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Posted on July 19, 2021 by Admin under Uncategorized

The Goodwood Festival of Speed 2021 – by Andrew and Charles

If you just want to skip to see (what we think are) our top 20 photos from FoS, either click here, or enter fos21 as the access code on the home page of this website. Otherwise, read on….

It was great to be back at Goodwood for the Festival of Speed 2021 – we’d missed it so much. Although Goodwood had two years to think about it, practical logistics meant that there was very little time to get everything organised – but despite the lack of time, there was a lot to see and ultra-rare cars like the Cheetah-Chevrolet which made an insane amount of noise!

The Cheetah-Chevrolet races up the hill at Goodwood
The Cheetah-Chevrolet races up the hillclimb at Goodwood Festival of Speed 2021. Photo by Andrew Waller

The thing that makes FoS different and, perhaps more relevant to everyday life, is its focus on the future – this year the Future Lab was bigger than ever, we got to see men flying with both jet powered and electric turbine jet packs and there was a big “Electric Avenue” tent devoted to current and soon-to-be launched electric cars.

An entertaining addition to the show was the Driftkhana which was a timed drifting competition held on the main hillclimb route – a really good way for everyone to see new skills and to get covered in tyre smoke.

Nissan Sylvia drifts in Driftkhana at Goodwood Festival of Speed 2021
Goodwood Festival of Speed 2021 on 08 July 2021. Photo by Andrew Waller.

More than ever, we were struck by the friendliness, the opportunity to catch up with old friends and the joy of immersing ourselves in the world of cars.

For Carlos!

As a veteran Revivalist, Charles tolerates the Festival of Speed but, after the Covid Crisis had kept us all locked up for a winter, a summer and two springs, any opportunity to whip down to Goodwood has to be welcomed, right? It was near miracle that the show was allowed to go on – the Goodwood team must have worked very hard to get everything in place in time but they did it very, very well.

Huge emphasis on electric vehicles. There lies the future, without a doubt, but it’s not a very interesting future so Charles eschewed the south side of the track and spend his time wandering around the paddocks catching up with a fairly thin selection of elderly racing cars and a sprinkling of rare and aesthetic sports cars from the 50s and 60s.  

Yes, it’s an AC Cobra – but what an amazing colour! Photo by Charles Woollam

In a pageant that is increasingly oriented towards tin top racing cars and super road cars, the Festival was saved only by its wide selection of Formula One cars from the late-60s and early 70s. These are the cars that were cut out of Motorsport and stuck on the bedroom walls of our childhood homes!

The black and gold JPS Lotuses are always striking and it was good to see Sir Jackie and a fine selection of championship-winning blue Tyrell-Cosworths. There was even a tool room copy of Jodi Scheckter’s controversial six-wheeler!

Graham Hill’s Shadow run by Avit Racing. Photo by Charles Woollam

A shout out to Avit Racing, too, for their show-stealing recreation of the Embassy Racing Team and Graham Hill’s red and white Shadow and, poignantly, we saw the Martini-liveried Brabham-Cosworth BT44B, once driven by Carlos Reutemann, who had died a few days before. The message on the side of the car, driven up the hill by Marino Franchitti, said it simply and with pathos. It just said “For Carlos”.

Carlos Reutemann’s Brabham-Cosworth BT44B. Photo by Charles Woollam

Here’s another link to the photos.