With the vision shown by Lord March, the Goodwood Festival of Speed has become a major event in the world of motoring. Anyone who is anyone in the history of motoring can be found there including Sir Stirling Moss celebrating the 60th anniversary of his landmark victory at Mille Miglia in 1955; Sir Jackie Stewart, and many others, including current F1 drivers Felipe Massa, Nico Rosberg, Jenson Button and Kimi Raikkonen. NASCAR legends Richard Petty and Bobby Labonte were there. While still on the American scene, drag racing’s godfather, (Big Daddy) Don Garlits was there with stars of the modern era such as Ford’s Ken Block and his incredible 845 bhp Mustang ‘Hoonicorn’.
Nico Rosberg and Sir Stirling Moss.
And it was not just the car drivers who were present, but everyone’s favorite motorcycle racer and multiple world champion, Valentino Rossi rode into Lord March’s dining room.
Five of the top Formula One racing teams were in attendance to showcase their latest championship race cars: Mercedes, Red Bull, Ferrari, McLaren and Williams.
Four LMP1 Le Mans Endurance prototype models from Audi, Porsche, Nissan and Toyota were also on display.
BMW CSL.
Seven of the historic Mercedes 300 SLR racers were also brought along and tackled the hill climb. Another historic was the first BMW CSL.
Bonhams conducted an auction sale and the prices some cars reached were just staggering. These included:
1954 Jaguar XK 120 sold for THB 19 million.
1973Porsche 911S, 2.4 liters, went for THB 20 million (I sold mine for THB 3.6 million in 1980)!
1963 Aston Martin DB4 was only THB 50 million.
1961 Porsche RS Spyder sold for THB 99 million.
With those prices, how much would the original Aston Martin DBR1 go for? Incidentally I saw the maiden outing for that car at the Charterhall circuit.
Some of the cars on display included:
Ford Focus RS – Ford’s new hyper hatch.
Aston Martin Vulcan: Stunning £1.8million, 800 bhp+ track-only hypercar.
Lexus GS-F – New M5 competitor from Lexus.
Ferrari 488 GTB – Ferrari’s 458 Italia successor is somehow even better.
Mazda MX5 – Everyone’s favorite roadster.
McLaren P1 GTR – McLaren’s track focused hypercar.
Ferrari LaFerrari FXXK – Ultimate version of the LaFerrari hypercar.
New Audi R8 – 602 bhp V10 supercar first UK release.
Honda Civic Type R – Honda’s new hot hatch (see item above).
Aston Martin DBR1
The entire event makes me wonder if a similar style of gathering could ever be run in Thailand. We (Thailand) have enough people with enough money to get it off the ground. There are enough interesting cars sitting in garages that people would like to see. (I know of one collector who has eight cars counting BMWs and Alfa Romeos. And there are more.)
Hua Hin has an event each year which could grow if the right people gave it a push. The other alternative is the Bang Saen week. Start agitating now!
