Motorsport enthusiasts are always looking out to the Goodwood Festival of Speed months before the Festival even starts. Each and every year this gathering has a tremendous amount of sportscars and famous drivers present. Nothing else this year.For us, the Goodwood Festival of Speed was even more important, as the 50th anniversary of the Porsche 911 was celebrated. We only expected the best, and it was even better. Our reporter Wilfried Geerts returned from the festival with some amazing stories and pictures.
With close to 200.000 spectators, 196.000 to be exact, this year was a record breaker what the number of spectators concerned. Another record at the Bonhams sale with the hammer price of £19.601.500 – Eur 22.692.439 – $29.610.510 for the ex Fangio 1954 Mercedes W196R F1. For good understanding, this is the price without commissions. Rumors are that fashion designer Ralph Lauren bought the car for his collection. Over 500 cars and more than 150 drivers were present at the premises of Lord March in probably the sunniest and warmest weekend in the UK so far this summer.
The iconic Porsche 911 was done a stunning homage in the form a 35 metre high sculpture outside the Goodwood House. An absolutely fabulous sight, and this combined with more important Porsches at the festivalroaring on the track, made the weekend just gorgeous. You could see every single model up to the 7th generation of the Porsche 911 and at there was a special class for the Porsche 911 with some of the earliest cars up to the most modern GT3.One of the rare cars in this special class was the Porsche 953, designed for the 1984 Paris-Dakar Rallye and the first Porsche 911 with four-wheel drive.
The Porsche 935 Moby Dick was at the Festival of Speed too, which in my opinion is one of the most beautiful derivatives of the Porsche 911. Rare sight was the street legal Porsche 911GT1, together with the 1998 24hours of Le Mans winning race version Porsche 911 GT1. Belgian Vincent Gaye brought his well-known 917-021 in the psychedelic livery, together with the 1970 Le Mans winning Porsche 917-023. Hans Herrmann, more vivid than ever despite his age of 84 climbed the car he drove to victory together with Richard Attwood, who was one of the guest-drivers too.
Autograph hunters had a great weekend too, with all the famous drivers in the crowd. Vic Elford, Jacky Ickx, Alain Prost, Nelson Picquet, Sir Jackie Stewart, John Surtees, Giacomo Agostini are just a few of the drivers that made history back in the days in the cars we enjoy so much now, and we hope to see on the track on many more occasions.
Text : Tim Havermans
Pictures : Wilfried Geerts
