Fast Car – September 2019

defining car culture 093

GOODWOOD FESTIVAL OF SPEED

Words & Photography: Dan Bevis

Goodwood Festival of Speed 2019

The Goodwood Festival of Speed is, in the

words of Ron Burgundy, kind of a big deal.

Lord March’s annual garden party offers

unparalleled diversity on a scale that you

simply won’t find anywhere else, and the

colossal majesty of it all is self-perpetuating:

because it’s a world class event, it attracts

world class cars and drivers – anyone who’s

anyone wants to be there, manufacturers

use the show for world-exclusive new model

reveals (this year we saw the new Honda

E, Ford GT MkII, and De Tomaso P72 make

their global debuts), and the world’s greatest

drivers and riders want to be a part of it.

There are certain touchpoints that you

know you’ll find at the FoS every year: there’s

the Forest Rally stage up at the top of the

hill, the Cartier Style et Luxe concours lawn

for those unattainable classics, the supercar

paddock with all the latest multi-millionaire

metal, the Future Lab to show us what’s

coming next... but this year the organisers

decided to mix things up a bit with a fresh

new feature. The supercars had traditionally

been showcased in the Cathedral Paddock,

but for 2019 they were shifted over to a

larger area near the hillclimb startline so that

the Cathedral could host a new thing: ‘The

Arena’. This is a spot for live action shows,

and there was some really awesome stuff

going on in there – stunt legend Terry Grant

was hooning around in a variety of vehicles

(including the Tesla-powered R32 Skyline that

you’ll recognise from the project car pages

of this very mag), Ken Block brought along

the Hoonitruck and his Escort Cosworth, and

there was a whole world of drifters there too

• Baggsy in his LSX GT-R, Ryan Tuerck’s Ferrari
  458-powered Toyota GT86 that we featured
  a little while back, and Mad Mike Whiddett’s