The Goodwood Festival of Speed wrapped up on Sunday after three days of pure motorsports Heaven. While we would have liked to have posted a gallery or two a day from the event, internet issues kept us from sharing anything else after firing off our initial couple of posts. To make up for it we have a few massive galleries of goodness from Goodwood planned. We start today with some highlights, but will try to show some of the special categories individually too in later posts. After all, it isn't really a race in the strictest sense of the word and the pics will keep you just as entertained now as if they come next week. So hopefully you'll appreciate what we have to offer and if it isn't your thing, feel free to move onto something else you like better.
For those who want to stick around you can expect to see coverage of everything from the Cartier Style et Luxe concours to the Airbus A380 flyover. We'll also include some shots of the people and sights from around the grounds of Lord March's estate. Although the racing is what brings people here, it is truly the ambiance that keeps them coming back year after year. The photos are captioned as much as possible for your convenience, but look for supercars, celebrity drivers, vintage racers, classic cars, movie cars, wild track action and much more. We hope you enjoy our expanded coverage of the 2008 Goodwood Festival of Speed as much as we enjoyed being there and sharing it with you.
We got back from the Members' Ball at Goodwood House and we wanted to share some of our shots from the opening event. Although we were reduced to using a point-and-shoot, we thought you still might like to see some of the cars and sights at this year's Festival of Speed. Lord March puts on a fantastic event and the night before the whole thing starts the members get to attend a special dinner where the Bonhams auction offerings are open for viewing and the Central Display for this year's festivities gets unveiled.
As this is a big anniversary for Land Rover, they were chosen as the featured marque. The display featured five special silver Land Rovers climbing a giant steel girder jungle gym of sorts. After seeing some of the cars in the auction tent and having a wonderful supper, the fireworks and unveiling were almost too much, but there was more. Among the many featured categories this year are some vintage dragsters from the '50s and '60s that still run in a special historic series. As a treat to the members, a few of them were fired up so the Brits could experience the sight, sound, feel, taste and smell of these Hemi-powered slingshots. With so few Americans in attendance, it was nice to see these racers being given such honored treatment. It truly brought tears to our eyes.
The Goodwood Festival of Speed begins on Friday and we wanted to let you know that we'll be there, once again, to cover the action. Just like last year, we hope to provide you with massive galleries chock full of high res pics of everything from the motorbikes to the rally cars, from the concours to the F1 action, from the special displays to the air show. As an overview of the event and of our coverage, we've posted a few essential lists after the jump. We understand that most of you can't attend, but for those going to Goodwood House on Friday, Saturday or Sunday, the event schedule is below the break. There's also a list of the highlights expected at this year's event, which has adopted the theme: 'Hawthorn to Hamilton – Britain's Love Affair with World Motor Sport.'
Picking highlights from an event like this is really a chore. The whole event is a highlight, with so many of the greatest vehicles from automotive history assembling in such a scenic location and being driven by some of the most legendary names from motorsports lore. And finally, Goodwood is all about special anniversaries, so there is also a list of some of the milestones being commemorated this year in West Sussex. For all of the other details about tickets, camping at the manor, directions and the like, visit the official Goodwood site.
As for the focus of the show -- the cars -- we're especially looking forward to seeing the Audi R8 V12 TDi, Aston Martin V12 Vantage RS, Artega GT, and Mazda Furai run; the flyover by the Airbus 380; the anniversary collections of cars from McLaren, Cosworth, Lola, and Porsche; the Gulf liveried cars; the Bond cars; the collection of dragsters that will be started twice a day on the Cricket Pitch; and of course the modern F1 cars. We hope you can make it down to Goodwood this year, but if you can't, we you know you're a click away when our coverage begins Friday.
Last year at the Goodwood Festival of Speed we spied our first Lotus 2-Eleven hypercar in the flesh. Turned out the owner was our friend, Patrick O'Neill, who had graciously agreed to be the lone Lotus representative in the supercar category. Apparently when Patrick lined up in the paddock to take his shot at the hill on day 2, a familiar face appeared at his side. While he wasn't sure exactly who it was, he knew he knew that mug from somewhere. Turned out it was another American named Patrick - Patrick Dempsey. That's right, McDreamy himself. While O'Neill chatted with Dempsey he learned that the actor was quite a Lotus fan as well as a promising racer. Dempsey asked if he could go along for the ride and O'Neill obliged. It took a little while, but O'Neill just sent us a video clip of their encounter.
What you'll see in this video clip is just a snippet of the hour or so that the two Patricks spent together on that morning in West Sussex. As O'Neill describes it, "This was a cool experience...I was very lucky to be able to drive my Lotus 2-Eleven in the Goodwood Festival of Speed last year. Patrick Dempsey. AKA Dr. McDreamy, is a Lotus fan and asked for a ride. I got to spend over an hour with him and he is a great guy and a real racer." Watch the clip closely and you'll notice the Pininfarina P4/5 custom Enzo of James Glickenhaus ahead of them and an Aston Martin behind being driven by former F1 champion Damon Hill behind. Enjoy.
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