Re: Garden of Speedin'

Way to go Mike, two great articles. Can't wait for Fontana
>
> From: MikeLDrew@aol.com
> Date: 2005/06/29 Wed AM 12:37:56 EDT
> To: shelbymustang@carmemories.com
> Subject: Garden of Speedin'
>
> Hi guys,
>
> Well, after my automotive-themed road trip to France and rural England last
> week, I was pretty tuckered out. But as luck would have it, there was another
> event that was literally propped up right in front of me, so there was no way
> I could possibly choose to miss it. I’m talking, of course, about the
> legendary Goodwood Festival of Speed.
>
> Originally scheduled to take place in July, the event was moved to the
> weekend immediately following Le Mans, making it especially convenient for me to
> attend.
>
> My ‘home’ in England is Geoff Peters’ house in Surrey, which is only about a
> 40 minute drive north of Goodwood. Geoff was planning on attending and also
> purchasing tickets for clients as a gesture of corporate hospitality, and I
> knew several other friends were planning on going as well. The event lasts three
> days, but most people were choosing to go but a single day--other
> commitments, etc.
>
> What is the Goodwood Festival of Speed? Well, there’s this rather well-off
> fellow named Lord March, who has a hunk of land that’s something like 1600
> acres, complete with a rather big house. And he’s a serious car guy. His
> property has a long, winding driveway that passes in between huge trees and stone
> walls. A dozen years or so ago, he got the idea that it might be nice to have a
> little car and motorcycle show on his property, and maybe run some of the cars
> up his driveway.
>
> He decided to call it a Festival of Speed, for it was intended to celebrate
> speed in all its forms. It has since grown to be the single largest motoring
> event in England--bigger by far than the British F-1 Grand Prix.
>
> On Friday morning I got up and zoomed down the A-3, soon following the signs
> that led onto the little roads. His estate is very much in the countryside,
> and thus there are dozens of small roads that lead to it from all sides, so the
> directions were kind of confusing at first--it was not unusual to come to an
> intersection and find two signs: Festival of Speed, this way, and Festival of
> Speed, that way. In fact, both ways led there ultimately.
>
> Unlike the Goodwood Revival, which attempts to capture the flavor of an
> old-time event by replicating history with period costume and historic parking lots
> for spectators, the Festival of Speed makes no such efforts, and thus all
> spectator cars, be they lowly shopping cars or high-priced exotics, are parked
> together in huge grass fields surrounding the event on all sides.
>
> After trooping to the entrance, I was treated to the sound of freedom--jet
> noise! An RAF Tornado zoomed low overhead (perhaps 200-300 feet) at high speed
> before pulling up into a slow roll. It then performed an aerial demonstration
> lasting some ten minutes or so, making the long walk into the event itself
> quite enjoyable.
>
> As he zoomed off over the horizon, my first stop was the Cathedral Paddock.
> This secondary paddock was used to house sports and sports racing cars, while
> the main paddock was nominally reserved for Grand Prix cars and motorcycles
> (although there were a few sports cars in the latter one).
>
> Virtually the entire history of the sports car was laid bare before me, with
> representative examples from virtually every facet of the sport, from the dawn
> of the automotive age. In fact, the earliest car present, and one that would
> in fact make competitive demonstration runs up the hill, was an 1899 Panhard
> et Levassor 16hp Paris-Bordeaux race car!
>
> There were early chain-driven Grand Prix cars, land speed record cars, sports
> cars, NASCAR racers, Trans Am cars, and on and on. There was a strong
> contingent from France with a group of 1970’s Matras that raced at Le Mans, and had
> the most beautiful-sounding V-12 engines. The yellow JCB GT40 Mk I was there,
> along with a genuine Shelby 427 S/C Cobra, CSX 3032 driven by Bill Murray,
> one of the principals of the Shelby museum in Colorado.
>
> I wandered through the paddock and out the other side. In front of me was a
> fenced-off area filled with spectacular road and racing cars. This was the
> Cartier Style et Luxe (Style and Luxury) display. This year there were several
> themes featured, among them a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the
> small-block Chevrolet V-8, and a celebration of the Etceterinis, the small Italian
> marques that sprang up in the ‘50s and ‘60s with a variety of delightful
> sports cars.
