Goodwood - The Bits Around The Edges

Here we are once again at the Goodwood Revival Meeting.

We've done the fashion parade and later we'll go racing but first we'll take a relaxing stroll and look at some of the other fun things going on around the racetrack.

For any newbies, do please click on the Goodwood link at the bottom of this post and scroll down through our many visits to this wonderful event.

This, by the way, is where they hide the cash machines.
Cool, huh?

In case you don't know, here is a brief resumé of what Goodwood is all about:

It celebrates the fifty years of first class competitive motor racing born here on the old RAF airfield; the brilliance and daring of the drivers and the fabulous machines the teams developed to race faster and faster every year.

It celebrates the style of those classic decades, the elegance and grace long lost from today's designer ugliness.
It is indeed the biggest fancy dress ball on the planet with tens of thousands of men and women dressed up to the nines in smart suits and fabulous frocks (see last week's Fashion Parade post).
All the food is local and organic (and totally glorious).
All the toilets are sparkling clean (with napkins in the ladies') and of more than sufficient quantity - and this year, gallons of antiseptic hand gel to keep the swine flu at bay.
Every straight and corner has it's own theme; from a 1950s fairground and rock'n'roll bar, through a wartime NAAFI to a Noel Coward era champagne and oysters soirée and all points between.
There are even shoeshine girls to keep you looking spanking after a walk around the racetrack.
It is above all a bloody marvellous weekend.

Unlike a lot of so-called "vintage motorsport" this isn't just a spectacular but somewhat toothless eye-candy parade of beautiful historic vehicles (Hi, America!), the drivers and teams actually come here to Goodwood to race. To REALLY race!

Priceless historic cars are trashed only to be rebuilt for the next year; world famous names from the history of motor racing get helicoptered off with yet more broken limbs to add to their tally, only to return again to fight for victory. This is down and dirty, good hard racing.
And it is fucking glorious!

It also celebrates the history of the airfield itself (the racetrack is built around RAF West Hampnett) with planes from all eras (this year, the Vickers Vimy, Spitfires, Hurricanes, the Lancaster, Messerschmitts, Mustangs, Typhoons and a Vulcan) to commemorate the airfield's part in the Battle of Britain and the D-Day landings. We get a lot of Vets here, reliving their glory days.

So let us start where I always start: with juicy Jaguars, sleek and sexy.

Mmmmm …

As the Swinging Sixties were a big theme this year the scooter boys polished up their headlamps and chrome and turned up in their droves.

I honestly hadn't noticed the dollybirds in the background until I was framing the shot.

But then who can resist dollybirds?
Not me!

I took this for Katie.
Mmmm … cupcakes.

Ah! Meat!

Organically grown on the Goodwood Estate:
Aberdeen Angus burger, Gloucester Oldspot bacon, bread, cheese and salad.
And … er … organic tomato ketchup.
Breakfast of champions!

Washed down with Pride.

Between races, all sorts of silly antics happen on and off the track.
Goodwood regulars Stan and Ollie get chased by the police.

This year celebrated 50 years of the Mini, of which there were many.

Including this one.
Rowan Atkinson is a keen vintage car racer and usually drives like a maniac in the races, but here he was in character.

As Mister Bean.
This did NOT look too much fun going around the chicane!

Up above the racetrack, all day, are the reminders that this is a working airfield.

The Yanks were here as always.
Lots of Vets remembering their finest hour, cheering the Mustang as it put on a display with the Spitfire …

… to remind us that these very planes took off from here to strafe the German defences during the D-Day landings and shepherd our guys ashore.

I wish this one came with sound.
Nothing lifts the spirit like the roar of a Merlin engine.

No Goodwood Revival is complete without the Battle Of Britain Flight putting on a display.
Long before the US joined WWII the Spitfire and Hurricane fought the Luftwaffe to a standstill in the glorious late summer of 1940 as the Nazis bombed the shit out of our cities.
Then we hit back with the awesome Lancaster bomber.
Yay, us!

A little later we produced the three most beautiful nuclear bombers in history: the Valiant (dad's own plane in the fifties when I was born), the Victor and this …

The totally glorious Vulcan V-Bomber.
One of the loudest noises on the planet and definitely not environmentally friendly.

A slightly quieter noise was provided by this lovely old kite.

The Vickers Vimy.

Katie's about to fly the Atlantic to Paris.
In case she moans about legroom, this is to remind her how lucky she is.
This is the first plane to fly the Atlantic, piloted by the magnificently monickered Messrs. Alcock and Brown.

In the next Goodwood post, we'll go racing.
I promise!