Goodwood Festival of Speed 2017

For gearheads, Goodwood needs little explanation whether they've been there or not.  For non-gearheads, here's the poop.  The Goodwood Festival of Speed was founded in 1993 by Lord March in order to bring motor racing back to the Goodwood estate — a location steeped in British motor racing history. Shortly after taking over the estate in the early 1990s, Lord March wanted to bring back motor racing to Goodwood Circuit, but did not have the necessary permit to host a race there. Therefore, he instead hosted it on his own grounds. With a small selection of entrants made up of invited historic vehicles, the first event that took place proved to be a success, taking in a crowd of 25,000 despite a date clash with the 24 Hours of Le Mans that year. After the first event's date clash, Lord March would ensure that the event would never be allowed to clash with either Le Mans or Formula One races.  Each year, a representative sculpture is placed on the lawn of the House.  This year, Bernie Ecclestone (who, in his eighties, has recently "retired" as the head of Formula 1 racing...we doubt that his retirement was voluntary) was the focus, and Formula 1 cars took the place of honor:

Mostly what you hear about at the FOS is the hill climb.  This is just what it says:  a fast run up the hill from the House to the Rally area.  Cars compete in classes that include everything from early 20th century race cars to the latest models of super cars.

Getting ready to climb.  Older F1 cars...

 and F1 World Champion Nico Rosberg, in a 2014 Mercedes F1:

Climbing:

Now here's Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason, driving his Ferrari 250 GTO.  The car competed at LeMans in the early 60's and is valued in excess of $40,000,000.

But there's so much more!  The whole event was more than we ever expected!  In addition to watching the hill climb, one can wander through all the garages, attend the Cartier Style et Luxe concourse, and take a hayride behind a tractor to the top of the hill to watch historic cars take to the rally stage.  From there, walk downhill and pass a off-roading venue (with rides for the fans), a motocross area, an area dedicated to drifting, and loads of vendors selling everything from antiques to ice cream.  It's a steady stream of automotive entertainment and we couldn't see how anyone could get bored.

Another pastime at the FOS is looking for automotive celebrities.  Here's who we found wandering among us.

British racing legend Brian Redman:

Formula 1 hero Rene Arnoux:

The Wee Scot (Sir Jackie Stewart):

Former Ferrari team boss (during the Schumacher years) and now FIA honcho Jean Todt, taking a very French look at an auto on the concourse:

CART and IndyCar champ Dario Franchitti:

Imo!  Emerson Fittipaldi:

And who the heck are these guys?

If we'd spent more time around the House, we'd have also found Bernie Ecclestone, Flavio Briattore, Chase Carey, Nico Rosberg, Luca Montezemolo, etc. etc. Remember Brendon Hartley, one of the winning drivers at LeMans?  And the Jackie Chan guys in the P2 cars?  There were all out there climbing the hill!

Up close around the garages:

A crowd favorite was a one-of-a-kind that's too good to miss.  It's called the Beast of Turin, and it achieved 116 mph in 1911.  We should have taken a video of this, but we were too busy laughing at this thing living up to its name, roaring and belching fire.   It's a good thing, because this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsdWgmp4TaQ

is much better than we could have done.  In the video, the car actually does the hill climb and finally parks on the circular drive in front of the House at Goodwood.  

Oh, did we forget to mention the airshows?  The Red Arrows:

And finally, the concourse:

So, obviously, we were thrilled.  So much so that we're going back to Goodwood this year for the second annual event, the Revival.  And we can hardly wait.