Loads of action at the 2011 Festival of Speed!

By Graeme Hurst
Events
 | 4 Jul 2011

With the largest ever European gathering of Indy 500 cars, a class dedicated to iconic Le Mans Jaguars and a raft of radical racing machinery - along with fine weather and an unexpected performance by Queen's Brian May - this year's Festival of Speed dished out plenty of thrills for more than 175,000 visitors attending the 1-3 July event.

The action on the hill was made more entertaining by the presence of several big names in motor sport, from the latest F1 stars to a string of Indy 500 heroes and period historic racing personalities. They were joined by three World Rally Champions on the Festival's popular forest rally stage.

The 2011 Festival of Speed celebrated the Jaguar E-type's 50th with another masterpiece by sculptor Gerry Juddah taking pride of place outside Goodwood House and a category in the Cartier Style et Luxe Concours d'Elegance dedicated to Coventry's most famous sports car.

Goodwood celebrated its lead sponsor's mark on motor sport with a class devoted to Le Mans challengers, including two former C&SC feature cars: E2A (in the hands of former company test driver Norman Dewis) and Peter Neumark's freshly-restored 1964 Lowdrag E-type (below).



The rare Lightweight (1of 12) was taking part at a motor sport event for the first time following an epic 7000-hour resurrection of the totalled remains from Peter Lindner's fatal accident at Montlhéry.

Also in action was a 1988 XJR-9L M identical to the one that secured Jaguar's first Le Mans victory in more than 30 years in 1988. Jan Lammers and Andy Wallace (two of the winning car's three drivers) were on hand to blast its twin up the hill to the excitement of the crowd, with many recalling the epic, nation-building win.

Other competition Jaguars in action included the mighty ex-Bob Tullius, SCCA Championship-winning Group 44 E-type (below), driven by C&SC's own Alastair Clements, who took to the hill for the first time on Sunday.


"The first 20 seconds of the run were spent getting accustomed to the V12’s weighty clutch and ferocious pace. Then it was hard on the brakes at Molcombe before another couple of bursts of power and noise to the finish line. I just want to do it all again,” said a delighted Clements.

In action as well from team C&SC was a Festival old-hand, Editor in Chief Mick Walsh. He was at the wheel of the Donington Collection's 1934 Austin Seven racer - featuring a supercharged, twin-cam take on Austin's venerable 750cc flathead that's good for a heady 120bhp at 10,000rpm.

Walsh also demonstrated the stunning 1940 BMW 328 'Kamm Coupé' (below) on Saturday. On its Goodwood debut, the Coupé is a stunning recreation of one of original 1940 Mille Miglia-winning team trio after the original cars and drawings were lost behind the Iron Curtain after World War 2.

It ran in the Classic Endurance Racers class, which also featured the technically advanced (twin-cam engine, five-speed transaxle and space frame chassis) 1958 Skoda 1100 OHC and Sir Stirling Moss' Porsche 718 RS6, with the recently-retired racing legend demonstrating the car himself to much applause.

Moss thrilled his fans in another of his favourites - the four-wheel-drive Ferguson Project 99 (above) - but it was Andreas Mohringer's fabulously patinated 1953 Ferrari 375MM (below) that stole attention in the class.

The Austrian - who picked up a class win at this year's Villa D'Este concours -  was at the wheel for the car's first 'competitive' run since he acquired the off-the-road-for-40-years ex-Sebring 12 Hours (at the hands of Phil Hill) racer three years back.

Making its debut - on the hill - in the same group was the mid-engined Alfa Romeo 6C-2300 Aerodinamica Spider.

Another streamline gem running at Goodwood for the first time was Frank Costin's amazing Formula 2 Protos, which boasts a stressed-skin plywood monocoque and drag-reducing cockpit canopy.

It, and the variable-transmission 1968 Tecno-DAF Variomatic, were two of the stars of the Fesitval's Racing Revolutions theme that attracted technical wonders such as Jim Hall's 1970 Chaparral-Chevrolet 2J  'fan car' (below).

The ground-sucking skirt car (famous for Hall's addition of a snowmobile engine to drive its suction fans) was driven up the hill by Vic Elford, with Gil de Ferran at the wheel of Hall's other controversial technical wonder: the Chaparral-Chevrolet 2E with which Hall pioneered adjustable downforce with a colossal driver-controlled rear wing.

But the big news for this year's Festival of Speed was host Lord March's efforts to celebrate the centenary of the Indianapolis 500 with a hugely impressive line up of famous racers, which formed a grid in front of the house each day amid a pageantry of a marching band, a rendition of Back Home Again in Indiana and a guitarist solo of the Stars and Stripes.

The showcase was preceded on the Sunday by a run of Queen hits by the band's Brian May from the back of a huge, smoke-billowing Oshkosh truck.


