We all want to impress the crowds at Goodwood, but preserving the car is also a must. What is the best way to approach the famous hill?
The Goodwood Festival of Speed kicked off preparations for its 20th anniversary event today by holding a preview for the event proper, which runs from 4-7 July.
Over those years, I’ve always marvelled at the cars, drivers and magical atmosphere from the sidelines. And I’ve also pondered how it must be one of the most privileged yet thankless tasks to drive the machinery up the hill.
Today, I got to find out for myself, driving a BMW M3 CSL up the hill. And, yes, I can confirm that it was the most pressurised honour I’ve ever had to undertake, even with ‘only’ a few hundred spectators rather than tens of thousands.
The history lesson only needs to be brief but is highly relevant: BMW made 1400 Coupé Sport Leichtbaus, 110kg lighter than the standard M3 and 17bhp more powerful. The SMG transmission was meant to draw a link to F1, but found few friends.
All of which meant it was quite a car in which to be driving up Goodwood's hill for the first time. No pressure, and all that. Mighty car, very public venue and could you put on a show without doing anything silly?
Of course, it was a fraction of the pressure that the professional drivers face at the Festival itself, when accident delays can cause serious disruption, but then I have a fraction of the talent of those drivers. It was probably the slowest run ever, but at least the car was returned in one piece.
Come the Festival, countless car owners and drivers will face a similar dilemma. Try to entertain the crowds, or try to keep the car in one piece? I guess the answer is that you drive according to your talent, leaving the former to the professionals, but when the adrenalin is flowing it’s easy to see why accidents happen.
So, here’s a final poser for you: put yourself on the startline, in your own Ferrari 250 GTO. You’ve got one shot at the hill, what do you do? Would it be flat-out or flat-footed?