Goodwood Festival Of Speed - A - Z

H

Hill Run

Have I mentioned the hill run yet, I may have briefly touched on it I guess…

This strip of tarmac runs like the main artery of the festival right from the toes of the Start line club past the packed pavilions, grandstands and crowds, flashing in front of the house, under bridges as they make it up to the finish line before easing off and parking themselves at the top paddock, filling the metaphorical head of the festival as well as the minds of all those watching the procession of vehicles pass by for hour after hour, day after day.

No matter what your favourite car is, who your favourite driver may be or the era that fills your mind with nostalgia or excitement about future cars you will find yourself standing at the side of the hill climb smiling to yourself and with your friends and family at them all doing what they do best.

The fact that these machines all run and the drivers do not hold back is one of the reasons why the whole festival works in the way it does, yes, we may grumble about track crossing, we may have to hold our hands over our ears as a massive V10 screams by, our eyes may even sting with the smoke created by cars doing burnouts and doughnuts but this is the very essence of why we are here.

That V10 also rumbles through your body, from your feet on the floor to your tummy and into your shoulders as the sound fills your soul. The noise is so loud you look around you wide-eyed at others all nodding “that was loud” and while your eyes may sting a little your nostrils fill with the smell of burnt rubber and the smoke smell that we all secretly love. Even the track crossings have their good points as you will get to see cars you might not have been interested in before but catch your eye nonetheless.

Helicopter Pleasure Flight

My second admission in as many letters, I have also never done a Helicopter flight, now I would blame this on being busy again but I think a large part of it is that my wife hates flying and the thought of getting in a helicopter is not one that appeals to her either.

If, however, this does pique your interest then for a relatively low price you too can experience a flight across the festival, taking in the event by air must be very cool as you look down on the house, the central display and then out to the Racecourse and back. It's certainly something on the seemingly growing list of things I am still to do even after 10+years of attendance.

As a side note, I believe that you can also charter a helicopter that helps you bypass all of the traffic and, using the VIP entrance grants you immediate access into the heart of the festival if that interests you of course.

Heads (Floating)

I haven’t grumbled for a little while so here’s one of my top 3 issues with my time at the festival. Floating heads, as I call them, are the photos you get where you have everything perfectly aligned, you snap the picture and out of nowhere there is this disembodied head just floating over the top of the car from the other side, it's not always immediately obvious and as someone who does not check every photo, I take sometimes I don’t even see it until I upload the photos on the big screen at home.

I can’t tell you how many perfectly good photos I have discarded over the years thanks to this phenomenon. The real kicker in all of this is that it's nobody’s fault, you can’t even get grumpy about it, these things just happen, they have every right to be in and amongst the cars just as I have every right to be sat on the ground as low as possible to get the right angle then not check the image straight away. Even worse are the ones where the person is miles away and not even by the car, you can’t even see these ones on the small screen of the camera but there they are as soon as you start editing the images.

It's not just heads, phantom feet and arms also make the odd appearance but it's mainly the heads that have me shaking mine as I hit delete on the image.

History

On the 19th of June 1993, the very first Festival of Speed began, at the time it was a two-day event that didn’t require a pre-booked ticket, this meant that there was just no way of telling how well received the event would be, safe to say with the big draw of both machines and drivers bought in the crowds on both days with estimates hitting 25,000 visitors it wasn’t long before more and more days were added and we now have up to 4 magnificent days to take everything in. It was getting so popular at one point that they had to bring in pre-booked tickets and a cap on visitor numbers although that is set at 150,000 which is 6 times what we saw in the early days.

From the early days when staff were pulled in from across different parts of the estate such as the (horse) racecourse, farm and forestry to build basic structures to act as a gantry for the start line, a small wooden pavilion complete with a little white picket fence that acted as a press office alongside a commentary tower. The track was lined with straw bales and rope and the first-ever central display of an Aston Martin DB7. Live footage was beamed to a giant screen provided by Citroën with highlights later going out locally on ITV.

A lot of these elements will look and sound familiar to those of us who visit even now, the hay bales, the white picket fences, along with everything else which has grown ever larger and more sprawling than these early days but its all very similar to us as we wander around the latest offering each year. The black, white and silver styling and logo appeared on bridges, buildings and bags, the giant screens showing us the action along with commentary and stories over the sound system. The highlights are no longer just local but a global audience can watch both highlights and the live-action via various media outlets.

Hospitality

Hospitality isn’t just for the rich and famous, its sewn into the fabric of the event, all of the manufacturers have staff on their stands who know about their cars and will happily welcome you in and engage in conversation about what’s on the stand this year or to hear about the original version or adaptation of the car that you own(ed)

This extends into the paddocks where engineers and teams will greet you like an old friend as you peer through the window of their cars, pretty much all of the cars are unlocked and if you ask nicely, most exhibitors will open the engine bay to allow you to look and photograph the creations that allow them to run.

Even with simple things like information kiosks, lost property, first aid tents, information boards, big screens, commentary, all of this is designed to embrace each and every visitor and guest into this very special world and make sure you have everything you could ask for in order to make the most of your visit… well apart from the things they can’t control like having enough time… there’s never enough time.