Top 40 pictures from the 2012 Goodwood Festival

2012 Goodwood Festival of Speed

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In four days at the Goodwood Festival of Speed I managed to snap almost 3,000 photographs of all manner of delectable racing machinery.

Here’s a selection of my 40 favorites, including famous faces, F1 cars and top machinery from a range of disciplines.

F1 cars

Oliver Turvey blasts the McLaren MP4-26 out of the starting gate.

A Mercedes W02 climbs the hill.

The 1983 Williams FW08C returns to the paddock after a damp run on Friday. Read more about this car here:

Little protection for the drivers of the 1977 Renault RS01 – note the pedal box well in front of the front axle line.

Festival regular Marc Gene returned for Ferrari.

There were many original Lotuses on display (see below). This was referred to as a ‘Caterham T127’, though it was raced as a Lotus T127 when the name returned to the sport in 2010.

Complicating matters further, the 2010 Renault R30 (not pictured) was called a ‘Lotus R30’ and run in the current Lotus team’s black and gold colours, rather than its original, striking yellow and black livery.

Paddock pics

A 1967 Eagle-Weslake T1G and a V12 Ferrari 312/68 from the following season in one shot? I’m surprised the lens coped with exposure to that much gorgeousness.

Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button in the MP4-26 on Saturday.

See more pictures of them and other drivers at the Festival here:

The first turbocharged Alfa Romeo, the 1983 183T, also appeared. Though lamentably unreliable when it raced, it had some potential, and Andrea de Cesaris scored a pair of second places with it.

But did any F1 car ever carry a more mundane slogan than “World’s largest knitwear producer”?

This picture gives you some idea how much longer the six-wheeled March 2-4-0 was than a conventional car (though it is slightly further forward than its predecessor the 701).

More pictures of the six-wheelers here:

Six-wheeled Williams

Unlike the March this six-wheeled Williams from 1982 was not running, but attracted many curious onlookers in the paddock. Read more about the car here:

Debut drivers

Reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel shows off the Red Bull RB7 he crushed his rivals with last year. The car was festooned with cameras so hopefully we’ll see some footage from his run as well.

Four-times world champion Alain Prost made his first appearance at the Festival. Had Renault not let up on development of this car, the RE40, he might well have been a quintuple-champion. Read more about it here:

Lotus celebration

A key part of the event was a commemoration of the 60th anniversary of Lotus. Their cars featured on the dramatic central display in front of Goodwood House.

Emerson Fittipaldi in front of the display, where you can just make out a Lotus 72 of the type he won the world championship with in 1972.

This Lotus 18 in Rob Walker’s blue and white colours ran without its side-panels, just as when Stirling Moss drove one to his greatest victory at Monaco in 1961. Sadly I wasn’t able to get a picture of Moss in the car.

The last championship-winning Lotus: the dominant ground effect 79.

Eight-times Le Mans 24 Hours winner Tom Kristensen drove Ayrton Senna’s 1986 Lotus-Renault 98T.

The curvaceous diffuser of the 1990 Lotus 102. Note the exhausts from the V12 Lamborghini engine feeding into it.

See more pictures of the dozens of different Lotuses at the Festival here:

Personal favourites

I love the Martini livery on this Lancia-Ferrari C2 Group C Le Mans racer. Loads more pictures of it here:

The Lotus 49: Such a significant and great-looking car I had to include two pictures of it. This is the very chassis Jim Clark used to give the car victory on its debut in the 1967 Dutch Grand Prix.

The Jordan 191 – not just a beautiful car and not just the car Michael Schumacher made his F1 debut in, but surely one of the best debut efforts from a new team.

The Gary Anderson-designed chassis was neat, effective and had superb aerodynamics. Its Ford-Cosworth HB engine may not have been a match for Honda and Renault on sheer power, but it was reliable and driveable.

The result was a car that scored a double points finish in its fifth race, and was in the hunt for victory in the Belgian Grand Prix in the hands of Andrea de Cesaris:

I was very keen to see Tony Brooks driving a Connaught B-type. Brooks scored a remarkable win driving the car in his first Grand Prix, a non-championship race at Syracuse in 1955, aged just 23.

Brooks’ recently-released autobiography is essential reading:

Plumes of smoke from the rear wheels of this 1990 Leyton-House CG901B, an early design by Adrian Newey.

Le Mans racers

This year’s Le Mans 24 Hours winner was present: the four-wheel-drive diesel hybrid Audi E-tron Quattro.

