Steve Cropley: Goodwood is a cause for celebration
Our man's transport to Goodwood was W.O. Bentley's personal car
Our man arrived at the Members' Meeting in style.
*Saturday AM*
Serious elation this morning as we headed into the Goodwood Members’ Meeting, first and most intimate of the great Sussex estate’s three big car events this year.
Not only had the organisers lucked into a perfect crisp, sunny day but our transport was remarkable, too: WO Bentley’s personal 1930 Mulliner-bodied 8 Litre ‘company car’. In 10 miles was an experience that said much about the direction of motoring progress.
On one hand, the giant in-line six belched and blew back like a draught horse until warm and you needed a blacksmith’s forearms to turn the steering wheel. It wasn’t possible to effect a smooth gearchange (even if you’re handy with crash gearboxes; I’m not) until the oil was well and truly warm.
On the other hand, the 8 Litre’s level of luxury and style effortlessly equalled that of top cars today, and the visibility was a lot better. Most striking of all was the (warmed) engine’s amazing mechanical refinement and its mighty torque from 1000rpm. In some ways, vintage cars aren’t old at all.
*Saturday PM*
Happy afternoon watching a mixture of practice sessions and racing, especially enjoying the effect this unique circuit’s long, fast corners have on cars – particularly Gerry Marshall Trophy saloons – that by today’s standards have too much weight, high centres of gravity and not enough rubber on the road. From where I was, the lurid slides and generous drift angles looked downright graceful. (I’m sure they felt rather more violent in the cars.)
The whole experience always makes you wonder how modern, non-classic, non-vintage racing can ever match this spectacle, where the car-control challenges are almost as clear to a watcher 100 yards away as they are to the driver. If people want Goodwood crowds at modern racetracks, surely that’s an avenue worth exploring…
*Tuesday*
Half my income seems to go on club magazines, so I’m well used to pitching barely flicked-through club organs into the recycling bin. What a pleasure, therefore, to spend an absorbing half hour with the latest online copy of Motorsport UK’s magazine, Revolution, every one of whose coverlines caught my interest. How to buy a racing car is a perennial story, but you still read it when it’s done well. Which it was. Haven’t done much with my competition licence so far this year, but this definitely boosts my desire to make some plans.
*Wednesday*
Delighted to see the British Motor Museum, Gaydon, doing justice to one of the UK’s first and best-looking EV performance cars, the Lightning, which first bobbed up 14 years ago at the London motor show. The entrepreneur marketing man behind it, Iain Sanderson (who also owns the Vanwall marque) first equipped it with four wheel motors before discovering that a pair of meaty inboard motors worked better. The car is handsome and modern enough to have been made last year (the designer is Daniel Durrant, now of Lotus Emira fame) and will be a star exhibit at Gaydon for the next year or two. Exhibitions boss Stephen Laing already reports plenty of keen interest, especially from younger visitors.
*Thursday*
Must say I’m amused by the daily rags’ treatment of news that Volkswagen plans to “axe” 30% of its models between here and 2030. I mean, what did they expect? The number of people wanting to buy petrol and diesel models is already declining, and the fall will get steeper. Their EV replacements will have different proportions, weights and (above all) prices, because – as we keep getting told – traction batteries are bulky, heavy and hideously expensive and buyers want them big enough to give touring ranges in the mid-200s. There’s just no case for VW to go on making the same cars, is there?
*And another thing*
A 4am holiday weekend trip from Gloucestershire to the South Coast teaches me what ridiculous creatures of habits we drivers are. The M23 was deserted but four hours later (others report) it was rammed and crawling. Me? I just went to bed a bit earlier that night.