>
> Imagine my surprise at finding a spectacular white/blue De Tomaso Vallelunga
> in this mix! Not only that, it was one of the three prototype aluminum-bodied
> coupes built by Fissore (the remaining 50-odd cars wore fiberglass bodies
> built by Ghia). The car is owned by Peter Rae, who has a tidy little car
> collection of some 40-odd cars, and in his spare time owns the BAR Formula One team!
>
> Alongside the Cartier exhibit was a collection of cars for the
> kids--full-size replicas of the Wacky Racers, from the long-running Hannah-Barbera cartoons,
> complete with appropriately costumed drivers--Penelope Pitstop, etc.
>
> Continuing around the corner to the front side of Goodwood House, I was
> knocked out by a stunning display. Each year the event has a featured marque, and
> a huge sculpture is erected on the lawn in front of the house. This year was
> celebrating 40 years of Honda’s racing success, and six original Honda or
> Honda-powered F-1 racers were suspended on giant teeter-totters high above the
> ground. Each had a rotating counterweight located underneath the car, and as the
> weight revolved, each car would bob up and down five or six feet, while
> flashing lights marked the opposite end of the teeter-totter. Quite a striking and
> quietly relaxing thing to contemplate.
>
> This display was ringed by a collection of historic Honda motorcycles, with
> perhaps 50 significant examples displaying the company’s production history.
>
> This whole time, I could hear the sound of vehicles racing up the hill, so
> soon I left to pursue a suitable vantage point. Avoiding the crowds near the
> bottom of the hill, I elected to hike towards the top, and soon found myself in
> a position close to the course.
>
> The driveway is just that, a driveway, and thus it’s almost impossibly narrow
> for any sort of serious motorsport activity. It was lined with a wall of hay
> bales, but as the trees encroached fairly tightly against the road in some
> places, runoff room was reduced to zero.
>
> Historic motorcycles, almost 50 of them, were blatting up the hill, roughly
> in chronological order, starting with bikes from the 1910s and 20s, and going
> all the way through the mid ‘90s. The later bikes included competition bikes
> which were being ridden by their period champions, including Freddie Spencer
> and Mick Doohan aboard full-on Grand Prix bikes.
>
> New this year was a separate Forest Rally stage, celebrating the World Rally
> Championship. At the top of the hill was a separate paddock filled with about
> 50 historic rally cars, including several of the awesome Group B cars that
> had upwards of 800 horsepower! A single dirt track had been cut through the
> forest, and as pavement machines would race up the driveway, just a few feet away
> these rally machines would blast past in the dirt. Wonderful!
>
> A Paris/Dakar rally team was demonstrating their vehicles and offering rides,
> including rides in their awesome 4x4 support truck on a special course that
> featured bumps and jumps.
>
> As I walked down to the bottom of the hill, I found myself in a huge arcade
> of tents filled with vendors selling all sorts of automobilia, including books,
> models, signs, parts, tools, etc. etc. etc. Most of the major vehicle
> manufactures had large, elaborate pavilions set up, with their latest wares on
> display, and flashy videos showing them being driven to the limit.
>
> A large expanse of grass was ringed with luxury four-door cars, in a special
> display celebrating post-war luxury four-door cars. Among them was to be a De
> Tomaso Deauville, but sadly the paint shop butchered its paint job, and thus
> it had to be withdrawn at the last moment.
>
> The weather had been hot and sunny, and with my memories of Le Mans fresh in
> my mind, I had worn shorts and a T-shirt. But by mid-afternoon the skies had
> clouded up, and soon a torrential downpour and lightning storm erupted! This
> didn’t prevent any of the participants from running up the hill however, and
> thus I stood out in the rain and got soaked to the bone while enjoying the
> sight of these vintage cars splashing up the hill.
>
> At the end of the day, I was standing in the Cathedral Paddock talking with
> the owner of the 427 Cobra; just beyond us was the sole Scarab mid-engined
> single seat race car. The owner of that car was talking with somebody, and I
> heard him introduce himself and say, “My name is Bill Cotter.”
