euan
21st September 2008, 02:03 PM
I know we all like cars and motorsport, so thought you guys might be interested. This is long though, but good for a Sunday!
For my Christmas last year, my wife got us two tickets for the Goodwood Revival, so yesterday at some ungodly hour for a Saturday we got in the car and went off to Goodwood. The AA reckoned on two hours, we did it in 75...
Anyway, for those who don't know, Goodwood do two events, the Festival of Speed which is a massive hillclimb in the grounds of the house, no cars excluded and is a huge event now. Loads of F1, track and rally stars, and has a great atmosphere, we loved it when we went. But this was the first we had gone to the Revival. It's at the Goodwood circuit and it's only for pre-66 cars (although, they bend the rules slightly, if the car was built after that but looked and was mechanically the same, your allowed to run). Everybody makes an effort to dress up too.
Essentially, it's a classic car weekend, so plenty of GP and saloon cars, along with some really expensive motors! I'd never seen a 250 GTO until yesterday, when I saw 4! Two race cars and two road cars (was is apparently Chris Evans, but nobody confirmed it).
Highlights for me were the practice for the RAC TT event, the cars in the field for this race is valued at about $85 million! The pace these guys drive in these cars is full on, no holds barred as it's all ex racing drivers (Brundle was there sharing the drive on Adrian Newey's new toy, a lightweight Jag E-type - which they put on pole), or big petrolheads as most races featured cars from Nick Mason. The other highlight was the last race, which started at 5:50 and finished at 7:30ish. These cars were of a type that raced in Goodwood's old 9 hours races into the twilight, and this was to let everyone see these cars in that same light. Was awesome watching them ping on in that light! Emmanuelle Pirro was pinging round in car number 8, an Auston Healey and just thrashed everyone (he lapped he second placed car within an hour).
Final highlight was the airshow - two spitfires and a Lancaster were the real stars, though the Mustang made a great noise!
Brilliant day, ended by having chips in real paper cones on the walk back to the car park - got home about 9:30 last night with no traffic holdups on route as people had drifted away during the last race so we had an easy trip home. Tired but happy!
Anyway, I took some 400 pictures, put some up on Flickr here - I have lots more and some videos, I might pop some of them up later. All in all, if you get the chance to go, I would highly recommend either event! The revival was probably the more enjoyable of the two as it had such an old school feel to it, even the marshalls were dressed in old overalls. The Festival Of Speed is for hardcore speed, it's all about the fastest cars up the hill. And while that's amazing to see, this was a more enjoyable day out.
LINK (http://www.flickr.com/photos/euanpirie/sets/72157607407976125/) to the pictures!
For my Christmas last year, my wife got us two tickets for the Goodwood Revival, so yesterday at some ungodly hour for a Saturday we got in the car and went off to Goodwood. The AA reckoned on two hours, we did it in 75...
Anyway, for those who don't know, Goodwood do two events, the Festival of Speed which is a massive hillclimb in the grounds of the house, no cars excluded and is a huge event now. Loads of F1, track and rally stars, and has a great atmosphere, we loved it when we went. But this was the first we had gone to the Revival. It's at the Goodwood circuit and it's only for pre-66 cars (although, they bend the rules slightly, if the car was built after that but looked and was mechanically the same, your allowed to run). Everybody makes an effort to dress up too.
Essentially, it's a classic car weekend, so plenty of GP and saloon cars, along with some really expensive motors! I'd never seen a 250 GTO until yesterday, when I saw 4! Two race cars and two road cars (was is apparently Chris Evans, but nobody confirmed it).
Highlights for me were the practice for the RAC TT event, the cars in the field for this race is valued at about $85 million! The pace these guys drive in these cars is full on, no holds barred as it's all ex racing drivers (Brundle was there sharing the drive on Adrian Newey's new toy, a lightweight Jag E-type - which they put on pole), or big petrolheads as most races featured cars from Nick Mason. The other highlight was the last race, which started at 5:50 and finished at 7:30ish. These cars were of a type that raced in Goodwood's old 9 hours races into the twilight, and this was to let everyone see these cars in that same light. Was awesome watching them ping on in that light! Emmanuelle Pirro was pinging round in car number 8, an Auston Healey and just thrashed everyone (he lapped he second placed car within an hour).
Final highlight was the airshow - two spitfires and a Lancaster were the real stars, though the Mustang made a great noise!
Brilliant day, ended by having chips in real paper cones on the walk back to the car park - got home about 9:30 last night with no traffic holdups on route as people had drifted away during the last race so we had an easy trip home. Tired but happy!
Anyway, I took some 400 pictures, put some up on Flickr here - I have lots more and some videos, I might pop some of them up later. All in all, if you get the chance to go, I would highly recommend either event! The revival was probably the more enjoyable of the two as it had such an old school feel to it, even the marshalls were dressed in old overalls. The Festival Of Speed is for hardcore speed, it's all about the fastest cars up the hill. And while that's amazing to see, this was a more enjoyable day out.
LINK (http://www.flickr.com/photos/euanpirie/sets/72157607407976125/) to the pictures!