Goodwood – a feast for the motor-mad

2003 TF103 Formula One

The Festival also presented Toyota with the ideal opportunity to celebrate its 50th year in motor sport.

To truly relish Goodwood, one needed five things: patience, an amply-stocked wallet, gumboots, a raincoat and – of course – a passion for motor sport.

A whopping 145,000 spectators thronged to this annual event, making patience an essential quality – the roads surrounding the Festival resembling endless, slowly-migrating parking lots.

Particularly painful for South Africans buying expensive British pounds with monopoly money Rands, were the costs: admission tickets cost £90 (around R1400, depending on the exchange rate). If you would like to plonk your derriere in a grandstand, that will set you back an extra £66 (around R1000). Oh, and one can easily spend R500 on a light lunch and a couple of beers. Toss in an extra grand and maybe you can tickle your taste buds with some of the more exotic morsels on offer.

The gumboots and raincoat are fairly obvious. England is, of course, home to Goodwood (the estate is located just outside Chichester, 96 km south of London), which means that a hearty shower is almost always just around the corner. This year's event was no exception: there was enough mud on offer to excite even the most dour of beauticians; the heavens opened and the event was turned into a virtual quagmire on the Saturday and Sunday.

The fifth aspect is also fairly obvious: if you're not passionate about motor sport, stay at home and read a book instead. Because that's what Goodwood is all about: a celebration of motor sport over the decades.

Goodwood is to motor sport what Wimbledon is to tennis.

This year there were over 350 cars and motorcycles at the Festival – and they were all seen in action on the hill climb, a 1.16-mile (1.87 km) track that is lined with spectators even before the Festival actually kicked off each morning. (The patience thing kicks in here too; as we all know, the Brits are generally a polite bunch, but sometimes it's necessary to beg, plead and then finally elbow your way to the front of the crowd to snap a pic of one of the cars or bikes.)

Speaking of taking pics, the most photographed exhibit at the 2007 Festival was definitely the Toyota central display, which was inspired by Japanese tori gates. It was built to celebrate Toyota's 50th year in motor sport (back in 1957, a humble showroom specification Toyopet Crown completed the 19-day, 17,000km Rally of Australia, marking Toyota's official motor sport debut).

The facts and figures surrounding this uber impressive display are simply astounding – the tallest support pole was 40 metres high, a whopping 1094 metres of tension rods supported the cars and the display, and 85 tons of steel were required (more than the weight of 12 London double-decker buses!). Even more impressive, however, were the actual vehicles that hung above the visitors' heads: the iconic 1991 Celica GT-FOUR, 1993 TS010 Le Mans, 1999 TS020 GT-One, 2002 Champ Car and 2007 TF107 F1 car. This display was so high that a red warning light was fitted to alert any passing low-flying aircraft (including the sensational Red Arrows air display team that performed at the event on Saturday and Sunday).

But back to the hill climb, for most ardent motor sport enthusiasts, the primary reason for their visit to Goodwood.

At Goodwood, the cars and motorcycles are released up the hill or around the truly brilliant rally stage (more about that later) in class order. However, to avoid delays, sometimes several classes are released simultaneously – which means you can occasionally see a screaming World Superbike being hotly pursued by a modern F1 car!

These cars and bikes are all driven by famous drivers and riders – this year, amongst the 100-plus legendary drivers was Ralf Schumacher, one of Toyota's F1 drivers, a man who already has a handful of pole positions, wins and other podium positions. Along with Franck Montagny, Toyota's third (test) driver, he was hugely entertaining in the Panasonic Toyota TF106 GP car, in which Schumacher clocked up a third-place podium finish at the Australian Grand Prix in 2006.

The motor sport man of the moment, Lewis Hamilton, was also there, and he enthralled a wildly partisan crowd behind the wheel of a Vodaphone McLaren Mercedes F1 car for the very first time on British soil, two weeks ahead of his UK Grand Prix debut at Silverstone.

Other F1 stars, past and present, including Sir Stirling Moss, Sir Jackie Stewart, Emerson Fittipaldi, Jenson Button and David Coulthard, also took to the Goodwood Hill in a variety of racing machinery.

Stewart was reunited with the same Lola that he drove in the Indy 500 40-years ago, while Coulthard drove an ex-Ecurie Ecosse Jaguar D-type. Marc Gené was in dazzling form in the Ferrari F2006 F1 car. Ferrari celebrated its 60th anniversary at the Festival and also treated fans to track displays of the 375MM of the 1950s together with the famous Testa Rossa and 250 GTO.

Also noteworthy were the distinctive 365 GTB Daytona and 512BB Le Mans car, plus the mighty 712 CanAm car.

Although the point of the hill climb is to see the icons of motor sport in action (it's not a race per se), it was interesting to see the New Zealander, Rod Millen, record the fastest time of the Festival weekend, recording a staggering time of 47.18 seconds in his wild Pikes Peak Toyota Tacoma. The mighty Pikes Peak Toyota Tacoma was a real crowd-pleaser at the 2003 Goodwood Festival of Speed and fans were delighted to see its return.

Millen drove an 800bhp (597kW) all-wheel drive Toyota Celica to a record-breaking win in the 1994 Pikes Peak “Race to the Sky,” up a 4300 metre high mountain course in Colorado. In 1998, the Rod Millen Motorsport team designed and built a new Toyota Tacoma racing truck to compete in the 76th Pikes Peak international hill climb, a machine that went on to claim the unlimited class honours in the 1998 and 1999 events. It was with this truck that Millen claimed the fastest time at the 2007 Festival of Speed.

Rally fans were treated to a wealth of iconic rally cars, plus many current World Rally Championship (WRC) machines, being driven as their makers intended on the Goodwood forest rally stage. Carlos Sainz returned to the wheel of a Group A rally car, reviving memories of the world-beating performances that took him to two WRC driver's titles with Toyota, while Bjorn Waldegard was back behind the wheel of the Celica GT-Four (ST165) with which he dominated the Safari Rally (the Celica GT-Four, code named ST165, was Toyota's first full-time four-wheel drive rally car to compete in the WRC).

Yoshio Fujimoto drove its successor, the ST185 (the Group A Toyota Celica GT-Four RC/ST185 made its competition debut on the Monte Carlo Rally, the opening round of the 1992 World Rally Championship series, the beginning of a competition history that was to be even more successful than its illustrious predecessor, the ST165). Other star drivers included Petter Solberg, Paddy Hopkirk, Chris Atkinson and renowned ace Stig Blomqvist.

Away from the track action, there was plenty to enthrall the crowds too. Particularly impressive was the Bugatti stand, which featured five of the six Type 41 Royales ever built. The car was built by Ettore Bugatti 80 years ago, specifically for royalty and heads of state. It was arguably the most ambitious project ever in automotive history, despite ultimately proving a commercial failure due to its no-expense-spared specification (it was powered by a gigantic 300 bhp/224kW, 12763 cc engine – which went on to drive Bugatti's advanced aerodynamic railcar trains throughout the 1930s). The Royale remains the most expensive car ever to sell on auction (one was knocked down for a staggering $8.7 million in 1987).

Other interesting displays included those of environmentally friendly vehicles, fabulous bikes, vehicles of the future (Toyota's i-swing, the world's most high-tech single seater, attracted many onlookers), the awe-inspiring JCB DieselMax (it holds the Land Speed Record for diesel-powered vehicles at 563.418km/h), the world's fastest production vehicle (the Acabion GTBO, claimed at an astonishing 550km/h), the most powerful production vehicle (the 1012bhp/755kW Bristol Fighter T)…

Ah, too many vehicles to mention, too little space. Best you start saving and visit the Festival in person next year!