>
> Bill Cotter??? I interrupted and said, “Hey, Bill! I’m Mike Drew!” We both
> busted out laughing and shook hands. For Bill Cotter is (or rather, was) the
> owner of the Candy Gr4 race Pantera, and he and I had been corresponding via
> e-mail for almost a year, as I helped to broker its sale to a buyer in
> Belgium. For all our back-and-forthing via e-mail, we’d never actually met. So that
> led to a nice 45-minute conversation about his Pantera (which is on its way
> to Belgium now), and his unique Scarab, and his other vintage race Ferraris,
> etc. etc. What a small world!
>
> As usual, I elected to remain behind for a couple of hours after the event
> ended, to avoid sitting in traffic. The rain had stopped and thankfully it
> wasn’t too cold, so I had almost dried out by the time I got to my car, where I
> was able to put on dry clothes for the drive home.
>
> The next morning I filled up the gas tank again (it cost me about $50-60 in
> gas each day to make the drive down and back) and then scooted back down to
> Goodwood. Thankfully the skies had cleared, and we enjoyed excellent weather for
> the remainder of the weekend.
>
> On the first day I had missed the F-1 paddock which was actually quite a bit
> larger than the sports car paddock. It featured historic and modern Grand
> Prix and open wheel race cars, as well as a whole slew of motorcycles.
>
> The Festival of Speed is unique in that the major F-1 racing teams all come
> together in a non-competitive way, and hang out together, showing off their
> cars to an admiring public. Current and former F-1 drivers then demonstrate them
> on the hill, normally forgoing a top speed run in lieu of hooliganistic
> antics such as burnouts, donuts and even wheelies!
>
> The F-1 teams also set up tents and have backup cars on display, and the
> drivers meet with the public and sign autographs. It was almost impossible to see
> into these tents due to the throngs of fans with programs, hats and pens in
> their hands, eagerly waiting to meet their heroes.
>
> Believe me, the sound of the Renault F-1 car bouncing off its rev limiter
> while the current points champion stands on the brakes and performs a smoky
> burnout is something to behold! Geoff Peters and I sat in the grandstands
> immediately adjacent to the starting line and watched the F-1 cars launch up the hill;
> truly amazing.
>
> While sitting there, we met up with Phil Stebbings, founder and club
> secretary for the De Tomaso Driver’s Club of the United Kingdom. We walked back to
> the Cartier display to admire the Vallelunga, when suddenly Gavin Hutton (who
> owns two GT5-S Panteras and a Pantera Si) walked up, accompanied by Franz Krump
> of Austria (who has a Pantera Si and a Guara). We were having a nice little
> reunion when I spotted John Braithwaite, who had driven his beautiful Mangusta
> to the International De Tomaso meeting the summer before. As we were all
> laughing at the coincidence, somebody tapped my shoulder, and there was Gabby
> Eggimann from Zurich, who along with Rene Killer was also at that meeting in their
> yellow Vallelunga. So suddenly it was a reunion, with owners from four
> countries represented! We all laughed at the coincidence, and then received a
> guided tour of the Vallelunga from the fellow who had restored it.
>
> Phil managed to borrow the VIP passes from the Vallelunga’s steward, and he
> and I waltzed into the Cartier hospitality area and totally chowed on the
> outstanding buffet therein. Inside this area were a few cars that were so special
> they were being restricted from public viewing, including a 1939 Bugatti Type
> 57S Atlantique, one of three made, and virtually priceless.
>
> Appetites sated, we returned to the show and then split up and went our
> separate ways.
>
> One of the really great things about this event is that celebrity drivers are
> given the opportunity to sample historic cars. Damon Hill got to drive a
> single-seat race car that had been designed and built (but never raced) by his
> late father. Jenson Button drove an older Formula car, and so on and so forth.
> They were obviously having a lot of fun!
>
> I spent most of the third day by myself, looking for things I had missed the
> previous two days. One of the most amazing cars present was BABS, a
> land-speed-record car from the 30’s, powered by a 27-liter V-12 aero engine. This
> monster is driven by two chains; during a record attempt on Pendine Beach, one of
> the chains had broken, causing the car to flip and killing its builder/driver.
