Centurion
Apex Apex Predator
Last week I went Goodwood Festival of Speed for the first time. To sum it up it’s a motorshow, racing event, rev-fest and car meet all in one. It’s an absolute heaven for any car enthusiast and akin to visiting a bar attended by every actress/actors you want to get into bed with. It’s overindulgent in a good way.
Literarily every imaginable car is at Goodwood, some of which are so rare you might never see them anywhere else. Not to mention see and hear them driven hard. It’s intoxicating! American drift cars, motorcycles, drag racers, LeMans legends, F1 cars and production cars were all there.
I spotted Alex Goy from Carfection, James Batchelor from Autocar, Dan Prosser from Autocar and other personalities from the automotive community on YouTube. It’s a car festival in every sense and is the greatest car event on earth.
There is so much to see that you need two days at the event. My focus was enjoying the event rather experiencing it through a viewfinder so I only did a couple of quick snaps with my phone.
Best sounding racing car
1. V10 F1 cars – No contest. The character of the noise blew everything out of the water. The doppler effect is sensational as the pitch gets louder as the car near. Once the car drives away from you the sound turns into wolf whimpers with pops, bangs and crackles on the downshifts. The V8s don’t sound nearly as god like.
2. 991 RSR – Naturally aspired flat six tuned to 503hp. Pitchy but with obnoxious bas and booms.
3. CLK GTR LM – One of the best sounding V12 at the event that wasn’t reved hard enough.
Best sounding road legal car
After hearing the above racing cars, not even an AMG GT would do as an alarm clock the following morning. Therefore, it was hard to objectively judge road legal cars.
1. Carrera GT – Only drove past at 40% throttle but even then you can hear it wailing like a crying wolf. Because it lacks traction control or stability control the driver was unlikely brave enough to drive it hard. It was black, looked and sounds better than the 918.
All turbo and hybrid powered cars were considerably quieter. In other words, if you want a good pension, buy a brand-new NA GT3 don’t put any miles on it and sell it in 20-30 years.
Parking lots
You can probably spend a few hours just wondering around the vast and numerous parking lots and feast your eyes on the cars people have arrived in.
Motorshow
Forget motorshows which are just local dealers erecting a marquee to flog cars currently in stock. At Goodwood the stands are sometimes massive 3-4 storey structures of cars and hospitality areas. The quality of some stands is approaching Frankfurt and Paris autoshows. As expected only manufacturers of performance cars were present so no Mazda or Citroen.
Hill climb
There’s a schedule for hill climbs and you have two opportunities per day to see each group of cars accelerate, rev, or do donuts up the hill. However the most aggressive time trials are done on Saturday and Sunday. I had a grandstand ticket and it’s absolutely worth the money. Cars sound lounder from a higher vantage point then they do if you are standing behind the hay. Furthermore the grand stands are excellent for resting your legs, cooling down in the shade or eating your lunch.
Paddock
In the paddocks in front the pits where where racing cars getting prepared for the hill climb. You can even follow them leaving and returning. It’s an intimate experience and pit crew are all there for you to chat to.
Thing to do
If you are happy to queue for 20-30mins there were a couple of free experience like Jaguar off roading, Cayenne drifting and power sliding on muddy surfaces or a Jaguar F-Type drifting like a bond villain on a tight circuit.
Tuners and parts manufacturers also had stands if you want to buy parts or chat about anti-roll bars, air filters etc.
Food options were good ranging from burgers, sausages to sandwiches and tasty Greek Souvlaki.
Honorable mention
Most production cars are watered down concept cars. The Lexus LC is one of the few exception. In direct sun is a gleaning beauty! It's a crown jewel of a car in every sense: presence, colour, design and interior quality.
The new Ford GT is a massive improvement on the predecessor which was more a retro remake on an old legend. In contrast to the Aventador and 812 the Ford GT is not over done but is an extremely low and sleek jet fighter on wheels. I was blown away by how striking yet clean the design is.
Favourite car
It was my first time seeing the Huyra in the metal(carbon fibre). It is a spectacular car but the Zonda looks less bloated and more boutique/haute couture. Seeing them side by side can quickly appreciated why customers are still ordering one-off Zondas even though the Huyra is the successor. I would take a Zonda Cinque over any hypercar.
