2013 Goodwood Festival of Speed is a scorcher!

The record 196,000 spectators at this year’s Festival were treated to some truly exceptional sights and sounds as they basked in the blazing sunshine of Britain’s warmest weekend so far this year.

Seeing so many legendary Festival of Speed favourites from the past two decades return to Goodwood was worth the trip alone for many motorsport enthusiasts. Nowhere else on earth could fans see two ex-Campbell Bluebird Land Speed Record cars on display, whilst taking in Bob Riggle wheeling up the Hill in his Hemi Under Glass Plymouth Barracuda, Peter Fonda waving to the crowds from his Easy Rider Harley-Davidson chopper, soap box racers hurtling past Goodwood House, the Vulcan bomber flying overhead or Nico Rosberg doing burn-outs in his F1 Mercedes. 

Add in eight of the current F1 teams, plus over 150 motor racing heroes; from Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton, to Emerson Fittipaldi and Kenny Roberts, and the 196,000 visitors went home content with heads full of great memories, as well as a few red noses and shoulders!

Goodwood’s homage to the iconic Porsche 911 on its 50^th birthday, in the form of a dramatic 35-metre high sculpture outside Goodwood House, also saw a large number of significant racing examples of the model taking to the Festival hillclimb. 

Goodwood also paid tribute to McLaren on its 50^th anniversary, with racing examples of the marque tackling the 1.16-mile hillclimb each day. The spectacular McLaren P1 also made its dynamic world debut at the Festival, as did a number of other important new models from a variety of manufacturers.

The calm, tranquility and shade of the Cartier ‘Style et Luxe’ concours d’elegance lawn drew many admirers of exceptionally rare and beautiful motor cars. The imposing 1929 Bugatti Type 41 Royal Coupe de Ville shared lawn space with cars as diverse as the menacing one-off 1938 Phantom Corsair, 1954 Fiat Turbina, and unusual catamaran 1967 OSI Silver Fox. After much debate between the judging panel – including Apple designer Jonathan Ive,  Oscar-winning film director Hugh Hudson and model Yasmin Le Bon -  the overall 2013 Cartier ‘Best of Show’ was awarded to an exquisite 1955 Lancia Aurelia B24S Spyder, entered by J D Classics.

Car manufacturers participating in both the Moving Motor Show (presented by RAC Cars) and the busy Festival of Speed exhibition area reported healthy enquiries and actual sales, including a number of cars priced at £250,000-plus.

Bonhams achieved a vehicle auction sales record of £19.6million for the 1954 Mercedes-Benz W196 in its stunning £36million sale, which also including a new Maserati auction price record of over £4million for a 1955 300 S.  Sony’s preview of the Goodwood hillclimb in its much-anticipated Gran Turismo®6 clocked-up over 23,000 runs during the course of the Festival of Speed weekend.

A hectic 20^th Anniversary Festival culminated in the Timed Shootout on Sunday afternoon.  Festival favourite Justin Law posted a blistering time of 45.95 seconds in his Jaguar XJR8/9. However, the overall Festival Fastest Time of Day in a nail-biting 45.86 seconds was shared jointly by Gregory Gilvert in the Peugeot 208 T16 Pikes Peak and the Goodwood hillclimb record holder Nick Heidfeld in a Lola-Toyota B12/60.

In the Sunday afternoon timed shoot-out, Gilvert captured second place (47.32 seconds) behind Law in the spectacular Peugeot, just pipping third place Jonny Cocker in the unconventional yet technically impressive Lola-Drayson (47.34 seconds). Closing in was fourth place Alex Buncombe who also reached a sub-48 time of 47.79 seconds in a Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3.

For those eagerly awaiting their next fix of motor sport at Goodwood, the annual Goodwood Revival (13-15 September, with Saturday 14 September already sold out!) is only eight weeks away, with many exciting plans in place, many of which will be revealed over the coming days and weeks.  Dates for the 2014 Festival of Speed will be announced in the autumn.