Goodwood Festival of Speed 2024

A Retro Romp Through Motoring History

The Goodwood Festival of Speed is not merely a car event. It’s the automotive equivalent of the Melbourne Cup, the Olympics, and the Pebble Beach Concours all rolled into one. Throw in the added spice of hi-octane gas fumes and the spine-tingling roar of engines bouncing off the rev limiter and you have the recipe for automotive Nirvana. 

Held on the sprawling grounds of the 11th Duke of Richmond’s Goodwood Estate, the 2024 edition of this iconic event was another thunderous spectacle of motoring magnificence. 

From Restomods to Formula One and Rally Royalty, Goodwood offers something for every car enthusiast.  

A Nod to the Past

Goodwood Festival of Speed was conceived in 1993 by the current Duke of Richmond, Charles Gordon-Lennox. If you think his name sounds posh, wait till you see his digs. It’s the sort of place where you half-expect to bump into King Charles out for a spot of fox hunting, or Bernie Ecclestone dropping in by helicopter for a bite of lunch. Legend has it that the duke wanted to revive the glory of the legendary motorsport held on the family's estate between 1948 and 1966. So, he did what any car enthusiast with a 12,000-acre backyard would do – invited a few rich friends over and turned it into the ultimate garden party, albeit with a serve of burnt rubber and blended race fuel. 

An enthralled Goodwood crowd with Gerry Judah's towering sculptural homage to MG in the background.

What started as a modest gathering three decades ago has since ballooned into a Mecca for motoring enthusiasts from across the globe. Each year, more than 100,000 petrolheads descend on the West Sussex Estate for each of the four days, usually including a contingent from Australia, with the common thread being everyone is there to celebrate the good, the great, and the outrageously loud of the motoring world.

The sights and sounds of rare race cars in action are among Goodwood's many attractions

The Hillclimb: The Heartbeat of Goodwood

The Hillclimb is the crème de la crème, the piece de resistance, and the absolute heart of the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

For the uninitiated, this 1.16-mile (1.9km) strip of asphalt has quite possibly seen more legends and ludicrous machinery than any other slice of tarmac on the planet.

Goodwood punters get up close and personal with rare road and race Ferraris

Each year an eclectic mix of cars from the earliest days of motoring through to cutting-edge contemporary machines take a stab at the Hillclimb’s daunting twists and turns. This year featured everything from elegant but rowdy pre-war machines to the latest electric hypercars, whirring with the promise of a battery-powered future.

Ford's only-slightly-psycho Supervan 4.2 packs four electric motors delivering 1,030kW maximum output

A Cavalcade of Car Culture

Significant automotive anniversaries usually play a key part in Goodwood festivities and this year’s hero marque was MG, which celebrated its centenary with a display of the brand’s most iconic machines. 

The occasion was marked with a totally bonkers piece of automotive art, an audacious sculpture that towered over Goodwood House, dedicated to MG’s 100 years. 

In a sign of how much has changed for the formerly British-owned marque, the iconic MGB roadster was displayed alongside its contemporary Chinese-made counterpart, the battery-electric Cyberster with its dramatic scissor doors. 

MG celebrated its centenary at Goodwood with displays including early MGBs and its latest Cyberster electric roadster

Racing Royalty and Superstars

While the cars are undeniably the stars of the Goodwood Festival of Speed, the event attracts its fair share of celebrities including some of the biggest names in the motoring world. 

Picture Sir Damon Hill chatting intensely with Australian F1 hero Mark Webber, while former 500 cc world champion Mick Doohan revs the nuts off a MotoGP bike in the background. 

Aussies Daniel Riccardo and Mark Webber were among the Red Bull driver luminaries in attendance

That’s Goodwood, it’s a veritable who’s-who of the racing world past and present, as exemplified by Red Bull which celebrated 20 years of F1 racing by having former and current drivers – including Mark Webber, David Coulthard, Daniel Ricciardo, Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen – race their respective period-specific machines up the hill as part of the driver parade. Even rubber-faced comedian and car nut Rowan Atkinson got in on the action, driving a hydrogen-powered Yaris up the hill. 

