Goodwood Festival Of Speed - A - Z

T

Theme

Not to be confused with the theming that goes on with the Goodwood Revival where a huge swath of people attends in vintage and vintage-inspired outfits along with other appropriately themed items such as old school cameras, picnic baskets and those umbrellas that turn into seats. The racing takes place at the motor circuit which is a stone’s throw away from where you are for the festival of speed.

Oh, and when I say theming, I also don’t mean like at the Goodwood Members meeting which also takes place at the motor circuit. With its house points system where everyone can get involved with playing games on the grounds and winning points for your house alongside the races and cars all being assigned to a house in order to determine a winner.

And if this all sounds a little Harry Potter, you will love the food hall where you can get an absolutely top-notch breakfast as you sit under the huge shields of each of the houses – Aubigny, Darnley, Methuen and Torbolton all while being served by the “students” and serenaded entertained by the “professors” who walk the halls keeping people in order as they would in a real school.

Both of these events have actual races going on throughout the day and even aside from the ones where there are multiple GT40’s on track and I refuse to leave trackside there is real excitement as cars who normally wouldn’t share the same space go toe to toe with each other, smaller lighter cars attacking the huge engine behemoths as they take the corners and through the final chicane before entering the pit straight then having to defend and watch as the larger engines power along the straights taking that place back, this goes on for lap after lap until eventually the flag falls and a winner is declared.

So yes, I do enjoy the revival and the member's meetings too but an A-Z for these events might be some time off yet.

In terms of the Festival of Speed theme, this is more about the display of cars you are likely to see, for 2022 the theme was ‘the innovators – masterminds of motorsport’ A chance for the festival of speed to celebrate the greatest achievements in history while looking forward to evolving technologies which will drive motorsport on into the future.

In previous years we have had ‘The Maestros – Motorsports Great All-Rounders’ where we celebrated drivers from across the spectrum of motorsports such as Jacky Ickx who won across events such as the Dakar Rally, Le Mans and F1. It was also a great opportunity to pay tribute to the greats who are no longer with us such as John Surtees who was the first man to be world champion on both two wheels and four wheels.

Before that, we can look back to 2017 where the theme was ‘Peaks of Performance – Motorsport’s Game-Changers’ – A display built around the cars that pushed the boundaries so much that rules had to be bought in to rein them in and keep the drivers and spectators safe, some of these rules have never been reversed so it was a real opportunity to see just how far designers and drivers were going to maximise speed and performance.

Always pay attention to the theme as it might just give a hint of what cars will be front and centre each year.

Travel And Parking

I am very fortunate to live close enough to Goodwood that I can sleep in my own bed and travel across in my own car early enough to get an early spot in the queue. If, however, you do not have this luxury and won’t be able to utilise the onsite options then your best bet is a local hotel or if you’re just a day-tripper then a very early start or the train might be your other options.

Generally, you can get from London to Chichester train station in around an hour and a half then you can jump on the local bus service which will bring you across to the festival or grab a taxi which will drop you off at a designated spot in one of the car parks.

If you are travelling by motorbike, you can do a little bit of bobbing and weaving to make your way to the front of the queues and there is even designated motorbike parking and free storage for your helmet so you don’t have to carry it around all day with you.

In terms of on-site parking, there are acres and acres of space in various spots and if you have a very nice car, you might even be able to park inside the event (See Performance Parking). There is however one bit of advice I would give, you are going to be parked on a grass field and whilst it is usually short, I have been there when it’s a bit longer, I have also been there after three days of rain creating a very soft and muddy top layer so whilst I understand it might feel great arriving in your low slung sports car just be aware of the weather as it might not be so much fun getting it back out again or indeed washing it when you get home.

Obviously, you can avoid all of the hassle of the car parks by flying into Goodwood aerodrome, it can accommodate rotary and fixed-wing aircraft up to 12 meters across its three runways. On-site you will find air traffic control, re-fuelling and engineering services and a full professional ground crew so you don’t really have any reason not to, well unless you don’t have a plane or helicopter and who doesn’t have one of those nowadays.

Tyres

The final component in turning all that heat and noise into performance, if you can’t transfer all that energy into the tarmac properly then you are just wasting all the design and ingenuity that has gone in above it. Even above all the tyres already attached to cars, there are racks upon racks of spares and alternatives that sit waiting to be utilised.

