For the 22nd summer, petrol heads, automotive hoi polloi and motor racing royalty gathered at England’s West Sussex home of the Duke of Richmond for the annual garden party generally known as the Goodwood Festival of Speed. The 2014 event, entitled “Addicted to Winning,” enthralled the huge crowd. Theringmaster of this mechanical circus, Lord March, and his team strive for unique ways to keep regular sojourners mesmerized and spellbound by both on- and off-track activities, and judging by the comments overheard at this year’s event, they’ve done it again.
Addicted to Winning celebrated designers, constructors, teams and drivers who have seen success in over 100 years of motoring and motorsport. The four-day extravaganza turned out to be the biggest, attended by a record 200,000 visitors, and many more from over 150 countries who witnessed the event on the “FoS Live” streaming via the Internet.
Photo: Jochen / Frozenspeed Motorsport Photography
As for guest drivers, there was the usual “Who’s Who” of motor sport celebrities, from John Surtees—celebrating 50 years since he won the F1 World Championship to add to his two-wheel World Championships and having an array of machinery, both two- and four-wheeled varieties to entertain spectators—through to modern F1 personalities such as Jenson Button and Kimi Raikkonen.
The Festival now kicks off on the Thursday with the Moving Motor Show, which is a launching pad for manufacturers to show the world their new models of road car. Not only can members of the public get close to the new machines, but they get an opportunity to drive them too. It has become, in a very short period of time, a replacement for the British International Motor Show, which for many years was held at Earl’s Court in London—a venue where “Buffalo Bill” Cody once performed. This year, major manufacturers from Alfa Romeo to Volkswagen chose to give first airings of new models.
Photo: Amy Shore
The next three days were dedicated to motor racing and motor sport as The Hill became the main attraction. The amazing grand central display, designed by the event’s inspirational sculptor, Gerry Judah, in deference to Mercedes Benz’s 120-year anniversary was unveiled as the focal point of the party. This year’s sculpture was the most spectacular yet, pushing architectural and structural boundaries with two roads spanning from the back of Goodwood House to the center of the front lawn. The “road” from the back of the house was a platform for a 1934 replica of the von Brauchitsch W25 that won at the Nürburgring, while the “road” from the front featured Lewis Hamilton’s Grand Prix-winning Mercedes F1W04 from the 2013 season—the vehicles passing mid-air.
On track was one of the two Fiat S76 cars produced in 1911 and last run more than 100 years ago. Current owner Duncan Pittaway has spent the last 10 years meticulously rebuilding the car. In period, it was designed to take the land speed record from the Blitzen Benz cars over the flying kilometer. Pietro Bordino, achieved 135mph on the Ostenede Sands in Belgium in 1911, but the record didn’t stand as they couldn’t complete a return run in the prescribed one hour.
Mercedes stole the show with the car in which Christian Lautenschlager won the 1914 Lyon GP, a contest described as the “race of the century,” and the last before the Great War (1914-1918), and two other Mercedes Grand Prix cars from the same year—probably, the first time three of these remarkable machines have been seen together. Other cars Mercedes brought with them included the W196 Streamliner that Lord March drove, describing it as “one of the most beautiful cars ever conceived,” a conventional W196, a Mercedes W125, the lovely Tripoli-winning 1939 W165—the engine note of which stopped the packed paddock as it gave a virtuoso performance—and lastly, the High-Speed Transporter, or Rennwagen Schnelltransporter, resplendent in its blue livery and capable of running at 100 mph loaded with an F1 car, which drew a large audience.
Photo: Adam Beresford
Lukas Huni drove the ex-Fangio Maserati 250F and relived memories of the 1957 German GP—again, some say the “race of the century”—in which the maestro won his last Grand Prix. This car headlined the Maserati Centenary exhibition of 21 cars from the earliest, a 1930 Tipo 26M driven by Achille Varzi, to the latest 2014 Maserati MC12 “Cent 100” driven by multiple FIA GT Champion Michael Bartels.
Living NASCAR legend Richard Petty was on hand with his Chrysler V8 Hemi-powered Plymouth Belvedere GTX, showing off the car that took him to 27 wins from 48 races in 1967. Petty, who enthused about his return to Goodwood, said, “I won the Daytona 500 in a 1966 Plymouth and stuck with them for 1967. This is the car which I won so many races in that year. They say the car looks big by today’s standard, but when I raced all the cars were big. It’s just like driving an old friend again.”
The traditional Goodwood concours, “Cartier Style-et-Luxe,” celebrated the best in exquisite automotive design throughout the history of the motor industry, judged by a panel of celebrities including British Olympic Gold Medallists Sir Chris Hoy and Sally Gunnell, and actor and regular Goodwood Revival participant Rowan Atkinson, together with some of the great and good of the world of art and design, such as Sir Johnathan Ive. They judged the star of the show to be a stunning Maserati A6 CGS Berlinetta, a fitting tribute to a marque celebrating its centenary.
Around every corner there seemed to be a motoring celebration of one kind or another, and there is far too little space to cover the Goodwood Festival of Speed in its entirety, suffice to say it was completely sold out weeks before the gates opened.
When asked “Why do you come to the Festival of Speed?” so many simply replied, “We are completely addicted to Goodwood.”
by Mike Jiggle
