The annual Goodwood Festival of Speed takes place this weekend, July 3-5. You might not have booked your airfare to England yet, but fortunately you can use your friend the Internet to take a good look at what has become one of the foremost celebrations of automotive culture.
The Brits don't have a tradition of burnouts in the parking lot, so instead they do hillclimbs. And the Goodwood Festival of Speed is essentially a 1.16-mile hillclimb in someone's front yard, only this someone is the Earl of March and his estate at Goodwood becomes a stage for fast cars, famous people, and everything that's good about a life with automobiles.You can get a glimpse of the Goodwood Festival of Speed with what the event principals refer to as The Movie.
Every year a car manufacturer erects a stunning automotive-theme sculpture in front of Goodwood House, and this year's installation by Audi is supposed to be the most ambitious ever, honoring its 100th anniversary. Audi has entered its Auto Union D-type grand prix car of the 1930s into the hillclimb in what is meant to be the car's final public appearance before being retired to the company's museum.
The theme of this year's event is "True Grit - Epic Feats of Endurance," which will celebrate long-distance sports car racing. Some 12 examples of the Porsche 917 are gathering for the occasion. In addition, the career of Formula 1 team-owner Frank Williams is being honored, so there will be no less than 13 Williams F1 cars.
Some 350 cars will participate in the hillclimb and forest rally stage, a group with a value of $420M. The 14 examples of Auto Union and Mercedes-Benz grand prix cars from the 1930s are worth $163m by themselves. Over 30 new production cars also will be seen for the first time in public.
More than 150,000 visitors are expected to attend over the three days, and some 10,000 burgers (organic, naturally) are expected to be consumed, as well as 2,000 bottles of Veuve Clicquot champagne. Fortunately 1,100 portable toilets are in place.
It's probably a little late to book your flight now, but there will be pictures and video from each day's events on the Goodwood Web site, and a sales brochure about the weekend's events can be downloaded.
felonious says:
03:14 PM, 07/ 2/09
"Audi has entered its Auto Union D-type grand prix car of the 1930s into the hillclimb in what is meant to be the car's final public appearance before being retired to the company's museum."
Well, there's one car that's guaranteed to be wrecked during the event.