Autoblog

Click above for high-res gallery from Goodwood

The Goodwood Festival of Speed wrapped up on Sunday after three days of pure motorsports Heaven. While we would have liked to have posted a gallery or two a day from the event, internet issues kept us from sharing anything else after firing off our initial couple of posts. To make up for it we have a few massive galleries of goodness from Goodwood planned. We start today with some highlights, but will try to show some of the special categories individually too in later posts. After all, it isn't really a race in the strictest sense of the word and the pics will keep you just as entertained now as if they come next week. So hopefully you'll appreciate what we have to offer and if it isn't your thing, feel free to move onto something else you like better.

For those who want to stick around you can expect to see coverage of everything from the Cartier Style et Luxe concours to the Airbus A380 flyover. We'll also include some shots of the people and sights from around the grounds of Lord March's estate. Although the racing is what brings people here, it is truly the ambiance that keeps them coming back year after year. The photos are captioned as much as possible for your convenience, but look for supercars, celebrity drivers, vintage racers, classic cars, movie cars, wild track action and much more. We hope you enjoy our expanded coverage of the 2008 Goodwood Festival of Speed as much as we enjoyed being there and sharing it with you.

All images copyright © 2008 Frank Filipponio/Weblogs, Inc.

Click on the above image for our high-res photo gallery of the XF-R

Less than two months after Jaguar XF-R spy shots (followed by a second set) emerged, our man on the ground at the Goodwood Festival of Speed spotted the real thing doing double-time in front of the crowd. He was quick enough to snap five good shots of the fast cat at speed. Power is speculated to be in the 500 hp range, courtesy of a supercharged 5.0-liter V8. Riding on performance rubber wrapped around 20-inch wheels, the sleek sedan will be sure to sink claws into its German rivals when it rolls into showrooms next year.

All photos copyright Frank Filipponio / Weblogs Inc.

Click image above for high-res gallery of pics from our first night at Goodwood

We got back from the Members' Ball at Goodwood House and we wanted to share some of our shots from the opening event. Although we were reduced to using a point-and-shoot, we thought you still might like to see some of the cars and sights at this year's Festival of Speed. Lord March puts on a fantastic event and the night before the whole thing starts the members get to attend a special dinner where the Bonhams auction offerings are open for viewing and the Central Display for this year's festivities gets unveiled.

As this is a big anniversary for Land Rover, they were chosen as the featured marque. The display featured five special silver Land Rovers climbing a giant steel girder jungle gym of sorts. After seeing some of the cars in the auction tent and having a wonderful supper, the fireworks and unveiling were almost too much, but there was more. Among the many featured categories this year are some vintage dragsters from the '50s and '60s that still run in a special historic series. As a treat to the members, a few of them were fired up so the Brits could experience the sight, sound, feel, taste and smell of these Hemi-powered slingshots. With so few Americans in attendance, it was nice to see these racers being given such honored treatment. It truly brought tears to our eyes. Actually that was the nitro-methane. Enjoy the gallery.

All photos copyright © 2008 Frank Filipponio/Weblogs Inc.

The Goodwood Festival of Speed is claimed to be "... the world's biggest and most diverse celebration of the history of motor sport and car culture." Held on the grounds of Goodwood House, West Sussex, England, the event was founded in 1933 and has grown over the years to include a hill climb race, rally stage, design competition, technology showcase, and air show (this year's show will feature a fly-over by the Airbus A380). To celebrate 60 years of the XK, Jaguar will be bringing more than a few special cars to Goodwood this week. They include the XKR-S (the fastest ever production XK), XK 140, XK 120 'Montlhéry' Fixed Head Coupe, D-type "Long Nose," and the XK 120 "NUB 120" (shown above). All will be accompanied by Jaguar's Le Mans winning XJR-9. This is an annual event you don't want to miss. Don't lose sleep if you can't be there in person this year... we've got someone on the ground covering everything beginning Friday.

