Goodwood Festival Of Speed - A - Z

R

Rally Stage

I don’t think I have mentioned the rally stage yet have I (Checks notes, ahhh maybe I have once or twice). A single dusty track, the winds off the top of the hill, down through the woodland, the pops and bangs echoing off the trees as they wind their way down, round hair pin turns, under bridges, a hairpin turn on a small section of tarmac before they disappear back into the woods searching the perfect drive and launch off the jump then back out at the top of the hill, alongside where the food and drink wagons and seating areas are before crossing the finish line.

As with the rest of the festival, the paddocks are open so you can walk amongst brand new machines like the Citroens and fords just yards away from the heritage machines like the Audi Quattro and Metro 6R4, there isn’t a class order like there is on the hill climb so you can bounce back and forward through different eras of rally cars almost as much as the cars themselves bounce through the stage.

This is also one of the more accessible sections if you want a ride-along, you can go and sign up for membership and in under 5minutes you can be back in the paddock asking for a ride-along, I don’t think there is any limit on how many you can have or as many cars as you can experience you just need to approach the right people at the right time. They might not be ready to go out so may ask you to come back in a bit but that’s ok just move on to the next car of choice and ask again.

If you do go for a ride along just make sure you don’t accidentally put the crash helmet on with the mic and foam mic cover still inside, it can make things a little uncomfortable and also very confusing for the driver as they can hear the mic rubbing against your head, fortunately for my wife’s ride-along, they managed to figure it out just before they rolled up to the start line meaning they could sort it out first, the only concern after that was the number of trees and corners coming at them at speed after a couple of hours of rain in the morning.

Radio / Commentary

Alongside the track and in most areas that attract a lot of attention there is always a public address system where you can sit and listen to very knowledgeable commentators talking you through what you are seeing, these are pretty much always broken up with various stories and memories along the way, sometimes these tangents roll on for a good 10 minutes before they realise, they are four miles off-topic and a quick reset is needed.

The commentators are so well versed in the myriad of vehicles that go on display in front of them that it is no surprise that they can speak at great length and enthusiasm for the full four-day weekend. If that wasn’t enough you also then get the interviews from around the festival where a driver, an engineer, a team owner and other such important people come on and tell you even more about the vehicles they have put on a show this year.

Then there are the standalone commentaries, when the Red Arrows are performing stunts and tricks in the skies above you there is the sound of one of the pilots located on the ground describing what you can see happening, they talk you through the manoeuvres, give you a heads up of what to watch out for and expect, they even fill you in on some of the nicknames and facts about the pilots in the sky.

At the G.A.S. Arena there are usually a couple of commentators running around between the bikes, running up the mounds of dirt and getting involved with the action. Shouting out the names of the tricks and emphasising the good or difficult ones alongside bringing the crowd into their world as they cheer and support their favourite riders.

There is Goodwood radio which you can tune into from your car should you be waiting in a queue to get in or get out of the festival or even just so you can cling onto the experience that little bit longer before it fades away into the static.

Robots (Delivery / Robo Racer)

What used to be thought of as the future and only housed within Future FOS has started to drip feed out to the festival itself, the biggest example of this was in 2018 when a roborace car became the first vehicle to complete the hill completely autonomously, I can tell you this too, that thing did not hang around, I mean I have no doubt it probably could have gone a lot, lot faster had it been a completely closed track and it had been mapped fully but still that low slung electric whir was a real eye-opener. Almost like a knee-high sledge in black and yellow creeping up on you and disappearing almost before your brain could compute what it was that you were seeing.

Luckily there was a much more static display (near the F1 cars obviously) where you could go and look at some of the cars in much more detail rather than trying to catch it as it tore past you. That being said I would love to see these on a proper track racing at top speed just to see how fast laps can be completed when you take out driver error and have an almost full range of scope with aero and weight balance packages.

There are of course other (slower) robots to be seen, with a robot that can make and serve cocktails, there are autonomous delivery vehicles and vans, tractors and trucks, if you don’t see it coming the robot road revolution will take you by surprise, by being at the festival every year you can make sure you are right up to date with future tech, from the road to the race track and beyond.

Reflections

From moments of excitement created by robot cars come the absolute moments of disappointment and sadness that comes from reflections. The biggest issue with having such exciting and beautiful cars is that they must be as clean as possible at all times. This is fully understandable and I applaud the work everyone does to keep them this way.

What is utterly unavoidable however is the reflections that occur as a result of these cleaning regimes. I have been absolutely gut-punched by photos where I have gone, yes that is a great picture only to see that within the five shining silver bolts in the middle of the wheel is a teeny tiny reflection of my gormless self as I kneel down to take the photo.

As much as you can work and wait to avoid floating heads (see letter F) there is very little you can do when you don’t spot someone off to the left, well outside of your frame but perfectly placed to leave a very dark human-shaped shadow right in the middle of the driver’s door you are trying to capture.

It’s not always us humans that mess things up either, I was taking a picture of a very nice deep red Aston Martin which I thought looked spectacular, when I got home and looked on the larger monitor the smooth sleek lines were acting like a fairground mirror for a very bright lime green Lamborghini which was parked next to the Aston Martin. Nothing I could do in terms of removing the colour or tweaking the settings could remove that damn green car or its outline so that photo went in the bin. It wasn’t the first and it certainly won’t be the last.

Now I don’t want you to think reflections are all bad, I have managed to get some fantastic photos where a logo or a poster is reflected in the gleaming paintwork of a car, I have even used side mirrors to gain a different angle of drivers and passengers but these were all thought about and planned, it’s the unplanned, unseen ones that upset me when I am sat at home unable to revisit or recreate the shot.

Refined

I could talk about elegance and class at the festival, I could talk about the tweaks and changes that have occurred through the years to remove unwanted elements the absolute definition of refinement.

What I want to focus on more are the new elements that have been added through the years that really pinpoint and home in on what we as fans want. At this stage, it would be very easy to rest on your laurels and bask in the success of the festival year after year but this would cause it to go stale and the fans would find it repetitive.

Now I don’t doubt that a good ninety percent of the festival layout and setup is the same every time and it's more a case of deciding what theme there will be and which cars fit that theme when you open up the exhibitor's invites, however, that final ten percent is where you can make or break any event so getting it right is key.

As people's tastes and expectations change so must the festival, its future success relies on attracting new people and that means broadening your offering, in some cases, this is being more sustainable so alongside the future electric vehicles a lot of the food on-site is organic and comes from the estate itself, this is also true of some of the alcohol which is supplied by the Goodwood Brewery (Yes, of course, Goodwood has a brewery why wouldn’t it), you can even visit the Farm Shop throughout the year if you fancy a bottle of Lucky Leap, St. Simon or Grogger, each of whom has a small story behind the name.

The family offering has continued to expand with dedicated areas for children (of various sizes) can play with diggers, can have photos taken with the wacky racers' cars, can drive teeny Land rovers, be amazed by the cars on the hill, the sideways cars in the drift arena and the bike sin the sky at the G.A.S. arena, after all of this they can fall asleep on huge bean bags near the cricket green or inside one of the pull along carts giving them just enough time to recharge ready to play with all of the things in Future FOS.

Even the exhibitors are getting on board with the interactive side of things, gone are the days of just turning up and putting a few cars on stands, now they arrive with huge statement stands complete with interactive elements, striking artwork and installations and some have even opened up their roof space for people to sit and soak in the sun as they experience the festival from a whole new vantage point.

Everyone wants to improve their offering and it's always fun to see what they will come up with next.