Aside from the obvious change in weather aspect which forces a tyre change the other reason we need so many tyres on site is because the drivers spend 4 days trying to destroy and embed as much rubber into the tarmac as is humanly possible, A. Because it's fun 2. Because it entertains the crowd and D. because if you do it enough on days 1 to 3 then in the shootout on day 4 you might just gain a few tenths of a second which makes all of the difference.

It is also interesting to see all of the different types of tyres and wheels on show, from the thin as you like motorbike tyres with deep grooves and channels cut into them right up to the almost unfathomably wide rear tyres of a dragster with absolutely zero grooves because even if there were any these would be converted from rubber into smoke in about 3 tenths of a second anyway.

I am also fascinated by the older cars and wheels I see, there must be some specialist tyre manufacturer that creates these specifically because some of the sizes, designs and requirements are not going to be your everyday run of the mil tyre from a garage and at the same time motorsport has moved on and I doubt these are still being pumped out in any meaningful quantity at all. If this, is you or your company, please let me know as it is honestly one of the questions that occupies more of my brain and time than it reasonably should.

Talent

Everyone has a talent, sometimes it is natural and you can’t explain fully how you can do what you can do, sometimes it is a skill that has been honed through hours of work and practice. Even in motorsport with the top riders and drivers in the world that bit of talent that sets them apart will often be different to others in the same sport. Are you someone who can extend the life of a tyre meaning fewer pitstops and time lost, are you someone who can drive on their fingertips in the pouring rain, that light touch with the pedals or the steering keeping you out of the wall while others spin. It could even be that you are the master of picking a braking spot or reacting to a shift and change ahead of you to make up spaces.

Whatever it is there can be no master of all disciplines, as with the themes we did have the Maestros, these drivers were able to jump disciplines and sports and still be a success but there are others who had all of the talent and skill but winning their championship eluded them. The greatest example of this would probably be Stirling Moss, also known as Mr Goodwood. He won his first single-seater race at Goodwood in 1948 and returned on countless occasions and was still racing at Goodwood revival 62 years later.

One of motorsports' greatest and most talented drivers who never won the world championship. He constantly punched above his weight beating the mighty Ferraris in Monaco in a little Rob Walker Lotus is just one example of this. A massive ambassador for the sport and whose name is inscribed into so many trophies at Goodwood that it would be almost unfair to try and count them all.

This talent is across the board at the festival of speed with so many drivers and riders from the past, present and future that you could very easily and unknowingly be seeing the next superstar before the rest of the world, and this isn’t just on the track but also on the hill, the drift and G.A.S. arenas. Listen out for the names and watch the action closely as you might just be able to say I saw them at Goodwood and knew right away they were going to go far.

Time

Ahhh the unrelenting passing of time, the seconds that melt away into the heat haze coming off the back of a massive exhaust, trust me when I say this, you do not have enough time, even if you manage to get around and see every area, even if you take a full day just to sit and watch the hill runs you will always be left wondering where the time went and muttering that if I just had a bit more time I could have got over there to watch that.

This is what keeps you coming back year after year, the desire and need to just watch it one more time, I will just wait for three more rally cars to go past before I continue my journey, didn’t see the one you wanted you can very easily convince yourself to just another three cars and then I will definitely move on, oh go just one more, all the while those seconds vanish into the dust of the passing cars.

Even if you try (and trust me I don’t even attempt it) to meticulously plot out your day with maps and timetables and routes you will not complete everything, there will always be something that distracts you, draws you in for just a few more minutes which throws everything else out of alignment.

The absolute best thing is that none of it is for a negative reason its always because you found something that was amazing and interesting and different, yes you might have missed the start of a display or show but that’s ok because something you hadn’t accounted for, perhaps something you didn’t even know existed has captured your imagination and kept you engaged for all of the right reasons.

So, what’s the answer, well more days, of course, you can attend for all 4 but I would still hazard a guess you will miss at least a handful of things. You can always come back next year, start with the things you missed last year and you are all set, sorry to tell you but even year to year this place adds and changes so much that you are still going to be distracted and delayed by something that wasn’t even here last year, how has this happened again.

There is truly only one option and that is to manipulate time and space using either Bernard’s Watch or Hermione’s time turner, sadly I have been reliably informed on more than one occasion these are not real objects so I can’t just go and buy one.