Classic American – September 2019

EVENT

REPORT

2019 GOODWOOD

FESTIVAL OF SPEED

Goodwood House,

Chichester,WestSussex

July 12, 2019

Wo

rdsandphotography:

SteveHavelock

W

ow.Sensoryoverload. Drift cars sliding

at high speed at ridiculous anglesin

clouds of tyre smoke, Formula One cars,

rally cars and NASCARs bouncing off their rev

limiters while doing donuts and burnouts, the

spectacular Red Arrows performing aerobatics

overhead and stuntcars andbikesdoing things

that they shouldn’t reallybeable to do.Plus

of course, racing carsrocketing up the narrow

hillclimb at breakneckspeed, some noisilyand

some withaneerie whoosh.Welcome to the

Festival of Speed,whosethemethisyearwas

‘speedkings’.There wasnoshortage of those

as it was almost impossible nottobump into

world champions and high fliersfrom one

branchofmotorsportor another.IfI listed

them all here there wouldbenoroom for

anything else.

I’ve never beenafan of traditional motor

shows where static cars are displayed in some

stuffy,overly hot crinkly tin shed while folk,

jammed in like sardines, shuffle by to look at

them. In recent years, the festival has turned

that idea on its head. Here, the latest offerings,

some making their world public debuts, are put

through their paces by professional drivers keen

to show off what the cars can do.

Ford broughtalong their new Ford Mustang

Shelby GT500. Making its European debut, this

‘in your face’ lime green 5.2-litre supercharged

V8 was demonstrated by multi drift champ

Vaughn Gittin Jnr,who made good use of all 760

horses. Faster still was Ford’snew ‘track only’ GT

sports racer,while if intimidation is the name of

the game, they don’tget much more imposing

than the new Ford Ranger Raptor truck powered

by abi-turbo two-litre EcoBlue diesel with a

10-speed auto gearbox.

Jeep rocked up with their new Grand

CherokeeTrackhawk fitted witha6.2-litre

supercharged V8. Pumping out 710 horsepower,

this massive brick on wheels hasatop speed of

amere 180mph. Incidentally,onmydaily trip to

Goodwood and back,Iendureda15-mile stretch

of motorway witha50mph speed limit enforced

by average speed cameras. That’sthe re al world

the se days.Inever thought I’d hear myself saying

it, but these monstrously powerful cars and the

plethora of mega-fast supercars that were on

FordGTMkIItrack racer.

Andy Petree still smiling after Molecomb shunt.

JeepTrackhawk...wolf in sheep’sclothing.

Ford’snew ‘in your face’ Mustang GT500. Penske FordNASCAR.

1969 Le Mans winning FordGT40.

Shelly Rossmeyer.

USA’s Shelly Rossmeyer on her 1919 Harley.

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