Goodwood Festival Of Speed - A - Z

O

Off-road Arena

The off-road arena is probably one of the most eye-catching areas of the festival, it’s also one of the more interactive sections in that there are two separate activities that you can get involved in, the lower half is usually setup for the ATV experience where you can jump on board a pretty beefy little vehicle with high suspension and just a roll cage to protect you should anything go wrong, this used to be run by Yamaha and has since been taken over by Forster Racing School. The ride-along is a short blast around a custom-built, dirt, grass and gravel track, hoping up over hills and dropping down into gully’s, round banked bends all while braking and accelerating at a barely comprehensible level. Honestly don’t under any circumstances eat a big lunch before going on here, even when I knew what was coming it was still a surprise just how quickly and sharply the brakes can come on, removing all speed before a drop-down and accelerating again. It’s a lot of fun and something I wish I could do more of.

The second half of the off-road arena is slightly further up the hill and this is run in association with Britpart, whilst the ATVs seem like a bit of an exuberant toy for someone with a lot of land and / or time then there are these cars, these take everything up to another level, the dips are bigger, the banked curves are wider and deeper the jumps are larger and so, of course, is the air that these cars get. The high set wheel arches are fully utilised as the cars land and sink into them. Less than a second earlier the car took off and glided over the jump, the suspension fully extended as the smooth air stops it from bumping and bouncing, a whole second of calm.

Then as the car lands, it squashes down to the ground, almost half the height of the car is lost as its wheels meet the ground, getting the timing just right, the engine pops and roars causing the tyres to bite into the dirt and even before the car has returned to full height it is back off racing again, looping round the bottom of the course, in a figure of eight crossing over as they head back up for the next pass by.

All of this is visible from different points on the hill and there are even a couple of raised stands you can use although I usually go in front of this so I can be a bit closer to the cars as they pass up and beyond the start/finish line. Another bit of advice is on a very dry day don’t go too high up as you will be covered in dust (yes there it is again) when they round the corner at the top of the hill and it blows across the course and inevitably into you.

Obstreperous

See I told you to wait for the letter O didn’t I, so what does this one mean? – Obstreperous meaning Noisy and also difficult to control.

I think this is all down to perspective because to me I would look at the drift arena and I would watch as the drivers work the steering wheel at a thousand movements a second and the huge gear shift and hand brakes and I would put that into the category as noisy and difficult to control but to the professionals, they would probably say that it's just as easy driving a car sideways as it is forwards.

So, I think you need to go back in time to the really old cars, the ones where there is a plane engine in front of you, two tiny leather pads to sit on, the gear sticks and hand brakes are bolted to attached to the outside of the car and the steering wheel is the size of a patio table. These are certainly loud enough and certainly in the case of the beast of Turin even throws out flame and smoke as it rumbles up the hill. There is just as much movement of the steering wheels and corrections going on as there is in the drift arena but this work is all required just to keep pointing in the right direction and the small strip of tarmac up the hill.

Whilst the speed and spectacle may look a little pedestrian compared to some of the bikes and cars that these classic cars share the hill with, I can assure you that when they arrive at the top paddock the drivers of these vehicles will look the most tired and exhausted of them all.

Another thing I have learnt through the years is that although these cars may seem more dangerous and were indeed easier to crash and had fewer safety features than anything that came after them the incidents they were involved in had a lot fewer fatalities than you imagine, the very, very simple explanation of this is that as there was no roof or roll cage or seat belts if you were having a spin or an accident you were more often than not thrown from the car before you hit anything. Obviously, this is not the best solution to our safety concerns but certainly something surprisingly simple and obvious if you take the time to think about it.

Overalls

If you do happen to be in or on any vehicle when there is an accident then there is nothing more important than a good set of overalls (and crash helmet of course) and these are pretty much everywhere you look when wandering around the grounds. Of course, the most famous drivers and teams are easily spotted as they head through the paddocks often surrounded by fans.

Some of the drivers will be in full sponsored and kitted out team versions whereas others will have either special edition versions that match the car they are driving that day whilst some even have plain options. If you do manage to go for a ride-along you will also be handed a set to wear although these will probably be just as fresh as the drivers’ versions which have been worn all day.

You can even find a huge selection of overalls for purchase in the shopping section, these range from kids to adults, from replicas to race-worn, some are even framed alongside a photograph or piece of artwork should you have a 6ft+ space on a wall somewhere at home.

Olent

OK right back to the weird words – Olent – having a scent…

Yes, a scent, not satisfied with an all-out assault on your other senses the festival also has an array of smells, pretty much all of them are good however some of them are overpowering.

The obvious ones are the burnt rubber smell that comes from the light blue smoke as you stand by the Jaguar drift experience or the Drift Arena, you can even get a whiff of it at the front of the house when there is a trick display on track or when a driver decides to entertain the crowds rather than set a time.

There’s the rather more petrol and oil smells which you can find in abundance in pretty much any paddock you happen to be standing in. These are even stronger and more potent on the first start-up of the day and I will never forget the morning I was stood in front of a vintage BMW race car that was being started up for the first time and boy did that thing chuck out a lot of smoke.

Beyond the obvious race car smells you have the other obvious car smells, as you cross the track to the exhibitors there is the faint whiff of various waxes and polishes as you peruse the outside of the cars before sitting inside and getting the full experience of new car smell and fine leather upholstery.

In a very quirky tie in back in 2014, there was the Febreze road trip from smell which launched from the festival of speed, fronted by Denise Van Outen the road trip was trying to prove that even with three guys doing some weird and wacky tasks (a visit to the farm where the animals climbed inside the car) throughout the course of 18days Febreze promised that they could make the car so fresh even random strangers off the street would still find the car fresh and inviting.

Now I bet you weren’t expecting that were you…

Opportunist

And I bet you weren’t expecting Opportunist either…

The good thing is, it's like being an opportunist in a way that people don’t fully expect. As with a lot of brits is somewhat of a skill of ours to be polite and courteous to the point where we actually miss the chance to see or do what we want to, I have on the other hand learnt that to get the images I want I often have to be more forward and confident when speaking with people and this is no truer than at the festival of speed.

There are some very expensive cars and the manufacturers and owners are very careful with which ones you can get close to and which ones you cannot, now the ones you cannot get close to are the ones you really, really want to get close to so you have to push your luck just a little bit.

Often with a smile and holding a camera up a little higher you can Just nip round the barrier for a second and grab a photo or do you mind if I just unhook this rope or move this pole out of the way for a photo, more often than not the team member will oblige you your request and as long as you are courteous and put things back you can’t go too far wrong.

In some cases, just trying to hold your camera over a barrier or trying to angle it under a rope will prompt an offer from a friendly person on the other side, again thank them and move along quickly seems to be the way to go.

I must do this several times during my days at the festival and often once I have done it, I will be joined in my spot by another photographer or I will see them dropping the rope or moving the pole for someone else as I wander away.