Good ol’ Goodwood

Alfa's centenary sculpture at the 2010 FoS

Thursday I had the privilege of spending the day at Goodwood’s Moving Motorshow.

I love days at Goodwood, having been to the Revival Meeting for the past two years, but I’ve not made it to the Festival of Speed until now (I had tickets a few years ago, but a faulty Mini Cooper got in the way) so I was excited to finally make it.

The focus of Thursday was the Moving Motorshow, and all-new part of the festival that aims to recapture the spirit of a proper British Motorshow, with a proper exhibition hall, as well as offering ‘Drive and Ride’, allowing punters like you and I to expereince the cars on Goodwood’s famous hillclimb track.
That wasn’t all though, with manufacturers setting up huge exhibits, like Audi’s behemoth, complete with massive ‘A1′ signage, for just two A1s. One being a boggo red number, the other being Damian Hurst’s ‘art-car’. I’m still not sure about the A1, it looks OK in profile, but dead on, there’s something not quite right about the baby Audi. Given the choice, I’d plump for it’s cheaper Spanish brother, the Ibiza, in Bocanegra form. Lovely little motor, every bit as good as the A1 in my opinion.

Looking great from all angles, was Toyota’s FT-86 concept car. As far as I’m concerned, the launch of this one can’t come soon enough. I loved the sporty Toyotas, like the MR-2 and especially the Celica GT-Four.

I want tomorrow's Toyota today..

The car looks fantastic, and I can’t wait to try one out. After everything Toyota has been through this year, it’s great to see something like this from the Japanese firm.  Toyota also showed off a couple of cars from their Rallying past, with a Carlos Sainz-era Corolla on display, although the rear windscreen was intact, so I’m not sure that Carlos ever drove this particular car! They also had the Top Gear Polar Challenge Hi-lux, so a good spread of cars were there.

Supercars were also well covered, with Ferrari’s 458 Italia looking stunning in white, but it was beaten by the debut of McLaren’s MP4-12C. OK, so it’s not the most snappy of names, but the car looks incredible, and a fitting follow-up to the near mythical F1.

MG’s build up for the launch of the MG6 continued, and I was fortunate enough to get behind the wheel of a pre-production car once again. You’ll be able to read my thoughts online and in print soon enough, so I’ll have to keep schtum on that front for now!

Up near the house itself, a selection of Alfa one-offs and concepts from the past were out on display, with some wild and wacky designs, from the Stratos-esque Carabo (it was designed by Bertone too, so the similarity makes sense!) through to the angular Navajo. It’s not diffcult to see how it missed out on full production!

Speaking of wacky designs, the full field of Wacky Racers were also there, with Penelope Pitstop and Peter Perfect in attendence.

Alfa Navajo: Captain Scarlet's wheels?

There was plenty of fun stuff too, with a good showing from Top Gear, allowing people to get up-close and personal with the electric powered Hammerhead Eagle Thrust-i, or Geoff, as its also known. The 3,500 bhp Cummins diesel engined Mini was also pretty out-there, despite the hoofing great lump chucked in the back, it still looked better than the Countryman.

A glorious, sunny day, with thousands of happy punters, the Festival of Speed runs until Sunday and is well worth the trip, along with September’s revival, this is one of the must-attend events for any petrol-head.

Get on down to Goodwood. It’s automotive heaven.

Another successful showing for the new MG