I first went to the Goodwood Festival of Speed ten years ago with my boyfriend (now my husband) Luke.  A self confessed petrol head (and in truth the most knowledgeable person about cars I have ever known). It was an amazing experience, and I became a convert. We went again for three years running. Hundreds of cars ranging from the early crazy vintage models with the boat backs, through to the lovely Bugatti’s, Mercs and Alfas of the 20′s and 20′s, the supercars of the 70s’, Minis, Ferrari’s, Lotus,  Le Mans, F1 and so on and on and on….

I have not been since the birth of my little girl, though last year I did go to Goodwood Revival. This year we decided to take advantage of a newspaper offer and got tickets to the ‘Moving Motor Show, a new event being run as a  prelude to the main event, and for which having made arrangements with the dealers, one could drive some of the new cars.  An ideal arrangement if one was lucky enough (and had the money), though as the stewards warned me when some of the cars driven by punters approached ‘ they aint a clue what they are doing, so  stay well clear, they don’t know which pedals to press half of them’. I duly took note.

For me the best part is cruising the paddock and the ‘lawn’ and gazing up close at  all these amazing cars (the highlight one year was getting close to a Lamborghini Countach) .  I would have said that up until this year (and I have not been for a while) FOS had  less of the innate snobbery and elitism that clings to Goodwood Revival. But this year, it would seem that there is slightly more onus on keeping the Hoi polloi away from the rich and shameless.

However, it was a fab day, even though many of the cars had not arrived yet. The jazz and swing being played live was excellent, it wasn’t too hot, it wasn’ too crowded and I got to see some fabulous cars.

Addendum:
After first writing this post, it transpired that one of the people who had been allowed to drive one of the new cars, crashed through the central stand, injuring people and crashed out the other side. Apparently he had succumbed to heat and exhaust fumes, and passed out at the wheel. We walked through there, and past the stand. It could have been us that was hit. It now begs the question whether to allow inexperienced drivers to drive such powerful cars, to which they are unused, amongst the general public is a sensible and safe thing to do. Whomsoever conceived of this idea, made a serious error of judgement. Read more.