Literarily every imaginable car is at Goodwood, some of which are so rare you might never see them anywhere else. Not to mention see and hear them driven hard. It’s intoxicating! American drift cars, motorcycles, drag racers, LeMans legends, F1 cars and production cars were all there.
I spotted Alex Goy from Carfection, James Batchelor from Autocar, Dan Prosser from Autocar and other personalities from the automotive community on YouTube. It’s a car festival in every sense and is the greatest car event on earth.
There is so much to see that you need two days at the event. My focus was enjoying the event rather experiencing it through a viewfinder so I only did a couple of quick snaps with my phone.
Best sounding racing car
1. V10 F1 cars – No contest. The character of the noise blew everything out of the water. The doppler effect is sensational as the pitch gets louder as the car near. Once the car drives away from you the sound turns into wolf whimpers with pops, bangs and crackles on the downshifts. The V8s don’t sound nearly as god like.
2. 991 RSR – Naturally aspired flat six tuned to 503hp. Pitchy but with obnoxious bas and booms.
3. CLK GTR LM – One of the best sounding V12 at the event that wasn’t reved hard enough.
Best sounding road legal car
After hearing the above racing cars, not even an AMG GT would do as an alarm clock the following morning. Therefore, it was hard to objectively judge road legal cars.
1. Carrera GT – Only drove past at 40% throttle but even then you can hear it wailing like a crying wolf. Because it lacks traction control or stability control the driver was unlikely brave enough to drive it hard. It was black, looked and sounds better than the 918.
All turbo and hybrid powered cars were considerably quieter. In other words, if you want a good pension, buy a brand-new NA GT3 don’t put any miles on it and sell it in 20-30 years.
Parking lots
You can probably spend a few hours just wondering around the vast and numerous parking lots and feast your eyes on the cars people have arrived in.
Motorshow
Forget motorshows which are just local dealers erecting a marquee to flog cars currently in stock. At Goodwood the stands are sometimes massive 3-4 storey structures of cars and hospitality areas. The quality of some stands is approaching Frankfurt and Paris autoshows. As expected only manufacturers of performance cars were present so no Mazda or Citroen.
Hill climb
There’s a schedule for hill climbs and you have two opportunities per day to see each group of cars accelerate, rev, or do donuts up the hill. However the most aggressive time trials are done on Saturday and Sunday. I had a grandstand ticket and it’s absolutely worth the money. Cars sound lounder from a higher vantage point then they do if you are standing behind the hay. Furthermore the grand stands are excellent for resting your legs, cooling down in the shade or eating your lunch.
Paddock
In the paddocks in front the pits where where racing cars getting prepared for the hill climb. You can even follow them leaving and returning. It’s an intimate experience and pit crew are all there for you to chat to.
Thing to do
If you are happy to queue for 20-30mins there were a couple of free experience like Jaguar off roading, Cayenne drifting and power sliding on muddy surfaces or a Jaguar F-Type drifting like a bond villain on a tight circuit.
Tuners and parts manufacturers also had stands if you want to buy parts or chat about anti-roll bars, air filters etc.
Food options were good ranging from burgers, sausages to sandwiches and tasty Greek Souvlaki.
Honorable mention
Most production cars are watered down concept cars. The Lexus LC is one of the few exception. In direct sun is a gleaning beauty! It's a crown jewel of a car in every sense: presence, colour, design and interior quality.
The new Ford GT is a massive improvement on the predecessor which was more a retro remake on an old legend. In contrast to the Aventador and 812 the Ford GT is not over done but is an extremely low and sleek jet fighter on wheels. I was blown away by how striking yet clean the design is.
Favourite car
It was my first time seeing the Huyra in the metal(carbon fibre). It is a spectacular car but the Zonda looks less bloated and more boutique/haute couture. Seeing them side by side can quickly appreciated why customers are still ordering one-off Zondas even though the Huyra is the successor. I would take a Zonda Cinque over any hypercar.
. Goodwood FOS has become extremely popular since I was last in the UK.
thank you for sharing 
