2010 Goodwood Revival

At  a very early age I was dropped on my head in a Ford Anglia like this so it's a mystery why I don't have one of my own. My parent's car was 119FBP. If this car had been re-registered I wouldn't have recognised its it significance.

It's taken me a while to get my thoughts in order about the 2010 Goodwood Revival. I enjoyed it very much and adapted to my self-appointed role of 1950s cad with relish but there was something about the event that left me with a sour taste in my mouth. I reckon it was the split paddock with its exclusion zone penetrable for people on various corporate entertainment deals and members of the Goodwood Road Racing Club. Not being part of either, I found myself barred from some parts of the paddock.

Hooray Henries and Henriettas could freely waft stylishly in and out and not take the slightest interest in the rolling sculpture around them. They fact that they were there was all that mattered. Merchant bankers could catch up with contacts they hadn't seen since Henley or Ascot with oily fingered motorheads mistaking them for an enthusiast and making them feel inadequate by asking them questions of a technical nature.

I felt I'd stumped up enough for my ticket to be able to admire everything properly but motorsport is all about sponsorship these days and those of us on the fringe - like Engine Punks - apparently need to be excluded to maintain the feeling of exclusivity for the in crowd. If we weren't kept out, they wouldn't feel privileged enough I suppose.

Goodwood is also about aircraft and there were some excellent examples parked next to the grass runway. My favourite though was the battle of Britain Memorial Flight. Seeing these planes fly over was wonderful. If ever an aeroplane had gravitas, the Lancaster's got it.

Whether events like Goodwood can survive without the big bucks of corporate hospitality or sponsorship is a moot point. I just don't like the way the segregation is carried out.

This is the sort of thing I like - unrestricted access in the paddock. Next time I'll watch the Classic Saloon Racers. I've seen so many fifties saloons like this Austin Westminster raced on the banger tracks and I reckon they look so hard with fat wheel and tyres. This car was driven by Tom Kristensen - note the laurel wreath and no sign of any sponsorship.

It has also occurred to me that the Goodwood Revival keeps chinless wonders away from the likes of you and me to maintain authenticity. Maybe it was like that back in the fifties. Personally, I think it's more indicative of the current malaise affecting GB plc - it's just for the toffs and over-privileged.

Maybe my costume of ne'er-do-well cad was too good.

This mobile cinema was a lovely old thing, originally commissioned by Tony Benn to publicise the "white heat of technology." We would've liked to have watched some of the old motor racing newsreels but subsequently got distracted by other attractions

Anyway, let's emphasize the positive. I still enjoyed the event and wish I'd paid more attention to the actual racing instead of roaming round the rest of the paddock, which was open to general ticket holders, in my usual, glassy-eyed daze. The variety of automotive art wasn't quite up to the standard of the far more egalitarian Le Mans Classic, but it was pretty damned amazing.

"Ooh! That taste's good!"

I went there with my cousin and her husband and we met up with some friends of theirs. They all live locally and knew the layout of Goodwood well although they are not what you would call motor enthusiasts. The ladies enjoyed dressing up a lot, though. Very few people were not dressed in period costume. I think I saw about a dozen during the whole time I was there. In our party we had a 10 year old girl and she really looked the part, getting roped in to one of the cameos in action around the circuit.

We arrived early a few minutes after the gates opened, and this turned out to be a smart move for by mid-morning the place was heaving. Goodness knows what things must have been like in the car park by then. We stayed until chucking-out time, too, and didn't have far to walk to our cars. People were still queueing up to be bussed to far flung car parks even at that stage and their were jams in the darkening country lanes.

The thing is, though, Goodwood has such a lot to offer even for people who aren't interested in motor sport. The atmosphere was still great and everyone seemed to enter into the spirit of the occasion.

I had to exchange words with the cheeky road menders who accosted my cousin on account of her being a fine looking woman. If the organisers want to keep the riff raff out it hadn't worked with these fellows. Looking back I wish I'd had my photo taken with them. I reckon we had more in common than at first met the eye - cad and socialist subversives.

Why aren't I among these ladies? Because I'm behind the camera again - doh!

Also, I could've had my photo taken with the Glamcab girls, too. Hell-o! I say! (Next time I'll try harder.) Ooh, you are a pretty little thing, aren't you?

Motormind Peter Tuthill had "warned" me about Goodwood. "They let too many non-enthusiasts in," he told me.

In our little gang we had Sue, who comes from Bourne in Lincolnshire, where BRMs were made. This year all the surviving BRMs were there - except we could only see their tail ends as we were banned from the exclusive bit of the paddock. (I might've mentioned this before). After admiring one of the very first V16s that was on the fringe of the paddock, so a bit more accessible than the others, we strolled nonchalantly round the back of the paddock and Sue fell into conversation with a well-tweeded member of the BRM pit crew. When she re-joined us, she looked perplexed and said, "That was a bit odd." We asked what was up and she said the chap she'd just been talking to didn't know anything about the BRM link with Bourne. "I think I knew more about the cars than he did and I'm here for the dressing up!" she laughed (although she had bought an MG Midget a few weeks earlier).

Which only goes to support my earlier theories about the sort of people that are allowed in the posh bit of the paddock.

My take on this is that Goodwood is a good way for non enthusiasts to begin to see the appeal of rolling sculpture. It still amazes me that many people don't see what is obvious to me. I pity them. By going to Goodwood their eyes might be opened.

I tried to capture this young woman's good looks as she drove this racer but this was as good as I could manage.

I got talking to someone on a stag do as we watched  a very pretty girl drive an Aston-Martin Coupe to the holding area before they ventured out in the track. He was having a great time having never been to anything like this before. "My kids would love this," he said. I bet they would and they'd get in for nothing.

My advice to anyone going next year is to dress up properly, get there early, spend all day there and do everything you can - even if the posh don't count you as one of their special friends there's still loads to do and see.