Next weekend, I’ll be making my first ever trip to the Goodwood Festival of Speed. This is a pretty poor admission for any car enthusiast to make and sadly I can’t come up with a justifiable reason why I have never made the trip down to Lord March’s estate.
When my tickets arrived today, I found myself getting rather excited. Having only ever seen pictures of the festival in magazines, and clips on the TV, I always thought it looked too good to be true.
But, having looked at the map of what there is to see and do at the festival, I’m pretty sure it will be every bit as good as it looks. Where else could you possibly see supercars, concept cars, F1 cars and rally cars all in the same place, most of them running at full whack up the hill?
My first port of call is going to be the Formula One Paddock. I didn’t make a trip to Silverstone this year so the chance to get up close and personal with the class of 2009 is an opportunity not to be missed.
The Sunday Times Supercar Paddock is also pretty high on my to-do list. As a Ferrari fan, I’m particularly interested in having a poke around the
Ferrari California and Ferrari 599 GTB HGTE.
And, as you may have read the other day, I’m also rather keen on the GTbyCITROEN concept supercar. I’ve seen a lot of pictures, and read all the stats, but the chance to see this thing shifting up the hill and listen to the noise it makes will be intriguing.
There are also going to be a few other gems that will be appearing that may slip under your radar.
The Vauxhall Insignia VXR will be taking part in the hillclimb, too. This is another car that I’m sure will make a big impression, not just for the way it looks but probably the way it sounds as well.
And then there’s the Forest Rally Stage. It’s going to be a good opportunity to get up close with our own Intercontinental Rally Challenge championship leader Kris Meeke and his Peugeot 207. I’m sure there will be plenty of other legends hovering around the rally stage there too, so the long walk up the hill should be well worth the effort.
Hopefully I’ll see one or two of our Autocar readers there, too. If you see me wandering around like an excited schoolchild, be sure to snap me out of it and point me in the direction of the nearest supercar.
There seems so much to see and do that I might struggle to see everything in one day. Does anyone have any suggestions for where to go and what to see for a first time Goodwood goer?
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