The Goodwood Festival of Speed begins on Friday and we wanted to let you know that we'll be there, once again, to cover the action. Just like last year, we hope to provide you with massive galleries chock full of high res pics of everything from the motorbikes to the rally cars, from the concours to the F1 action, from the special displays to the air show. As an overview of the event and of our coverage, we've posted a few essential lists after the jump. We understand that most of you can't attend, but for those going to Goodwood House on Friday, Saturday or Sunday, the event schedule is below the break. There's also a list of the highlights expected at this year's event, which has adopted the theme: 'Hawthorn to Hamilton – Britain's Love Affair with World Motor Sport.'

Picking highlights from an event like this is really a chore. The whole event is a highlight, with so many of the greatest vehicles from automotive history assembling in such a scenic location and being driven by some of the most legendary names from motorsports lore. And finally, Goodwood is all about special anniversaries, so there is also a list of some of the milestones being commemorated this year in West Sussex. For all of the other details about tickets, camping at the manor, directions and the like, visit the official Goodwood site.

As for the focus of the show -- the cars -- we're especially looking forward to seeing the Audi R8 V12 TDi, Aston Martin V12 Vantage RS, Artega GT, and Mazda Furai run; the flyover by the Airbus 380; the anniversary collections of cars from McLaren, Cosworth, Lola, and Porsche; the Gulf liveried cars; the Bond cars; the collection of dragsters that will be started twice a day on the Cricket Pitch; and of course the modern F1 cars. We hope you can make it down to Goodwood this year, but if you can't, we you know you're a click away when our coverage begins Friday.

[Source: Goodwood]

We've shown you a lot of the vehicles that were at the track during the Goodwood Festival of Speed this week. Our hope was to help you experience the event for yourself, in case you missed it. While there have been tons of posts and pics along the way, we barely scratched the surface of what a visitor can see and do while at the FoS. It's one of the greatest automotive events we've ever attended. Part concours, part auction, part motor show, and part hillclimb, it's like taking the Monterey week and squishing it onto one estate. We've really had a great time and would like to thank everybody who made it possible. You know who you are. We have had the opportunity to see some of our favorite cars, old and new, gathered together for us, and in many cases, driven like they were intended. Cars from the earliest days of motoring all the way up to our modern F1 cars, and just about everything in between. This will serve as our final wrapup post on Goodwood. Attached is a huge gallery of the random sightings and so-far-unmentioned vehicles that made the week so special.

In the gallery you'll see wheel-standing drag racers, rally cars, Wacky Racers, and Pike's Peak hillclimb cars. There's also a sampling of some of the cars that ran up the hill at night for the VIP ball. You'll also see a bunch of display vehicles and new cars that we don't usually see in the States. There's a few shots of people dealing with the torrential rain, including one family who finally waved the surrender flag and packed it in. Also, a couple of shots of the vehicles as they looked leaving the car park and a few shots of London in general. It's been a magical week of cars and stars, of sights and sounds, with a certain charm and elegance we haven't experienced before. A real dream come true. Hope you have enjoyed it as much as we have.



All photos © 2007 Frank Filipponio / Weblogs, Inc.

Here's another big gallery of pics from Goodwood. This time we're posting images of the various open-wheel racers that haven't been seen elsewhere in our galleries. Think Indy, vintage sports car, A1GP, and the like. A lot of highlights in this group: The 1933 Napier-Railton that was driven by Rowan Atkinson on Sunday, the "Blitzen Benz" that sounded like a biplane, Arie Luyendyk driving Emerson Fittipaldi's 1990 Penske-Ilmor PC-19, Sir Jackie Stewart driving the 1966 Lola-Ford T90 he drove in the 1967 Indy 500, and Al Unser, Sr. right next to him in a similar car. The most bizarre car in the group had to be the 1960 Milliken MX1 Camber Car. Driven by its 90-something designer and namesake, William Milliken, it really wowed the crowd with its 45-degree splayed motorcycle wheels. We swore it had already been pranged in the paddock when we first saw it emerge onto the track.



All photos © 2007 Frank Filipponio / Weblogs, Inc.

