the sparking due to the dry bales that
tended to light up in flames!
Goodwood beach
A very exclusive collection of Land Speed Record cars were
centered around the entire cricket pitch that for the event
was covered in sand to resemble Daytona beach. At least
some of the cars had their glory a lot of years ago at that
beach, although we know most of these LSR's taking places
like Bonneville Salt Flats in the US.
For the last couple of years the latest project in the LSR
range is displayed at Goodwood in greater and greater bits
in the shape of the Bloodhound SSC that uses a Ford Cosworth
engine as a fuel pump!
From Sinsheim Germany came Gary Gabelichs
622.4 Mph rocket powered 'The Blue Flame' of 1970 vintage
At the front 'Jet Reaction', in the
middle 'The 52 Express' and 'Gilette Mach 3 Challenger'
in the back.
From 1929 Henry Segraves 'Golden
Arrow' that drove at Daytona Beach at the staggering 231.45
Mph. It drove only one way, so not a lot of mileage in this
one!
British hero Donald Campbells Bluebird-Proteus
CN7 topped 403.1 Mph in 1964
Two wheeled action
As ever the sheer amount of highly powered racing motorcycles
and famous riders from the past were staggering. Literally
a "who is who" of two wheels were present in the
sun. If you think a Formula 1 car is noisy, then just try
to stand close to one of the old 1960's vintage Honda 'screamers',
that will literally shatter your eardrums. No one doubted
when these bikes entered the track.
But that was absolutely nothing compared to the noise from
the 'bike' entered by King Racing. The six time European
Top Fuel drag Racing champion Ian King drove his 1500cc
supercharged that is capable of covering the quatermile
in a mere 6.12 seconds. When he turned the handle on that
bike I'm sure that the furniture in the Lord March estate
moved across the floors!
Fast Freddie Spencer
reunited with one of his Hondas
Kenny Roberts on the iconic yellow
and black Yamaha from 1980.
Giacomo Agostini on a sweet looking
MV Agusta wellknown from the Italians career.
Yes it is a Valetino Rossi bike,
but the rider in this cas was Randy Mamola. A flashy rider
in his days as well.
Combine a 440bhp turbine engine from
an Agusta 109 helicopter with a motorcycle you get a MT42SS
Street fighter... Whooosh!
Days of thunder -
literally. Earsplitting noise from this dragbike that did
burnouts.
The Italian multiple world Champion
Giacomo Agostini and a smiling model. I don't think Ago
felt uncomfortable!
Former World Champion Kevin Schwantz yet again visisted
FOS.
Stars and stripes and perfect reflection.
The famous bike from the even more famous roadmovie: Easy
Rider.
Not a lot of rubber left on that tire in a few seconds!
Tailpiece!
This was not an entry in the fastest time on the hill!
See you all next year!