Neither Toyota TS030 Hybrid finished the Le Mans 24 Hours and Anthony Davidson had to cancel a planned run in the car at Goodwood after injuring his back during this year’s race. The car still ran, though.

A slightly earlier car: the Bentley Speed 8 is one of only two non-Audis to win the race in the last 13 years.

The Race to the Clouds

I had no idea what this noisy beast was when it blasted past me on Friday morning. I should’ve guessed it was created for tackling a much steeper incline than Goodwood hill – the mighty Pikes Peak hillclimb in the USA.

Four generations of the Donner family have been competing on the hill – this 2005 DD3 chassis features a 750bhp Chevrolet engine as used in NASCAR.

There’s also a category for trucks at Pikes Peak. This monstrous five-ton machine boasts 1,375bhp from its Caterpillar C16 engine.

Sadly, this year’s running of the hillclimb has been postponed due to serious forest fires in the Colorado area.

Seventies sports cars

The Shadow-Chevrolet Mk3 Can-Am car was an unforgiving beast at the best of times, never mind in the rain. It spun harmlessly at Molecomb on the damp Friday.

The Ferrari 312PB sports car used the same flat-12 engine as the contemporary F1 machines and won every race it entered in the World Sportscar Championship. However Ferrari – perhaps wisely – decided not to pit their F1-engined car against the rigours of the Le Mans 24 Hours.

The trumpets on top of this 1972 Lola T310 Can-Am racer caught my eye.

Touring cars

An enduring favourite of mine: Alfa-Romeo’s 155 DTM racer.

BTCC racer Frank Wrathall has impressed in this Toyota Avensis built to the category’s Next Generation Touring Car rules.

Rally action

Goodwood has a dedicated rally stage but unfortunately I didn’t have time to check it out. Here’s rising star Theirry Neuville getting Citroen’s championship-leading DS3 sideways on the hill.

Karts

A quartet of karts belonging to ace driver and talent-spotter Martin Hines went up the hill. F1 drivers including Lewis Hamilton paid tribute to Hines, who died last year. This is a Zip Eagle Rotax 256.

Supercars

A supercar traffic jam on the hill.

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Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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18 comments on “Top 40 pictures from the 2012 Goodwood Festival”

  1. But did any F1 car ever carry a more mundane slogan than “World’s largest knitwear producer”?

    Yes.

    In 1997, Tyrrell showed up to the British Grand Prix with (wait for it!) “Xena: Warrior Princess”, erm, adorning the car …

    1. it’s hilarious but not as mundane.

  2. Did anyone do a gopro count this weekend, seems virtually every car had at least one grey box attached to it!

  3. Thank you for the nice collection of photos.

  4. My fav cars:

    All the F1s from the 60’s
    The Alfa 155
    That 312 Sports Car.

    Glad you covered them all here :P Fantastic gallery!

  5. Great pictures! F1 fans were spoiled rotten in 1967, the cars were so beautiful that year.

    And the Pikes Peak car could be ahead of its time with the protection around the driver’s head.

    1. Ha, I had exactly the same thought on the head protection @bullfrog

  6. Alfa 155 DTM….mmmm, pretty.

  7. Bentley Speed 8 *drools*

  8. The rear exhausts of the Alfa DTM are so BRUTAL!!!

  9. The Lotus 49 is my favourite here. The uncovered engine just looks stunning with the flowing manifolds, big cylinders and purposeful looking suspension. Pure art.

  10. I love the Alfa too, the DTM Alfa romeo 155 is my favourite car ever (normal road car)
    the liverys make you travel in time really.

  11. I’ve always LOVED the Lotus 49. I never actually saw the car in a race, but I was around at the time, and my very first slot car was a copy!

    1. I think my next one was a GT40 :)

  12. BEST PICTURE

    The Lotus 79

  13. PVAXX!!! what the hell? :D

    pike’s peak is an awesome race, and 1 of only 2 i can think of where the unlimited class is truly unlimited – the other being land speed record attempts. nascar motors have been frozen in time for half a century, 427 cubic inches or 7.0 liters, but i wouldn’t mind having one. good enough for le mans, good enough for me

  14. Bentley Speed 8 = Beast.

    Thanks for sharing your photos Keith.

  15. Great shots, Keith…thanks! Four days at Goodwood…3000shots…sounds like car heaven. Btw…did you see Stirling Moss with his 3 ‘pit babes’? Perhaps not or surely they would have made top 40.

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