The Goodwood Festival of Speed, commonly abbreviated as FoS and referred within the United Kingdom as the Festival of Speed, is an annual hill climb featuring historic motor racing vehicles that is held in the grounds of Goodwood House, West Sussex, England. It was started in 1993 by the present Earl of March in order to bring motor racing back to the Goodwood estate - a location steeped in British motor racing history. Shortly after taking over the estate in the early nineties, Lord March (as he is formally known) wanted to bring back motor racing to Goodwood Circuit, but did not have the necessary permit to host a race there. Therefore he instead hosted it on his own grounds. With a small selection of entrants made up of invited historic vehicles, the first event that took place on Sunday 13 June proved to be a success, taking in a crowd of 30,000 despite a date clash with the 24 Hours of Le Mans that year. For the following year, the event expanded to two days, and in 1996 added one extra day on Friday. After its date clash for the first event, Lord March would ensure that the event would never be allowed to clash with either Le Mans or Formula One races.
Since the early days of several tens of thousands of visitors over the weekend it has grown to attracting daily crowds of around 100,000 visitors over the three days it is held. The record was in 2003, when a crowd of 158,000 attended before the advanced ticket policy came in to force, but in 2005 attendance has crept back to 150,000.
Typically held in late June or early July, the event is always scheduled to fit into the motor racing calendar and primarily to avoid a date clash with the Formula One season, enabling not just fans but many teams involved in current motor racing championships to attend. Visitors can expect to see cars and motorbikes from over 100 years of worldwide motor racing history climb the hill, including the several of the latest Formula One machines. Aside from the machines, the event attracts a host of names from the past and present of motor racing, offering a rare chance to see world famous names driving a wide range of machines.
Between 2000 and 2004, one of the unique features of the event was the Soapbox Challenge, a downhill race for gravity powered cars. However, as accidents became frequent, costs of cars became higher and safety rules became tighter, it did not return in 2005. The specially built forest stage for rally cars was introduced that year. The other unique feature from 1997 until present is the spectacular Gerry Judah sculpture in front of the house incorporating rare racecars.
One of the other most popular attractions is the Supercar Run for road-going supercars, which has been running since 2000. It is now common for speciality car manufacturers to show off their latest sports model, including newly released mass-produced sports models (e.g. the Nissan 350Z) and working concept models. The other popular attractions at the event are the real life replicas of the Wacky Races cars, which serves to provide lunchtime entertainment for the crowds, and the airshows, which usually include the RAF Tornado and Red Arrows, and a low flying Boeing 747. The latter was replaced by a low flying Airbus A380 at the 2008 event.
For a change of pace, also held is the Cartier Style et Luxe, an auto show which takes place close to the track, similar to the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance. Entry is usually by invitation, and this provides some leeway as to which type of vehicle can enter, usually resulting in a more varied event than usual Concours d'Elegance. Unlike most concours shows, the Cartier Style et Luxe is judged by a panel of selected judges consisting of celebrities from all around the world to car designers. Since its beginning, the poster art has been illustrated by renowned motor racing artist Peter Hearsey.
This however is not the limit as to what makes The Festival of Speed unique as a motor sport event. Thanks to the event's classification as a hill climb, its stunning location and desire to reflect the style and history of motor sport, visitors are afforded unparalleled views of the action - separated only by a few metres and reinforced straw bales from the track. In addition, visitors are free to walk around several paddocks where the cars and drivers can be viewed at close quarters. The atmosphere of the Festival of Speed, when compared to the separation of fans from drivers and machines common to most top end motor sport events, encourages participation by the fans.
The record time for the hillclimb was set in 1999 when Nick Heidfeld drove a McLaren MP4/13 Formula One car up the hill in 41.6 seconds (100.385 mph). For safety reasons Formula One cars are no longer allowed to do official timed runs, and will often focus on demonstrations that are spectacular rather than fast. In 2006 Heikki Kovalainen completed the course in a Renault R25 F1 car and was unofficially timed below 40 seconds.[1]
The Festival of Speed has a sister event, the Goodwood Revival Meeting. This event, normally held in early September, relives the glory days of the Goodwood Motor Racing Circuit and is viewed by many enthusiasts as the perfect complement to the Festival of Speed.[who?]
For 2010, an unofficial fourth day was added to the event prior to the opening day. Dubbed "The Moving Motor Show", it was added in response to the cancellation to the British International Motor Show aimed exclusively for buyers of new cars, allowing them a chance to test the cars on the course. [2]The 2010 event also included the running of the new McLaren MP4-12C.
