Goodwood Festival Of Speed 2011

The Goodwood Festival Of Speed just gets better and better as every year passes. It always seems to be baking hot whenever I go there, and proves to be a pretty tiring day, but well worth it. This year I went on the Friday, and although it was still busy, it was a little more relaxed than the weekend proper, and good viewing points were pretty easy to find and claim. You can get pretty close to the action, in fact the Formula 1 cars were taken with the lens at only 70mm, and have hardly been cropped at all in width, which gives you some idea of how close you get. The further up the hill you walk, the better the photographic opportunities, as the crowd thins out the higher you go.

When you get to the top of the hill, be sure to search out the Rally Stage, where you will find a wide variety of Rally Cars charging round a purpose built circuit in the woods. Fantastic vantage points are available to get the cars strutting their stuff on the loose going, but be warned, as if it has been dry for a few days beforehand, it gets very dusty in there and you get covered in it. However, for my money the Rally Cars look more dramatic than the machines parading up the Tarmac, as they slide around scrabbling for grip.

There are many other things to look at besides these two items. The little buggies for instance, are tearing round on the hillside, there are many cars displayed in the Concours around the main house, there are people performing tricks on bikes, masses of new cars on display, an air display and lots of other attractions. In my day there, I probably saw under a third of what was on offer. One day is certainly not enough to see all that is there, but I am so worn out after one day that unfortunately I haven't the energy to do more.

Looking forward to next year already, perhaps I shall see you there.

-- DaveMundy - 15 Jul 2011

18 Jul 2011 - 01:19 -- RodBird