Adding to the evocative atmosphere was a countdown to the customary 'gentlemen, start your engines' and the original 1955 Chevrolet Indy 500 pace car.

The Indy cars were spread over five classes (below), with Goodwood newcomers including the 1923 2-litre supercharged Mercedes Indianapolis and the mighty 1931 Duesenberg Cummins Diesel Special – in the hands of Eddie Cheever.

Other Indy 500 hotshoes included Bobby Rahal and Bobby Unser - the latter in the Penske-Cosworth PC98 in which Unser scored his third Indy win in '81. Also wowing the crowds was race legend Parnelli Jones in the dramatic 1968 Lotus-Pratt & Whitney 56 'STP' Special Gas Turbine car in which he so narrowly missed victory in '67.

There was plenty of action on the F1 front too, with 1996 F1 Champ Damon Hill demonstrating the 1993 Williams-Renault FW15C - the car that gave him his first GP win - and 2008 and 2009 World Champions Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button taking to the hill.

Hamilton was in the ex-John Watson 1981 British GP-winning McLaren MP4-1 while Nigel Mansell took to the hill too, in the new Lotus Evora GT4.

Impressing in another Lotus was Dan Collins aboard his Lotus 88B ‘twin chassis’ F1 car. This radical machine practised, but never competed in a Grand Prix in period, but that didn’t stop Collins from winning the Top Ten Shootout Finale in an impressive 48.52s.

There was plenty of excitement around earlier machinery; making a return for the first time in years (and recently in new ownership) was the twin-supercharged 'U16' engined Bugatti Type 45.

Along with the marque's famous four-wheel-drive Type 53, the pair were stars in the Pre-war Grand Prix cars class, which also welcomed the Mercedes-Benz W165 - the car Mercedes developed to win the Tripoli GP. The W165 was driven by John Surtees while Hans Stuck was in action in the 1939, 485bhp twin-supercharged Auto Union Type D.

Also starring on the pre-war front was Hugh Taylor's marvellously patinated 1934 Alfa Romeo Tipo B, but it was the mighty aero-engined leviathans that really stole the show at the bottom of the Cathedral Paddock, in particular the 21.7-litre Mefistofeles and the Napier-Railton (See C&SC, August) which US TV host and noted car collector Jay Leno demonstrated on the Saturday.


And there was a lot going on at the rally stage - now in its seventh year at Goodwood - to keep off-road fans enthralled, with stars such as Rauno Aaltonen, Jimmy McRae and Björn Waldegård in action in a Mini Cooper S, Vauxhall Chevette HS and Toyota Celica GT Twin Cam respectively.

The legendary Group B cars were screaming through the forest too - headed by Stuart Larbey's MG Metro 6R4 - while talk of the rally paddock was Mick Stafford's superb recreation of South African rally legend Jan Hettema's 1973 Chevrolet Firenza V8 (below).


The popular super-car paddock drew plenty of attention too, with standouts including the new McLaren MP4-12C and four-wheel drive Ferrari FF, along with the Hulme Canam Spyder - a 700bhp carbonfibre supercar inspired by Denny Hulme; New Zealand's only F1 Champ. Also intriguing was the six-wheeled Covini C6W.

There was no shortage of wow factor when it came to the Festival's various static displays with the Cartier Style et Luxe delivering some unexpected gems including the 1938 Mercedes-Benz 170V (below) - another styling masterpiece by Wunibald Kamm.


Known as Kamm 3, it boasts a low-drag coefficient of 0.23 and increased fuel consumption from 18mpg to 29mpg and was making a rare outing from display at the Deutsches Museum in Langenburg.

Talking point in the concours was the highly original Bentley 41/2-litre Blower  known as ‘The Green Hornet.’ Previously in the same hands for more than 50 years (until going under the hammer at Monterey in 2007). The vintage Bentley was fresh out of a sensitive recent repaint that involved ageing the finish with the result a big hit with the judges, including British designers Jonathan Ive, vice president at Apple Design, and Marc Newson.

Vying for attention was the 1969 Adams Probe 16 (below). Complete with sliding glass roof for entry and egress of both driver and passenger, the swoopy coupe is famous for its cameo role in Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange.


Other Cartier Style et Luxe crowd-pullers included the elegant boat-tailed 1934 Rolls-Royce Phantom II Tourer and leading architect Sir Norman Foster's 1933 Dymaxion recreation while this year's Best of Show went to a 1951 Ferrari 340 America.

Tucked away in the vendors village was a stunning Alvis 4.3 drophead with glamorous coachwork by Lancefield of London.  The 1937 Earls Court Motor Show car was was recently restored by marque specialist Red Triangle.

The village held some other surprises, too, including artist Tim Lazell's Goodwood Tourist Trophy-inspired piece depicting Ferrari 250 GTOs in action with Innes Ireland in the UDT Laystall team car leading the pack through St Mary’s en route to his famous 1962 victory.

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Graeme Hurst