In particular, there are two events that happen every year in the south of England: the Goodwood Festival of Speed and the Goodwood Revival. They take place on the property of the Earl of March, a gentleman named Lord William Rupert Charles Gordon-Lennox. If there were a Y and a Z in his name I think it would use every letter of the alphabet, but I digress. The Earl of March is as close to a patron saint of the old car hobby as might be possible. He is a true lover of all things car related. In his love and support of our hobby, he has not one but two racecourses on his property which, when you’re the Earl of anything, is your God given right. The first is his driveway which is used as a hill climb course during the Festival of Speed held every summer. The second is the historic Goodwood Circuit road course, used for the Revival which this year will be held September 16-18. It is this event John and I will be attending. The track is a 2.367 mile course that was active from 1948 to 1966 and like many race tracks in England, uses an old World War II airfield. In fact, the airfield is still in use today.
During those years, the track hosted many famous drivers including Stirling Moss, Jim Clark, Graham Hill, and Mike Hawthorn but these days the track only hosts events like the Revival. Once again, John and I will be watching vintage race cars duking it out on the track. I went to the Festival of Speed many years ago but never to the Revival so this will be something new and special for me. Apparently, you’re expected to dress up in vintage clothing from the 40’s and 50’s so I’ll have to do some shopping before the event. Look it up on the internet. It looks like a great time.
Since we will be flying to England for the Revival, we thought we should tie in as many other car nut events as possible so we will also be going to the Concours of Elegance at Hampton Court (one of Henry VIII’s houses) the weekend of September 3-4. This is one of the premier old car shows in the world and we are looking forward to basking in the glow of the best rolling art and sheet metal the world has to offer. These two events will bookend our trip and in between we will be stopping at the Ace Cafe in London for their reunion event and we have plans to visit some very cool restoration shops since John is in the middle of a concours level restoration of a 1971 Jaguar E-Type. Check out his Youtube channel at: (35) John Cooper – YouTube. I’m bringing my camera and will be sharing many photos in the coming weeks and hopefully some adventures as well. If any of you are planning to be at the Goodwood revival [Editor’s Note: Sorry, I’m publishing this after the Concours, which happened last weekend. -DT], let me know in the comments and let’s try to meet up (or email askanengineer@autopian.com). Just look for two guys meandering through the show in slow motion taking pictures of everything. You can’t rush these things. Truth is the Revival and the FoS have both become victims of their own success and are not really that much fun any more because they’re stupidly over-subscribed and really very expensive to get into! I would say that I’d try to meet up outside, but if you’ve got tickets and are inside – then go for it, enjoy every moment, get up close to everything (but please, please, try not to get in the way of the competitors when they’re moving about the paddock, you really don’t want to damage those things by letting them drive into you!) Regarding dressing the part, definitely do so. What you wear doesn’t have to be vintage, I just wore a nice suit each day and it was so nice. The entire event is elevated because of how people are dressing, there are no New Balance shoes and khaki shorts in sight. Enjoy it, and looking forward to the photos and commentary! Jim