Although we do get our fair share of sports car races over in the States, the popularity of this type of racing, compared to, say, NASCAR, makes it just a blip on the radar. European sports car racing is way more popular. At Goodwood we got a chance to see some great examples of race teams and manufacturers who, over the years, have taken some of their best sports cars and fiddled with them enough to take them racing. OK, in some cases these were definitely not the company's finest vehicles, but for one reason or another they were converted to race duty and were none the worse off for it.

The cars that were displayed or run at Goodwood represented a very eclectic mix of this theory. We saw everything from Sir Stirling Moss driving a Mercedes SLR (complete with scorch marks where the abbreviated exhaust pipes spit on the body) to Lyn St. James behind the wheel of the land speed T-Bird, from Richard Petty's IROC Camaro to a Ferrari 250 GTO. The list was staggering and included the resurrected Jaguar XJ13, last week's GT1-winning Aston Martin DBR9 and the older DBR2, Jaguar low-drag coupe and D-Types, Priaulx's 320Si, McLaren F1, Ferrari F40 LM, Daytona Comp, and 512 BBLM, and the Koenigsegg CCGT. Huge gallery, just click one of the pics.



All photos © 2007 Frank Filipponio / Weblogs, Inc.

Goodwood has been an incredible experience and we hope you have enjoyed the coverage as much as we've enjoyed providing it. One of the numerous highlights for us was undoubtedly the Formula 1 cars; from those outrageous beasts of the '30s and '40s, through the mid-engine revolution, and on up to the technically-packed computers on wheels we have today. Friday and Saturday they had a relatively dry track to play with, and most of them seemed to be taking advantage of the conditions. Sunday's rains meant it was a bit trickier to put together a quick time, but it provided a chance for many drivers to just put on a good show for the fans.

And the drivers themselves were a big part of the show. From Sir Stirling Moss, John Surtees, Sir Jackie Stewart, Damon Hill, and Emerson Fittipaldi, to Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button, David Coulthard and Anthony Davidson, it was a pretty impressive list. And sometimes the pairings were just magical, as when Damon Hill found himself behind the wheel of one of his father Graham's old single-seaters. As cool as it was to see the older legends in action, the real thrill comes from having so many current drivers and cars on hand.

Davidson drove the 1987 Williams-Honda FW11B that Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet won the championship with. Ferrari had cars from 1960, '68, '93, '98, 2000 and 2006. Honda brought their latest car, the Earth-decorated RA107, in which Christien Klien took on the driving duties until Jenson Button showed up. McLaren-Mercedes, Red Bull, Toyota, and Williams-Toyota all brought out '06 or '07 cars as well. Because the competition was getting a little beyond the safety measures at the event, these cars weren't timed, but drivers like Coulthard and Hamilton really showed what the cars could do. Long burnouts while waving seemed to warm the hearts of the soaked crowd. Some drivers stayed for autographs, but with a race next week and all that rain still coming down, it was understandable that most could only be there for a short time.



All photos © 2007 Frank Filipponio / Weblogs, Inc.

While slogging through the mud at Goodwood the other day, we came across a display building that looked like it might offer some interesting vehicles to peruse (as well as a dry place to stop and rest for a bit). It was called FoS-TECH, and inside we found some of the best show cars from the last few of years. The Toyota FT-HS, Peugeot's 908RC, H2O, and Quark, the Saab Aero X, the Nissan Pivo, the Tesla Roadster, the Citroen C-Airplay, Mazda's Hakaze, and the BMW Hydrogen 7 were placed throughout the hall. And unlike most motor shows, you could actually get up close and personal with them if you wanted to.

It didn't even dawn on us until later, but what we had stepped into was actually a green car exhibit. Our brothers over at AB Green actually did a whole writeup of these cars and a few others that were also there. Besides the displayed cars, we were pretty impressed by the E85-fueled Concept Climax that ran up the hill with the supercars. But our favorite was probably the BMW hydrogen-powered, side-by-side ItalDesign Guigiaro Vadho -- cockpit on the left, engine on the right. Very nice. You can get all of the details about these cars by clicking here. You can also see high-res images of them by clicking any pic you see in the attached gallery.



All photos © 2007 Frank Filipponio / Weblogs, Inc.