The Goodwood Revival is the sister event to the Festival Of Speed in July, based down near the south coast of Sussex in England. Whereas the focus for the Festival is the hillclimb course outside Goodwood House – home to event organiser Lord March – the Revival is all about reliving the golden era of the nearby Goodwood racing circuit. The track opened just after the end of the Second World War, and held many famous races in the 1950s and into the ’60s.

The Revival atmosphere starts well before you hit the entrance gates and make your way onto the site proper. The inner public car parks are reserved for cars from before 1966, so even as you stroll the last few hundred yards you’re already immersed in the spirit of the event.

No modern cars are allowed anywhere near the track – all support vehicles are either from the Revival period or hidden away in the aircraft hangars on site. But in the outer car parks there’s still a mouth-watering number of exotics from more recent decades to be seen. I drooled over this immaculate Bertone-designed V12 Lamborghini Countach – the supercar poster child of the ’80s. I doubt the owner enjoyed the drive across the rutted field…

Not having been to the Revival for five years or so, I expected a couple of corrals of old cars to be dotted around the car parks, but instead there were literally hundreds of pristine classics lined up. Row upon row of every make, model and size of car you can imagine, from rarest Ferrari to most popular Ford, Jaguar to Jeep, Alfa to armoured car! If you didn turn around, all you would see were the pre-’66 cars: with the average condition so high it was difficult to believe that all these cars are over 40 years old. Maybe it was just ’70s cars that rust…

It took half an hour to even get near the entrance gate. How can you rush when you’ve got this amount of machinery to soak up? Every row of parked cars deserved attention. Some cars have just one angle where they work, but then you come across cars like this Ferrari Dino 246. Great from all angles.

The Dino – named after the late son of Ferrari founder Enzo – aimed to be Ferrari’s ‘affordable’ sports coupé, but that was relative – although 2,500 were built during its production run between 1968-76. The 246 was an upgraded version of the original, sporting a 2.4L V6 making 195bhp.

And what do you do when you stumble across a Mercedes 300 SL Gullwing?

Or even worse, two dropheads? Not bad being flanked by two Jaguar E-types.

Next up, this 1971 Toyota Celica TA22 GT had somehow sneaked into the pre-66 area, but I think it’s forgiven. This Celica had a 1940cc twin-cam producing 170bhp and stood on nice and shiny Compomotive wheels.

This was the first generation of what’s always been a great name for Japanese cars.

I spotted this spotless Studebaker Commander next to a 1940s Dodge staff car.

The staff car came complete with magazines (including a 1942 Chrysler Corporation Parts List and a copy of wartime magazine Liberty) and half-smoked cigar in the ash tray.

Much as I’ve always had an eye for Mustangs – and there were plenty to see – I really liked this Ford Galaxie. The Galaxie even raced in the British Touring Car Championship in the 1960s – it’s incredible to think of this up against little buzz-bomb Minis and rolling Mk2 Jaguars! It blitzed the ’63 season with 7 wins out of 11 races – Jack Brabham, Jim Clark and Dan Gurney all won in the car that season. The Galaxie is maybe more of an aircraft carrier than a car, but then even this would be dwarfed when I got to the Americana encampment at the track. More of that later on.

Finally I made it to the track. The outer ring at the circuit was packed, with a market, a fun fair and plenty of period entertainment on offer. One of the themes of this year’s Revival was the celebration of 50 years of the Mini, and by the main entrance was a ’60s-themed set piece of a red London bus, half a dozen Union Jack-decorated Minis… and quite a few go-go dancers, who were not surprisingly getting quite a lot of attention.

Also, British comedy hero Rowan Atkinson reprised a sketch from the Mr Bean show in this Mini – running down one of Goodwood’s grass runways pursued by Police in another Mini…

Rather more to my taste was this Patrick Motorsport 1.3L Mini 1275GT – though it’s really another interloper as this model is from the 1970s.

And how about a Mini limo to battle the usual Hummers and Caddies?

The deep colour of this 1950s Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Touring just oozed style in the afternoon sun. The 6C model started production in 1938, and this version on display was part of the last run made in the early 1950s. Great lines.

This variant was Superleggara-bodied, meaning ‘Super Light’. It was a term introduced by legendary Italian stylists Carrozzeria Touring, and the process involved using a tube frame under the car’s lightweight aluminium body panels to save weight. Aston Martin’s DB4, 5 and 6 models used the same style.

Hidden around the back of the GlamourCabs parking area I came across this Porsche 356, the company’s first production car and precursor to the 911.

And then came a complete contrast: a corral of pure Americana: gleaming chrome all round, Airstream caravans and centre stage this pair of low riding Cadillac Eldorados.

It’s difficult to convey in photographs just how *big* these things are. They’re simply enormous. Though driving one must be like driving a jelly.

But the look of them! Full Jetsons. Fins. Rockets. Total outer space. Awesome.

Parked up next to them was this Chevy Bel Air Station Wagon. The back of it is in the next county. For some cars there’s simply no wide-angle big enough. Another very long car.

Slightly more sensible if you’re going to throw yourself round a track in an American car is, of course, a Mustang.

And if you’ve got a racing Mustang then it’s going to be a GT350.

Amongst all the chrome and shining paint was this Ford rat rod, complete with rust look and a big Lincoln V8. Shame it was only on static display – I’m sure it would have sounded great!

I’ve always thought that the Austin-Healey is one of the prettiest British sportscars from the ’60s. Classic lines on this 1965 3000 soft-top.

Now for my two favourite cars from the weekend. The first one was this Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint Speciale, which was parked up in the middle of the racing paddock.

Now, I admit that I’m a sucker for anything with an Alfa badge, but I just love the look of this car. It’s one of four coupé Sprint versions of the Giulietta model.

Secondly there’s this Bristol Teardrop Special. What a paint job! Like the 6C above, it completely stood out with its deep metallic colour. The bodywork for this special edition is from a 1938 Talbot Lago T150C Teardrop Coupé – the base car is a 1959 Bristol 406. Not bad looking for a 50 year old!

The Bristol company had a plane-making background, designing the Bristol Blenheim light bomber during the Second World War. They’re still making exclusive, expensive, hand-built cars today, such as the relatively new Fighter model.

Even better, both my favourites were parked together! What a pair. They should be hanging on a wall in an art gallery…

Getting back to my ride for the day took as long as getting into the track in the morning. As the crowds left and the parking thinned out more classics were highlighted in their isolation, such as this Aston DB5. Pure Bond! A light fall of rain just as I was leaving helped cool down the temperature but also looked great on the cars.

Even the long queues on the way out went quickly, hanging out of the window spotting yet more glorious cars alongside – even better that you could hear the revving engines! The rear end with the exhausts embedded in the bumper chrome and tapered tail-lights of this car had a lot of people craning out of their cars for a better look. At the time I had no idea what it was, but it turns out to be a Facel Vega HK500 from 1959 – its throaty 360bhp 5.9L v8 made a great sound. Facel Vega were a French luxury car builder from the ’50s. That’s another marque learned! We’ll have more stories from the Goodwood Revival over the next few days.

Goodwood

Jonathan Moore