Staggering, to realise that the Goodwood Festival of Speed celebrates its 21st birthday this year, having begun in 1993. Nor did I realise how vast it has become. Jon Barnett, Head of Events Marketing at Goodwood, estimated 200,000 peeps – in one weekend.
If the first explosive growth spurt in Festival visitor numbers followed the introduction of Formula One cars back in the late nineties, the second followed the demise of the British International Motorshow after 2008.
This is why, in 2014, Goodwood has become the de facto British Motorshow, and acknowledged as such by all the car makers.
The ‘moving bit’ (it’s called the ‘Moving Motorshow’) undoubtedly helps. On the Thursday preceding the main Festival, if you turn up early enough, you, an ordinary member of the public, can hope to get inside a production road car and driven (or even drive) up the famous hill climb.
I was given the chance to do this in the new BMW M3, a car that instantly made me want to re-mortgage and damn the consequences (and yes, it does sound fantastic despite the turbo-charging of BMW’s straight six, which M-Power purists doubted).
While there were some electric cars and whispery quiet Toyota and Honda hybrids daintily charging up the hill, driven by prospective customers (it takes just over a minute in a fast car and maybe one and a half in an ordinary production car) the emphasis was equally weighted towards professional drivers giving it what-for in Audi R8s and Ferrari Californias.
