Respecting your elders

Full Throttle – The Goodwood Festival of Speed

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The Goodwood Festival of speed is nirvana for petrolheads, an oasis in a world full of speed vans and city cars, where trivialities such as fuel efficiency and boot space are discarded and horsepower, thundering engines and burning rubber reign supreme.

Last weekend I had the chance to take in two days at the Goodwood, located on part of the 12,000 acre Goodwood Estate managed by the Earl of March in Sussex. The festival, which has been held every summer since 1993, has been described as the ‘world’s largest automotive garden party’, featuring over 600 cars and motorcycles across the weekend in a celebration of the history of motoring and motorsport. Each year a sculpture, created by Gerry Judah, is placed outside Goodwood House, commemorating a different automaker every year. For 2016, BMW was chosen in the year of its centenary. The arching sculpture, rising 40m into the air, illustrated BMW’s sporting success throughout the years, featuring Gordon Murray’s Brabham-BMW BT52, the Le Mans-winning V12 LMR and a 328 Mille Miglia Roadster.