Goodwood Festival of Speed 2014

Is anyone going?

This year the Goodwood Festival of Speed (FOS) is being held from the 26th June - 29th June.

Thursday 26th is the Moving Motor Show, which is not the actual FOS, but instead a day showing off the new models of car from each manufacturer, so think of it like a car show. However it is a good day to go because all of the car paddocks and manufacturers stands are in place so you can look around the whole event without the masses of crowds you get on the actual FOS days. The only thing you don't get to see on the Thursday are the cars running up the hill.

If you get the requests in early you can even book test drives for any manufacturer you like for their current and new models, for anything from a Fiat to a Ferrari.

You can often also get free tickets for the Thursday Moving Motor show. I just secured some via the AA through a direct invitation from them.

But the main weekend event is the one to really go to. Everyone needs to go at least once as it is one of the best motoring events in the world, if not the best. No where else will you ever see so many cars brought together from across the whole history of motor racing, right from the very first dating from over 100 years ago, right up to the latest F1 cars, and they all get driven up the hill track, so you get to see them all running, and when not running you can walk right around them in the paddock areas. It is a brilliant event.

And even greater are the drivers attending. Over 50% of all current F1 drivers normally attend. Regulars every year are Jenson, Hamilton and many others. You also get some of the greats such as Sir Sterling Moss still driving his original racing cars up the hill to entertain fans. Plus loads of other current and past drivers from F1, GT, Rally and every other type of motor racing you can think off. And in more recent years motorbikes and rally cars have been added... with a special rally stage set within the Goodwood estate woods at the top of the main hill climb.. it's amazing seeing famous vintage rally cars actually being raced around a timed rally stage, and some even crashing!

This year the Peugeot 208 T16 peaks Pike special driven by Sebastien Loeb is going to try and beat the beat the current hill climb record, held by Nick Heidfeld since 1999 in an F1 car. Sadly the F1 cars are no longer allowed to attempt to set a real timed run because it is too dangerous and there were some crashes in previous years.

I always liked this events, and i saw a lot of videos about it.
So many excellent cars there.
but i never understood the track, it looks so uninteresting... why not put it on a real circuit? Some place where they can accelerate more.
It look to narrow.

It isn't a race track. It's the private road within the Goodwood estate which runs past Goodwood house. The event isn't really about racing and more about seeing the vintage and modern cars very close up being driven and working. So it is more like a long road that winds through the country estate and up hill to a finish.

The event was originally created and staged by Lord March, the owner of Goodwood Estate, to see some cars racing past his house because he is a huge car fanatic. Over the years it has expanded to become one of the biggest motoring events of the year.

Goodwood does also own it's own proper race track which is used for Goodwood revival in September each year. This features actual races running cars of similar vintage, class or model in each race, with drivers wearing authentic clothing from the car's era, and everyone going for the day dressing up in vintage clothes too.

The Goodwood race track also holds racing events throughout the year, plus it has track day events all year for anyone to take their road/track day car along for a few laps.

If you ever fancied going to the Festival of Speed just let me know as I only live a couple of miles from it.

Yes, but a lot of old cars have great engines with a lot of power. I really like to see the F1 old glories and they have a lot of power. feels like if they had a different road they could go faster.
Sometimes events start for a first time and keep going year after year without changing a bit, in one hand it's good, they keep the original, on the other hand, they could improve.
When you see a vintage old car, and their owners want to show it, but not take risks with high speeds, any road will do, if the road is near the crowd better. But people also like to see the fast cars going faster, and for that you need better tracks.

We have here some festivals like the F1 classics running on Estoril Circuit. But is nothing compared with Goodwood were you can see much more cars of any kind.
One day i got a press pass and walk the Estoril Circuit by foot along the track. There was the Tyrrel with 6 wheels passing 150 km/h just 4 meters from me. whooooooh that was superb !

I would love to do something like this one day. I have way to much on each year at the moment but one day I will get there.

If you are interested this year Goodwood have provided a live feed of the whole event.

http://grrc.goodwood.com/festival-of...-social-stream

It's broadcasting the actual Goodwood TV as shown on the big screens at the event so pretty cool.