Goodwood, the Festival of the Festivals

The Goodwood Festival of Speed is arguably the U.K.’s premier automotive gathering, taking place every summer on the grounds of the famed Goodwood estate near Chichester in the south of England. The hill-climb commands a large share of the attention, but there’s a ton of other stuff going on, including a full rally stage, a drifting arena, and array of automaker displays that rivals those at many auto shows.

The 2019 edition was one to remember. With a theme centered around “Speed Kings – Motorsport’s Record Breakers” the famous event celebrated all areas of outstanding achievement in racing, taking-in everything from land speed record cars to the fastest racetrack monsters. The Goodwood Festival of Speed 2019 event also marked 20 years since Nick Heidfeld claimed the outright hillclimb record at the wheel of the McLaren MP4/13, covering the 1.16-mile course in 41.6 seconds. His record, however, was emphatically beaten by VW’s all-electric IDR Pikes Peak racer with a time of 39.9s. OMP Racing was a proud partner of both achievements.

As usual, the Festival of Speed culminated in the famous Goodwood Hillclimb shootout. For 2019, the festival site itself has been revamped, with the highlight being a new ‘Arena’ area which hosted a range of action-packed displays. Michelin’s Supercar Paddock also returned, featuring a Koenigsegg Jesko and Dendrobium D-1 electric hypercar.

Goodwood’s recently-added Future Lab also returned for 2019. This, together with the First Glance Paddock, showed off the most innovative technologies from the worlds of aerospace, robotics and autonomous transport, along with the latest offerings from the world’s automotive manufacturers.

We saw a number of new cars revealed at the 2019 Goodwood FoS with the Mercedes AMG A45  mega hatch, the Radical Rapture  and the BAC Mono R going on show for the first time. Beyond that there were all kinds of UK production car debuts going up the hill alongside the glittering array of iconic race cars including the Lotus 72 that Emerson Fittipaldi crashed in 1973 and was never restored until now. “It was extremely emotional for me.” Said Emerson Fittipaldi.  “Reuniting with this car was special, it’s probably the best car I have in my memories.”

Goodwood 2020 will be back once again in July of next year…  if you have a chance you must go, it’s a must for car fanatics like us!  Before you go take a look at another Racing Spirit Garage Diaries, read about the Pikes Peak Acura Adventure