Doug Nye: My Amazing Festival of Speed

Most Festivals for me are a hectic blur, yet as an outside associate I always have it incredibly easy compared with the wholehearted commitment of my full-time Goodwood colleagues, who are on duty from dot in the morning until dot-plus-several in the small hours of the following morning – for the duration of the event. Goodwood from the inside just is not for the uncommitted, the unmotivated, the casual, the uncaring. If ever a major public event depended upon truly intense effort by a deeply dedicated (and still comparatively tiny) team, the Goodwood Festival of Speed, under “his nibs’s” leadership, is it…

In comparative terms I must confess that my Festival days are pretty easy-peasy. That’s not to admit they are un-pressured, but my role has evolved over the years into a kind of reasonably known and hopefully friendly ‘face’ ready to help guests and entrants and participants if and when needed. At least – most of the time – I will know who to ask or where to help fix a participant’s problem. In effect, wandering about the place like a floating reserve, I get called upon by various masters if and when required…

The Festival for me begins with auction duties in connection with the Bonhams Sale. Most years I’ll have researched and written the catalogue descriptions for some of the major car Lots, especially if they are racers. This time round my ‘chosen subjects’ included the long-neglected 1949 ex-works Le Mans Aston Martin. In its current state this historic and important ‘DB2’ prototype displays more patina than most connoisseurs could handle - the photos tell their own story. And then there was the Formula 2 HWM single-seater, ex-Lance Macklin, ex-Peter Collins, another of my special interests. As it happened, on Friday afternoon, both sold to US buyers. Thanks to the shock Sterling devaluation effect of the Referendum result that day, the dollar price for both was some 10 per cent lower than it would have been just 24 hours before… The rusty, dusty, paint-flakey - gorgeous – Aston sold for £679,100. The HWM £169,500. We will be seeing more of them…

Away from the Sale I took time out to take an old friend up the hill. Paul Vestey’s 1966 Ferrari 275GTB/C is the ex-Maranello Concessionaires team car that won the GT Category at Le Mans that year, co-driven by Piers Courage/Roy Pike. Paul bought it from Maranello Concessionaires principal Col. Ronnie Hoare straight after Le Mans. He then shared it with Portuguese friend Carlos Gaspar in the Paris 1,000kms at Montlhery. After a tortoise-versus-hare race strategy, in which they dared not break the car, nor fall off the road, because there was no money left to mend it if they did, their rivals were too incautious, so Vestey/Gaspar won the GT Category! Start, prize and bonus money more or less paid for half the car. Into 1967, Monza 1,000kms, same team, same car, same strategy – and they won the GT Category again. That paid for the other half of the car.  Happy days. Try to make such endurance racing pay its way today.

The big bonus for running a car on the Goodwood Festival hill is the chance to see the stupendous sight of all the exotica accumulating in the top paddock as each batch complete their runs.  Again, see the photos here…

And then there’s a call on the mobile from the TV crew providing Festival coverage – they’d been told I might know a bit about the 1906 Grand Prix at Le Mans, could I join them for a piece to camera with the Argentine-built 1906 Renault AK GP car replica in the Regie’s paddock shelter. So we busked our way through that one – majoring on Ferenc Szisz’s win in that inaugural Grand Prix, of course, but also mentioning how his team-mate Edmond had his goggles smashed by a flying stone, then his eyes affected by glass splinters, hot tar and flying grit from the roads. He stopped at the Renault pit for attention. The team doctor sluiced poor Edmond’s eyes with iced water. He then plied him with a balloon of brandy. Followed up by a draft of cocaine. And then Edmond drove back into the race. It sounds as if he hardly needed a car. Different times, indeed…

When we first devised the Festival, one objective was to give enthusiasts a one-stop shop in which to see, hear and enjoy high performance and racing cars from as many different ages and eras as possible. This year’s variety seemed to work quite well in that respect, and here are a selection of happy snaps to demonstrate as much. I hope very much that if you attended FOS ’16 last weekend the experience proved enjoyable, memorable, and illuminating… If it did then Goodwood Motorsport has done it again. If it did not, then please do let us know why.

Photography courtesy of The GP Library