More Than Just Cars

In addition to being a celebration of all things in automotive culture, Goodwood also ventures into related fields including air displays featuring vintage Spitfires alongside modern fighter jets, motorcycle stunts that defy belief, and a sprawling paddock area where you can get up close and personal with cars and their drivers.

Rally enthusiasts aren’t forgotten in this extravaganza either, with the 1.5-mile (2.5km) Forest Rally Stage delivering a wild, muddy, and exhilarating spectacle of rallying prowess. 

Say what you will about Formula One being the pinnacle of motorsport, but if you’ve never seen a Group B rally car sideways at full noise through a narrow forest path, you haven’t lived. 

Big crowds and cracking cars are what Goodwood is all about

A wander around the rally paddock reveals dozens of iconic and hugely significant machines including Audi quattro’s from the 80’s and 90’s, Subaru WRXs, Ford Sierra Cosworths, Toyota Celica GT-Fours, Porche 911s, Mitsubishi Lancer Evos and more. 

Lancia rally cars gathered to mark the Italian brand's 20 years of rallying domination   

Then, when you’re done with the mud, why not wander over to the Cartier Style et Luxe, a concours d'elegance that showcases some of the most beautiful and historically significant cars in the world. This is where you’ll find the likes of a multimillion-dollar Bugatti Type 57 rubbing shoulders with a Ferrari 250 GTO, all set against the stunning backdrop of Goodwood House.

A standout car for your correspondent was the Lamborghini Miura, often cited as one of the most beautiful cars ever made, and a personal favourite. Manufactured between 1966 and 1973 the Miura was for a time the world’s fastest production car, thanks to its low and slippery shape, light weight (1292kg) and 3.9-litre V12 engine. It was also one of the first automobiles to feature a rear mid-engine layout, a design that has since become the norm in modern supercar engineering.

The stunning Lamborghini Miura is often cited as one of the most beautiful cars ever made

Vying for eyeballs alongside the Miura was its latter-day stablemate the seminal Lamborghini Countach, and alongside that a magnificent 1937 Bugatti Type 57SC Corsica, one of only eight 57S examples bodied by Corsica, with its marvellous 3.3-litre dual overhead cam eight-cylinder, engine. 

The Cartier Style et Luxe concours d'elegance showcases some of the world's most historically significant cars

Elsewhere in the outstanding display lurked a fabulous 1961 Ferrari Shark nose, the distinctive Italian racing thoroughbred that won five out of the eight world championship races in 1961 with Phil Hill at the wheel for two of them. 

As if to emphasise what a broad-church Goodwood is, nearby these extraordinary European machines sat the bright blue Plymouth Superbird of legendary NASCAR driver Richard Petty. Known in the States as “The King,” Petty’s extraordinary competition career stretched from 1958 to 1992 and the Superbird, with its unique nose cone and towel rack year spoiler, was among the most memorable machines ever to wear his iconic No. 43 livery. Now 87 years of age, the US racing legend  was right there alongside the track as his son and former NASCAR racer Kyle Petty hammered the bellowing Superbird around the hill climb.

Legends Richard (left) and Kyle petty (right) with Goodwood Estate Owner Charles Gordon-Lennox Centre - Image Goodwood

A Feast for the Senses

Of course, it wouldn’t be Goodwood without the sights, sounds, and smells that make it so special. The scent of high-octane fuel mingling with freshly cut grass, the thunderous roar of a V8 at full chat, the gleaming chrome and polished bodywork glinting in the summer sun – it’s a sensory overload of the best kind.

For classic car lovers and rev heads the Goodwood Festival of Speed must be on your bucket list. It’s the greatest show on earth for anyone with petrol in their veins and undoubtedly the greatest celebration of motoring in all its forms I’ve ever experienced. 

If you’ve never been, make sure you go. And if you have been, then like me, you’re probably making plans to go back.