Mon, 13 Jul 2009 8:18a.m.
I am a petrol head. Or at least I was. Perhaps the best term to use in these days of alternative fuels is ‘transport-head’.
I was lucky enough to attend one of the world’s most incredible motoring events last weekend and the shift away from petrol is certainly taking effect
Every year in July, the Earl of March hosts a celebration of transportation, fast transportation in particular, on the grounds of his grand stately home at Goodwood.
The general idea of The Goodwood Festival of Speed is to gather the most magnificent racing cars, sports cars and motorbikes from around the world to compete in a hill climb competition.
They call it a ‘rolling museum’ and for very good reason, when I arrived I felt like I had walked into one of the car history picture books I used to love reading as a kid.
These are not just any old racing cars, at the Festival of Speed, you get to see the factory ‘works’ cars that were winning Le Mans, Formula 1 and World Rallies of their time.
A few of my favourites were the Auto Union Grand Prix cars from the 30’s, The Audi Quattro S1 rally cars, Paris to Dakar Porsche 911’s, Lancia Stratos, Ferrari Le Mans cars from the 70’s, Ford Escort rally cars, NASCARs from the states, DTM cars from Europe, Ayrton Senna’s McLaren F1 car, an experimental 60’s race car with jet turbine engine from a helicopter!
Also on display was a collection of life size recreations of the ‘Wacky Racers’ cartoon cars as well as all sorts of one-off concept cars including the bizarre looking Aston Martin ‘bulldog’ concept car.
The best part is that these rare and beautiful machines aren’t cordoned off in an out of bounds area. When they weren’t on the track you could walk all around them and have a close up look, peeking in the windows and peering under the bonnet.
There were all sorts of celebrity drivers blasting these magnificent cars up the hill too. David Coulthard, Damon Hill, Walter Rohl, Sir Stirling Moss. Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton also had a burn-out competition in their F1 cars – quite a sight to see!
Jay Leno the American TV presenter and car collector was there. So was Pink Floyd drummer and auto enthusiast Nick Mason. A crowd favourite was Jesse James of the ‘Monster Garage’ TV series and his ludicrously loud and powerful V8 Chevy off road truck.
I hate to think what the carbon foot print of an event like this would be, but the shift to more efficient forms of transport was evident in that some of the latest racing cars and road going sports cars weren’t burning petrol.
The Le Mans winning diesel Peugeots were there as well as their rival diesel Audis. The diesels whoosh by with a sound not dissimilar to the Millennium Falcon spaceship. They give the impression of effortless power by comparison to the high-rev howling of the petrol cars.
I also got my first glimpse of the all-electric Tesla sports car (that looks like a Lotus Elise) and the British built Lightning sports car (that looks like the Jaguar F-Type concept car of a few years back).
So, Wow. If you’re like me and fast cars make you dribble, get yourself to Goodwood while there’s still some petrol left!