Inclement weather had battered and bruised England during the early summer months, leaving people wondering how Goodwood’s Festival of Speed would be affected. Although heavy dark clouds brought rain and gusting wind on Friday morning, almost on cue for the Red Arrows aerial display the grey sky cleared—as if commanded by Lord March himself—and the gleaming Hawk jets sketched their smoke trails on a bright blue canvass.
While the theme of the event was officially “Young Guns—Born to Win,” the 60th Anniversaries of Lotus and the Mercedes SL mirrored that of Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee. Indeed, Her Majesty had a number of vehicles entered in the Cartier “Style et Luxe” Royal Vehicle Concours d’Elegance honoring the royal celebration.
The ice-white, triangular-sectioned sculpture outside Goodwood House was another creation by festival regular Gerry Judah, entitled “Light Curves” and paying homage to Lotus. It represented a racetrack as a trefoil knot and was adorned with six Lotus racecars—the green and yellow 32B Tasman car, the Gold Leaf 49, the black and gold 72 and 79 cars, a yellow 99T and the current Lotus Renault E20-05—all signifying the evolution of the marque. Some 40 or more cars from the Lotus stable encircled the edifice on each of the three days to record and mark the Lotus lineage. Together these cars collected 13 F1 World Championships—six drivers and seven constructors titles—and joined an impressive selection of Indycar, sedan, sports and road cars, all of them part of the DNA of the marque.
Among the top cars making demonstration runs up the hill was the most recent race winner, the Audi R18 E-tron Quattro fresh from victory in the 80th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Audi’s 11th victory in 13 years.
One of the most quirky of those demonstrated was the March F1 2-4-0, a Grand Prix car of the 1970s that never competed in a GP. The six-wheeler, with four drive wheels at the rear as opposed to the four steering front wheels of the Tyrrell P34, was an engineering exercise by designer Robin Herd more to create publicity and much needed funds in period rather than be a serious racing contender. Other six-wheeled cars, the Tyrrell P34 (by far the most successful) and the later Williams FW08 six-wheeler, completed the display. Other marques on show included Mercedes, which was celebrating 60 years of the SL (Super Leicht) with the W194s that won Le Mans and the Carrera Panamericana in 1952, and the #658 Fangio 300 SLR that was runner-up to the famous #722 Moss/ Jenkinson sister car at the 1955 Mille Miglia. Renault also brought several cars from its racing heritage for drivers Alain Prost, Rene Arnoux and Michel Leclère to demonstrate.
Intermingled with the machinery were the men who drove them, from today as well as former eras: Sebastian Vettel, Jenson Button, Lewis Hamilton, Alain Prost, Nico Rosberg, Mark Webber, Sir Stirling Moss, Tony Brooks, John Surtees, Emerson Fittipaldi and Sir Jackie Stewart.
I thought I would leave it to newcomer Prost, to have the last words: “The Goodwood Festival of Speed is even better than I’d thought. What is impressive is that the complete history of motor racing and the automotive industry is on display here. You can see the tradition and love of motor sport here in the UK. I believe this is the only event that could do that.”
By Mike Jiggle