> His family had a pit dug and the car was buried on the spot. 42 years
> later, it was unearthed by a team of archeologists wondering if there would be
> anything left; surprisingly the car was almost completely intact, and while the
> aluminum bits had suffered corrosion, there was no rust at all. So it was
> relatively straightforward to restore it and now it is running again.
>
> The thing is, this car is absolutely lethal--so much so, in fact, that the
> owner/driver dons a bulletproof vest before he starts it up!!! And the sound
> that a 27-liter V-12 makes with exhaust pipes that are only four inches long is
> ear-splitting! It was fun to watch the car sitting and idling, as all the
> valvetrain is exposed, so you can watch the valves opening and closing as it
> huffs and chuffs and spits oil and smoke and drips water and whatnot.
>
> Hidden out of sight behind Goodwood House was the supercar paddock. Here
> were gathered about 50 brand new supercars, many of which are familiar to
> Americans, but others the likes of which we’ve never seen. England has a healthy
> bespoke car industry, and if you have a couple of hundred thousand dollars, there
> are any number of manufacturers willing to put you behind the wheel of their
> latest 200-mph missile. Among the Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Nobles, Porsches,
> Maseratis, Aston Martins, Ascaris, etc. etc. the Roush Mustang GT seemed oddly
> out of place. The Ford GT alongside fit right in though.
>
> These cars were demonstrated on the hill, and the only incident of the event
> took place when a fellow behind the wheel of a brand-new Jaguar prototype lost
> it in a big way and comprehensively demolished a wall of hay bales,
> presumably doing extensive damage to the car, and his career as well!
>
> Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason (who has a terrific car collection of his own,
> and was running a Ferrari 512BBLM racer) was allowed to drive the Pininfarina
> Maserati Birdcage 75 concept car, which was
>
> I spent the day moving from one place to another, spending a few minutes in
> the paddocks, then watching the action on the hill, then going through the
> shops, then visiting the Cartier stand, and so on and so forth. I got to see
> Derek Bell as he literally leapt out of some car, and ran through the crowd, to
> then hop into Ayrton Senna’s McLaren (into which he barely fit) to make another
> run up the hill. Brian Redmon was driving the Ferrari 312PB that he raced
> extensively in 1972, and Stirling Moss even drove old number 722, the Mercedes
> 300 SLR in which he and Denis Jenkinson made their awesome run to win the 1955
> Mille Miglia.
>
> Mid-afternoon I linked up with Colin Bradshaw, who I’d seen only briefly at
> Le Mans the week prior, and with his wife Kim hiked up to the rally paddock,
> where we bumped into DTDCUK president Ric Lee and his wife. The Bradshaws and I
> spent the rest of the afternoon together, and were amazed to see the last
> aerial demonstration--a South African Airways 747 put on an air show right
> overhead! Now, I’ve been to many airshows, but I’ve never seen a 747 perform before!
>
> It was with a sense of regret that I finally pulled myself away around 7:30
> p.m. on Sunday. This was my first time going to the Festival of Speed, and I
> found that it completely lived up to its billing. From the cars to the
> motorcycles to the planes to the exhibits to the aerial demonstrations to the star
> drivers to the manufacturing tents to the F1 exhibits and on and on and on,
> there was something new and different to see every time you turned around.
>
> Although I suffered numerous digital camera misfires, I did managed to get
> some good shots (and a few truly great ones, blind squirrels and nuts and so
> forth), some of which can be found here:
>
> http://members.aol.com/mikeldrew/festivalofspeed.jpg
>
> I composed this while sitting in the first class section of a 777 flying to
> Chicago; by the time you read this I will actually be (gasp) at my own home for
> a change!
>
> Ah, but how long do you think I can last before my wanderlust strikes and I
> feel compelled to take another automotive-related vacation? Not long, as it
> turns out!
>
> I'm doing laundry and going through the mail now; tomorrow I'll be packing my
> bags and hitting the road yet again, bound for the SAAC convention at
> Fontana. Look for me working the hot pits at the track; I'll be easily recognizable
> wearing my totally goofy-looking Oakley Eyeshade sunglasses, circa 1988 (they
> look like ski goggles!)
>
> Mike
>