Goodwood Festival Of Speed - A - Z

X

Xenodochy / Xenodochial

Oh boy, the letter “X” prepare yourself for some rather obscure words and a rather big shoehorn…

 Xenodochy – the reception of, or extending of, hospitality to strangers or foreigners

 As far as I would be aware Lord March probably does not know every single person who walks through the gates of the Goodwood festival of speed across a day, let alone multiple days across decades of events, yet, he welcomes all of us to his home and his grounds to partake in the festival which is happening. This is not a small event reserved for the super-rich or a select group of friends and family, the event is open to everyone.

This feeling of warmth and welcoming that begins at the very top reaches into every inch of the vast grounds and the thousands of people on site. It is visible from the first interactions with the girls and guys who help you park, then those at the gate who bleep you into the festival right up to the event staff and information pods located around the festival.

All of the people working on exhibitor stands and those in the paddock will gladly give anyone a minute of their time and much more if they have it. Even outside of the dedicated hospitality areas and the people who are paid to be here or even just the ones showing off their car the extension of friendship goes further.

We as a group of people, as fans and enthusiasts are always welcoming to those around us, showing care and courtesy to each other and that covers both strangers and foreigners as we gesture and point and indicate across the divides of language to make sure everyone is happy, holding a spot that you know someone was waiting for and moving back a little so someone else can get to the front of the barrier to see the latest action.

 A nod and a smile are all that’s needed as we part ways, almost certain you will never see each other again.

Xaern

Xaern – to enjoy something so much you begin to hate how much you enjoy it

Now I would say that hate is a very strong word and I don’t think I would reach this level of feeling, mainly because the absolute joy and happiness would always outweigh any other feeling.

I will however freely admit that Goodwood is a pretty large focal point of my year and almost from the moment I walk out on a Sunday to the moment I walk back in a year later on Thursday I miss the festival, the fact it always seems so far away does not help.

The festival tends to be the first day of the year that use any of my holidays for the year and it’s become such a flagpole of my calendar that when the festival wasn’t run it did affect me, it made everything that was already grey that little bit darker, the countdown to the festival was missing and that meant I didn’t have much to get excited about until the world started opening up again months later.

Then when we were allowed back in the following year everything was bright and happy and good again, I even used an additional mental health day given to me by work to attend the festival and it was widely known and understood that this is what I needed at that time.

I guess what I am saying is I don’t hate how much I enjoy going to the festival but I might just hate how much I don’t enjoy not being able to go and wouldn’t know what to do if I somehow couldn’t attend again.

Xenagogue

I am not sure what or why the letter “X” has so much attached to foreigners as a Xenagogue “leads” foreigners. It lends itself more to holidays really, entrusting yourself to a Xenagogue, someone who can take you away from the familiar and the routine of tourist traps and giftshops but instead lead you to hidden gems, the stuff you won’t find on a map or in a guidebook.

This is where I would place the owners and engineers of the cars, especially the slightly older ones, the ones with a lot more mileage on the clock (And yes, I mean both the cars and the people). You may have read every book and article you can find about your favourite bike or rider, the top 10 facts or even the top 100, read from a page will fail to live up to ten minutes talking with someone directly.

They can walk you around the car, lift the hood (or the trunk in some cases) to show you the engine, regale you with stories about when they had to borrow a hairpin off of a local to hold something in place just long enough to finish the race or the stage. Even as you talk to them their own memories will flood back and they will delight in telling you about another driver or an event that may have been forgotten, a story never submitted to print or page.

In some ways, we are all foreigners looking for someone to guide us and expand our knowledge, at the Goodwood festival of speed you will be spoilt for choice when it comes to finding those guides.

Xanthocyanopsy

This may be the biggest shoehorn yet but bear with me…

Xanthocyanopsy – colour blindness in which the ability to distinguish yellow and blue only is present leaving the vision for red being wanting.

So basically, this is another bash at Ferrari which I seem to have done a little bit more than I had originally planned to, unfortunately, they bring it on themselves in my eyes, they are pretty much always the last cars to have the covers and blankets removed from the night before, they are pretty much always the only cars on display that leave their barriers up all day making it hard to see the cars and get photos of them. They hire an enterprise van and instead of owning that decision they put a very flimsy Ferrari sticker over the top of it, so thin is the sticker you can still read the word enterprise through it.

Now I have no problem with renting a van but own your choices. The biggest choice you can make is around which cars to bring to the festival and what colour they are, the vintage cars, the race cars and the F1 cars were fine, perfectly happy enough with the iconic red on those but I can’t say the same for the road cars I saw, not a single Ferrari Road car that was on display at the festival of speed last year was red (or if it was it was under covers when I went past), we had black, white, yellow and even blue, everything it seems, except, a red Ferrari, it's mad.

The one I did like was a few years ago where it was painted in the Italian flag colours, that was very well done but still out of 8 or 9 cars I had seen one Ferrari that was a third red and that was it.

Come on man bring red Ferrari’s next time.

X-Factor

X-Factor is a word, I am claiming it as one and there is nothing you can do about it.

I have reserved the individual recognitions and mentions to an absolute minimum and only highlighted brands and drivers / riders who have bought that something special to Goodwood Festival of speed, the deep-rooted connections of Stirling Moss, the sheer volume and outpouring of support for Valentino Rossi. The unique and long-standing presence of McLaren and Aston Martin.

I can’t in good conscious miss the legend that is Sir Jackie Stewart, in possibly the most iconic / x-factor moment to be seen at the festival, in 2019 at the age of 80 and has achieved so much that it is no overstatement to call this man a legend.

In true Goodwood style, a huge celebration was arranged with the centrepiece being Sir Jackie Stewart taking to the hill in his Matra-Cosworth MS80-02 followed by his two sons who drove his Tyrrell-Cosworth 003 and Tyrell-Cosworth 006 (All championship-winning cars by the way) followed by Dario Franchitti in the Monaco winning BRM P261.

It would be simple to bask and revel in the glory of it all, especially in a single-seater with swathes of fans cheering you on, you could easily drive up the hill and have it all to yourself. This man however stopped the procession at molecombe, waved at his wife to join him on track and from within the cockpit he pulled a single pink rose to present to her, as a husband and father he was determined to share this moment with his wife whilst his two sons sat alongside him in his championship-winning cars, it was and is the most unforgettable moment.

If that is not the purest example of someone having the X-Factor then I don’t know what is.