Spent most of the day at Goodwood today so here's a bit of a blog for anyone who's interested.

Having got up at 5:30 to get down there early I got stuck on the M25 for ages.
Met up with Gaddafi at about 8 who gave me a timely cuppa. Then off to the show.
Immediately I was in petrol heaven. The noise was the first thing that hit me, we entered by the start line and watched a few cars lining up to go off. Then a wander round the paddock... there seemed to be some activity around a 2003 ex Schumacher Ferrari F1 car so we decided to hang around to see if they started it up.
About an hour later and after much latin shrugging and standing around from the F1 Cliente crew we decided that if we left then, they were bound to start it up.
Eventually the oil was warned up, the fuel was in and someone jumped in the cockpit. I now have a 2 and a half minute video of the warm up sequence which is just f***ing incredible. Having never been to an F1 race to have one start up while I stood 6 inches from the nose cone was just amazing. Well worth the wait.
Then we had a wander around the rest of the paddock and saw a vast array of old and new racing cars and bikes. After that we went back past Goodwood House with a stop to watch some of the cars, just in time to see Petter Solberg sideways round the second bend then weave his Subaru WRC up the straight. He was followed by Malcolm Wilson in a works Focus and Matthew Wilson in a Stobart Focus.
A whole load of bikes then went through, from a 1907 Norton Twin to Troy Corser on a works Yamaha. Highlight of the bikes was trick rider Chris Pfeiffer on a BMW F800. For one trick Chris started off standing, holding the bike upright on the back wheel, then in one movement he jumped up, ended up seated on the tank and pulled away, still on the back wheel. I could see that trick another hundred times and still not believe I'd just seen it.
Following another wander through some classic European and American cars we checked out the Ferrari 60th birthday display, from a 1953 Testarossa to an Enzo by way of a 250, Daytona, 599, 612 Police Car, F40 and F50. Wow.
Last of the Supercar displays was the InGear display with a huge array of modern cars. RX8(?), Lamborghinis, Porsches (inc a GT3 RS) A few Astons, a Spyker convertible (ugly), an R8 (slightly underwhelming), RUF CTR3 (awful inside and out), Caparo (outrageous), Veyron (sweet) and, my absolute star of the show the one off Ferrari P3/4. Just incredible.
We then did a short tour of the exhibitors area and Bonneville display. The Blue Flame is about 5 times bigger than I imagined, the JCB and some others, several times smaller. Odd.
Other cars worthy of note - KTM X-Bow, striking. Aston DBR9 fresh from Le Mans, the Chaparral-Chevrolet "Sucker car", and the frankly bizarre Howmet TX from 1968 which was powered by a helicopter gas turbine engine which revved to 57,500rpm!!!!
A last look at the hill climb track and we saw some of the classics Ferrari 330, Porsche 912, classic silver Mercs etc, then the rally cars again and finally the F1 Red Bull and Toyota before what proved to be a timely exit. The heavens opened when we were about 100metres from my car.

An absolutely fantastic day. You should be able to view my pictures at
Photos
Thanks to Gadaffi for pointing me in the right direction, it wouldn't have been anywhere near as good wandering round on my own.
Definitely back next year!

 

Can't wait to get there on Sunday

 

Glad you enjoyed the day Gareth

We were indeed blessed with the weather

And you're right, it's much better to wander round with someone to share thoughts with (or diatribes)

I posted my thoughts in the meets thread - although not as detailed as yours

One thing - and for the avoidance of doubt - I am not the fat bastard pictured in the Alfa Competzione

PS You didn't say whether you think an E39 M5 is quicker than an S2000......

PPS You should enjoy it Chris

 

Have to say, even with my slightly nervous right foot the E39 M5 was quicker. And so very, very easy to get to stupid speeds with absolutely no fuss.
As we said yesterday, both the S2000 and the M5 are pretty much peerless in terms of performance and capability for the

 

Good write up!
I've been a couple of times ofr all 3 days and never manage to get round everything
Standing on the start line when the F1 cars go up the hill is also amazing!

 

Go past the start line to the end of the drive.

Watching the F1 cars and rally cars doing spin turns before they go back to the start line is

 

MarkB and I went on Friday thanks to Jel and the two tickets that he couldn't use.

I picked Mark up at 6am, we got there just past 7.45ish and had a great day. We stood at the Corner grandstand for the morning runs. The only thing we weren't really excited about was the modern F1 cars - unlike most people there it seemed, we enjoyed the historics and the Group C prototypes and revelled in the fact that we are old men who like old cars.

I was delighted that the 917k went up the hill and gave it some stick too.

We went up to the rally stage but didn't stay too long.

Interesting that the only two cars that went off were new ones, the Jaguar understeered off at Corner and almost went through the bales, the Aston we missed as we were in the Verve tent

 

damn, we missed you!

 

We thought you only went on Sunday with the posh people

 

I was like the Queen on Friday

Forgot my card and cash, so Gareth had to pay

But then I am entertaining