The Festival of Speed at Goodwood in West Sussex has come to be known as the largest motoring garden party in the world – where, over a summer weekend, an eclectic mix of cars, stars and motorsport ‘royalty’ gather to form a hugely popular car culture event. The venue is the Goodwood House, or rather the grounds of the house – at the heart of which is the annual hill-climb.

The event has its origins in a private hill climb organized in 1936 for the Lancia Car Club by Freddie March, the Earl of March and 9th Duke of Richmond – engineer, designer, racing driver and Brooklands winner rolled into one. The present Earl of March is his grandson, and it was he who revived the event – calling it the Festival of Speed (FoS). The first FoS was held in 1993, and had a 25,000 strong crowd in attendance. The hill climb is a 1.86 kilometre long track, and has 9 turns, while the forest rally stage is 2.5 kilometres long.

The theme of the 2010 Goodwood FOS was ‘Viva Veloce,’ or, ‘The Passion for Speed’. While the theme celebrated Italy’s fascination with motor racing, and influence on the sport, concurrent themes were the celebration of 60 years of the Formula One World Championship, the 60th anniversary of the Carrera Panamericana road race, as well as 50 years of forest stages for the RAC Rally.

Apart from HRT’s Karun Chandhok (see Q&A with Karun) and Bruno Senna, there was a large number of British Formula One World Champions – Jenson Button, Lewis Hamilton, Sir Jackie Stewart and John Surtees. Like Karun, Jenson Button was seen in action tearing up the famous Goodwood hill, along with his McLaren teammate and 2008 World Champion Lewis Hamilton. Other current F1 drivers included Mark Webber, Nico Rosberg and Bruno Senna (in the McLaren his uncle Ayrton drove).




Past F1 champions and Grand Prix winners included Emerson Fittipaldi, Sir Jackie Stewart, Mika Hakkinen, John Surtees, Sir Stirling Moss, Jochen Mass, and Patrick Tambay. The rallying guys were present too – Miki Biasion, American Ken Block, Kris Meeke and Guy Wilks.

Q&A with Indian F1 driver Karun Chandhok, who piloted the very special 1982 Williams F1 car at Goodwood:

autoX: From F1 in 2010 to Goodwood, a historic event – how come?

Karun Chandhok: I have a huge amount of respect and interest in the history of Formula 1. I’ve spent a small fortune on F1 books and DVDs through the different eras. The FoS is an event that’s almost tailor made for a ‘fan’ like me. Also, Jonathan Williams, who is Frank Williams’ son, is a good friend of mine. He is part owner of iSport International, my GP2 team from 2008, and when he offered me the chance to come down to Goodwood and have a go in one of their Championship winning cars, it was an offer I could never refuse.

AX: What did you drive at Goodwood?

KC: The Williams FW08 car from 1982 is a very special car. Powered by a 3.5 litre Cosworth engine, it delivered Keke Rosberg his world championship in a normally-aspirated car against the might of the turbos from Brabham, Ferrari, Renault and Ligier. The FW08 was the last car built to the ground effects rules, which meant that the cars produced a huge amount of downforce and became dangerously fast for the drivers.



AX: What was it like to drive an old F1 car?

KC: Sitting in the car, it was amazing to realize just how much Formula 1 has advanced in driver safety when compared to my Hispania F1 car this year. The chassis is made from aluminium, as opposed to carbon, and the seating position is so strange because we sit so far forward. The thought of having a frontal impact with your legs in front of the front axle is a scary one today.

The manual gearbox was a real surprise to me – just incredible how smooth it was for something designed 28 years ago. When the power band kicks in, the explosion of acceleration is just amazing. There’s just this raw, pure feeling of power and speed with no real electronics and gizmos to suppress it. It’s such a liberating feeling to drive a car like that.

AX: What did you take away from the FoS?

KC: I had always heard of the FoS but never had the chance to experience it before. After this weekend, I have to say that any F1 fan in the world has missed out on something special if they haven’t been. I got a chance to get up close and look at some incredible cars from so many different eras. Out of the hundreds of cars on show, my favourites really were the 1986 Alain Prost McLaren, the stunningly beautiful Ayrton Senna 1993 McLaren that Bruno drove this weekend, the 1987 Williams that took Nigel Mansell to victory in probably the most memorable British Grand Prix ever (that was actually the first ever race I remember watching on TV as a three year-old), and my favourite car of all time - the Williams FW15C that took Alain Prost to the 1993 championship.

All in all, the Festival and everything that goes with it, was a hugely enjoyable weekend, and one that I’ve already told Lord March that I’m committed to for the next 20 years.