Goodwood Festival Of Speed 2013

F1 race trucks at Goodwood

 If you live in the UK, take some time out on the 12-14th July and make your way to Goodwood. If I were to sit down and plan my perfect event, I really don’t think I could come up with something better than the Goodwood Festival of Speed. It has everything- cars, motorcycles and a huge variety of old cars, a chance to get up close with the cars and you may see some being tinkered with by men in white overalls, an array of classic aircraft, plenty of live music to listen to and it,s an ideal chance to wear tweed and a proper hat. Count me in!
To accompany the good music, great food, there are some fantastic displays of the latest creations and rally cars kicking up more dust than you’ve ever seen. As well as the many invited drivers there will be cars and motorcycles from each of the world's major motor sport disciplines, past and present, including championship winning cars from Formula 1, Indycar, the World Rally Championship, Superbikes, NASCAR, World Sports Cars and Touring Cars.
This year, Goodwood plans to recapture many of the outstanding Festival of Speed moments from the 1993-2012 era, with some great cars from the USA and elsewhere around the world. Their owners have promised that they will bring them to Goodwood for a not to be missed return to the UK, And to complement the cars, some famous car/driver pairings will also be reunited. Organisers say they hope to show off the newly-completed and running Bloodhound Land Speed Record car on display just days before its trip to South Africa for the land speed record attempt. The Bloodhound car is powered by a Eurojet EJ200 engine, as used in the Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft, plus a Falcon hybrid rocket. A Cosworth CA 2010 Formula 1 motor pumps fuel to the rocket and provides power to the car’s electrical and hydraulic systems. This is the car that I really want to see!!!

I’ll briefly summarise the event just in case anyone reading this isn’t aware of why and where this festival is held. It takes place at the Goodwood Circuit in West Sussex, which ranked alongside Silverstone and Brands Hatch as one of the UK’s premier international motorsports venues in the post-war years. In the late 1960s the owner of the circuit, Lord March, declined to provide the famously fast circuit with the chicanes that the FIA required and so the track fell into disuse. The current Lord March carried out a restoration of the circuit in the mid-1990s and since 1998 Goodwood as relived its glory years at the Revival. With the track and its associated structures perfectly restored to their 1960s appearance dozens of period racing and sports cars are gathered there to re-enact a vanished era of motorsport when it was glamorous rather than rampantly commercial.
As it looks like I will have some time off before going to Brazil, I intend to catch up with some old Truckie friends and have my eardrums rattled by some fantastic machines and soak up the atmosphere from past and present. Buy your tickets online and find out more about Goodwood Festival of Speed here:
http://www.goodwood.co.uk/festival-of-speed/welcome.aspx