Goodwood Festival of Speed: Not to Be Missed
If you’re a fan of cars and motorsports, you’ll want to add the Goodwood Festival of Speed to your bucket list. A combined auto show and competition for all vehicle types, the Festival of Speed is a unique annual event that takes place at the Lord March property in England. Every June, the grounds are opened to the public, while the driveway is reserved for drivers of the world’s most exceptional and exclusive cars.
There’s no other place in the world where you can see legendary vehicles in action with well-known drivers behind the wheel—all in an intimate pastoral setting. Strolling through the paddocks, we crossed paths with Nick Mason, the drummer for Pink Floyd and also a big car collector. He was sitting in a 1936 six-wheel Auto Union Type C. Meanwhile, Frank Biela, five-time winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, was revving the engine of the Audi V8 quattro that won the DTM championship 25 years ago.
Seven current Formula One teams were there to unleash their vehicles on the circuit. These included Ferrari, Force India, McLaren, Red Bull, Renault and Williams. Drivers Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg and Jenson Button were in attendance, along with former drivers Martin Brundle, Jochen Mass, Sir Jackie Stewart, Alex Wurz, Hans-Joachim Stuck, Jean-Pierre Jabouille, René Arnoux and many more.
The exotic cars gathered in the Supercar Paddock, where we spotted the new Bugatti Chiron, the Mercedes-AMG GT R, the McLaren P1 LM, the Aston Martin Vantage GT12 Roadster and the new Arrinera Hussarya GT.
But the Festival of Speed isn’t just for race cars and exotic vehicles. Ken Block is a regular at the event and he always pleases the crowd with drift smoke shows—this year in his Ford Fiesta RX43 Gymkhana 8. Even Red Bull’s 20 000-pound Kamaz Dakar truck hit the course with controlled powerslides.
A little further in the motorcycle paddock, we saw American actor Keanu Reeves climb onto the KR GT-1 that he designed, right before he took it for a drive around the event circuit. Nearby was Carl Fogarty, four-time champion of World Superbike, chatting with fans near the Triumph stand.
So now you know: if you’re at all into cars or motorsports, you owe yourself a trip to the Festival of Speed. I went for the second time in 2016 and I definitely plan on going back for many more years to come.