Goodwood Festival of Speed
Famous cars and drivers bring racing history to life in a park-like setting.
This is a motorsport event of which many folks in the United States are likely unaware. In 1993 The Duke of Richmond and Gordon (formerly the Earl of March), overseer of England's Goodwood Estate, sought to revive Goodwood's once well known motor racing heritage by staging a unique hill climb to showcase historic racing machinery. This event was named The Goodwood Festival of Speed .
Having grown into an event of great stature in the realm of international motorsport since then, a good many of the world's most famous racing cars and drivers from the past and present trek to the Festival of Speed to motor, or in numerous cases speed, up the hill of the Goodwood Estate's drive.
The cars go up the hill at intervals so they can be appreciated one-at-a-time. While not racing side-by-side they are officially timed on designated runs and many drivers do, in fact, try to drive as quickly as possible on those runs, creating a spectacular show for appreciative spectators.
(An exception to being officially timed are modern Formula One cars, which possess too great a speed potential to be allowed full-on runs. Instead, the drivers of current F1 machinery put on demonstrations including short bursts of acceleration and tire smoking "donuts" all along the hill. While safer than all-out speed runs, these activities are quite crowd pleasing as well.)
This event is open to the public, The Duke of Richmond and Gordon allowing complete strangers on to the Estate to see it all (albeit for a fee, of course).
Enjoy golf, horse racing, motorsport or aviation? Click on this link to learn more about all of the activities offered year 'round at Goodwood: Goodwood's Homepage