Petrolheads of the world unite!

I don’t get out much these days, so when my friend Jason invited me to Goodwood Revival, I was delighted to accept. He sorted everything out, so all I needed to do was enjoy a slap-up breakfast at The Kennels, take pictures of all the classic cars with my Sony a1 and enjoy the sunshine!

Getting There

I don’t have a car, so Jason kindly offered to drive us down in his 25-year-old Porsche 911—or 936 or 933 or whatever it was! It was easier to get an early start if I stayed overnight, so I took the train down to Cobham on Thursday and met the family before going out to dinner with Jason. We went to the Coppa Club and had a very pleasant catch-up over a drink and a three-course, calorie-counted dinner…

In the morning, Jason and Kate packed the kids off to school, and then Jason and I drove down to Goodwood. He intended to take the scenic route, but there was so much traffic at the turn-off that he decided to stick to the A3.

However, the traffic got much worse as we got closer, and we were delayed by about half an hour, according to Google Maps. We arrived at The Kennels at around 1000. The place is apparently the ‘central clubhouse for all of the estate's sporting members’, and we had a buffet breakfast at The Putting Green.

Breakfast

Considering how much we’d paid for the whole experience, I was surprised that the orange juice came out of a Tetra Pak, but the coffee was fine, and I had a decent smoked salmon and cream cheese open-faced sandwich followed by a Danish pastry and eggs Benedict.

The only problem was that it was pretty cold in the shade, so Jason arranged for us to move to the terrace, which was in full sunshine. He also happened to meet an old friend at one of the other tables, and he kindly gave us a couple of glasses of Veuve Cliquot to start the proceedings!

We had a chat with Richard and his friend Malcolm for half an hour or so and then went off to the circuit…

Cars, Cars and more Cars…

Jason had arranged for us to be driven from The Kennels to Goodwood in one of the classic and vintage cars that their owners had volunteered to drive as taxis. The only problem was that the traffic was so bad that there were no cars! The irony…

We had to queue outside The Kennels for a while, but we passed the time by chatting to a couple of chaps about E-types. You know how it is…!

The four of us were eventually ushered into an old bread delivery van, and we slowly made our way to the circuit. The traffic was worse than anyone had ever seen at Goodwood, and it took us a long time to navigate our way past all the cars and pedestrians.

When we finally arrived, we sat in one of the grandstands that Jason had treated us to out of his own pocket and watched a bit of the racing. It was very loud, but fun to watch, and Jason was in his element!

The Racing

We spent the afternoon wandering around the huge concourse, inspecting all the displays, chatting to the staff and watching the occasional race.

Friday is for ‘official practice’, so the drivers weren’t supposed to be racing—but nobody had told them that! Everyone was dashing round the circuit at full throttle, and one of the drivers actually had an accident. He was going a bit too fast coming into the chicane and piled in to the polystyrene barriers. The red flag came out, and a bunch of staff in white overalls started cleaning up the mess.

The driver suffered no more than injured pride, but I’m afraid his car was demolished! That’s going to be a very expensive repair job…

Jason and I were watching from the stands when the accident happened, but I was shooting another car, so I didn’t get any pictures. However, I took a few of the clean-up crew and the driver’s long, lonely walk of shame…!

The main appeal of the racing for me was actually the chance to take a few slow pan shots of the cars driving past. I was a bit too distant and high up to take any from any of the grandstands, but I finally found a couple of spots quite close to the track.

I ended up spending quite a few minutes taking panning shots of the cars. Slow pans are always tough to get right, and it didn’t help that I’d forgotten to switch my lens to panning mode! However, I did get a few decent shots, and it was good practice.

The Spitfires

Jason was in the Army, but he has a real passion for Spitfires. I tried to get him a seat in the Grace Spitfire a few years ago, but that didn’t work out. Fortunately, he did manage to go up with a different company a couple of months ago, and that same company had a big stand at Goodwood.

He made a beeline for the pilot to talk to him about the aircraft while I took the chance to take a few shots of the cockpit, the wings and the markings.

There were loads of Spitfires at the show—and not just at one stand. We walked over to the airfield, and there were several early Spitfires, Hurricanes and P-51 Mustangs that had all flown in for the weekend. We chatted to one or two of the owners, and I took some more pictures. Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive…!

The Stalls

I’ve been with Jason a few times to events like this, either at Goodwood or Duxford, and he usually ends up buying a Spitfire print! This time, though, there weren’t many around—although there was a stand with some nice paintings of Porsche rear ends. (No comment.)

There were a lot of people there considering it was the Friday. Jason described it as Goodwood’s ‘best-kept secret’, but not any more! It was pleasant enough mooching around the stalls. I didn’t buy anything, but Jason showed me a few shirts by an Italian designer that had extraordinarily loud and colourful prints of old cars on them. He even had one himself, but I can’t imagine he wears it much except at Goodwood…!

We also paid a visit to the Sky building, where there was a mock diner and a few staff teaching people how to dance. There was also a film crew shooting some kind of musical set in the Sixties…

‘Over the Road’

Our last stop of the day was the area they call ‘Over the Road’ because it’s, er, over the road…! We walked over the footbridge and went into the Bonham’s tent to see a few of their extremely expensive concourse-level auction items. Some of the cars were over £100,000, so it’s not exactly somewhere to buy an old banger for your son or daughter’s 17th birthday.

Jason had to get home for another social event, so we caught a ride back to The Kennels in a Jowett Javelin with a very friendly couple. Jason then dropped me off at Cobham and Stoke d’Abernon station, and I took the train home.

Verdict

It was great to see Jason again, as per usual, and it’s always fun to dress up for these sorts of events. I wore a linen suit, white shirt, cravat, flat cap and brogues, so my outfit was relatively subdued. Jason was kitted out in most of the country’s remaining supply of tweed…!

Roll on next summer for the latest editions of Goodwood Revival, the Festival of Speed and the Members’ Meeting.

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