Goodwood Festival of Speed

What it is

The Festival of Speed is a hillclimb with a large public festival built around it. Cars and motorbikes, some brand new and some many decades old, run up a course of about 1.9 kilometres with nine turns, climbing roughly 93 metres. The route passes in front of Goodwood House in West Sussex. Dates are chosen to avoid the Formula One season, so visitors can see current Grand Prix machines alongside vehicles from earlier eras of racing. It is held once a year, in late June or the first days of July.

Origins and history

The festival was started in 1993 by Lord March, who now holds the title Duke of Richmond, on the Goodwood estate. He wanted racing to return to the nearby Goodwood Circuit but did not hold the permit needed to stage a race there, so he used his own grounds instead. The first meeting, on a Sunday in June 1993, drew about 25,000 people, although it shared its date with the Le Mans race that year. Saturday was added in 1994 and Friday in 1996. Two fatal crashes have happened at the event, one in 1993 and one in 2000; since the first, motorcycles have not been timed. The 2020 running was moved to October and held without spectators, and in 2023 the Saturday was dropped after weather warnings.

What happens each year

Runs up the hill are the heart of it. At the top of the hill there is a forest rally stage, which the Southern Car Club has organised under a Motorsport UK permit. The Supercar Paddock, running since 2000, shows road-going supercars, and since 2014 some of them have been allowed a timed run. Since 2019 the Arena has been given over to drifting and stunt driving. Future Lab, a science and technology pavilion open since 2017, has displayed flying car prototypes, driverless vehicles and other new machines. The Cartier Style et Luxe concours, begun in 1995, is judged by invited celebrities.

Crowds and coverage

In the early years tens of thousands of people came across a weekend. By 2014 the figure reached about 100,000 on each of the three days. The largest crowd on record was 158,000, in 2003. After that, tickets had to be bought in advance and numbers were limited to 150,000. Television coverage runs through the weekend on ITV, Sky Sports broadcasts the Sunday programme, and since 2019 the festival has been streamed on YouTube. In 2020, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was held without spectators and shown online and on television instead; the following year it returned to full capacity at its usual site.

Cars and records

The quickest time up the hill is 39.081 seconds, set in 2022 by Max Chilton in the electric McMurtry Spéirling. The previous record, 41.6 seconds, was set in 1999 by Nick Heidfeld, and it stood for twenty years. Formula One cars appeared at the festival until 2023 but never went faster. For safety they no longer use tyre warmers or make official timed runs, and they give demonstrations instead. An electric prototype recorded 39.90 seconds in practice in 2019. At the 2025 festival a hydrogen-powered Alpine Alpenglow was refuelled on site.

How Goodwood Festival of Speed is kept

Visitors buy tickets ahead of time and come for one day or for the whole weekend. Cars and motorcycles wait at the foot of the hill and set off one at a time, or at timed intervals on the rally stage, watched from close beside the course. Around the estate there are paddocks, an arena for drifting, exhibition tents, a concours of classic cars and a technology pavilion. Drivers are interviewed on the balcony of Goodwood House, and on the Sunday the quickest hill times of the weekend meet in a shootout.

When and where

The festival is held once a year at Goodwood in West Sussex, as June turns into July. Organisers choose dates that do not clash with the Formula One season, after the early meetings coincided with Le Mans. It lasted a single day in 1993, gained Saturday in 1994 and Friday in 1996, and became a four-day event in 2019. The 2020 edition moved to October.

It takes place on the Goodwood estate in West Sussex, in southern England, on the grounds of Goodwood House. The hill course, the rally stage in the woods, the paddocks and the central display all lie within those grounds. Goodwood is closely linked with British motor racing, and the estate also hosts the Revival, a sister event at the nearby motor circuit each September.

What Goodwood Festival of Speed means

The festival began as an attempt to bring racing back to a place that mattered to the sport, and it still works as a meeting point for it. Grand Prix teams, owners of historic cars, motorcycle riders and the public share one small hill. Each year a new sculpture is raised on the lawn in front of the house, honouring car makers and, in 2017, the career of Bernie Ecclestone. Drivers are interviewed on the house balcony in front of the crowd.

Questions people ask about Goodwood Festival of Speed

See also

ChristmasA festival of Jesus's birth, kept on 25 December with gifts, lights and shared mealsValentine's DayA Christian feast day and cultural celebration of love kept on February 14 in many countries.Trick-or-treatingA custom where children visit homes in costume to ask for treats or face a playful prank.PicnicA meal taken outdoors in a park or scenic spot, often shared with friends and family.

Good reading and sources

• The robo racing cars accelerating driverless techBBC, Article
• The robo racing cars accelerating driverless techBBC, Article

• Goodwood Festival of Speed on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data

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