Friday Morning at the 2024 Goodwood Revival

06th September 2024

Adam Wilkins

The weather has taken a distinct turn for the autumnal for the first morning of the 2024 Goodwood Revival. To be less euphemistic, it’s wet here in West Sussex. But that didn’t stop our snappers making their way around the quiet paddocks before the gates opened to the public.

It’s a wonderful part of the Revival weekend, the cars still in their slumber and the paddocks unpopulated. It gives a sense of the calm before the storm; still air in an environment that will soon be alive with drivers, mechanics and spectators and abuzz with the atmosphere that’s unique to this event. Because it’s only when the people are here that the Revival becomes the Revival.

The paddocks are filled to the gunwales with more than 300 cars and motorcycles that are set to compete over the next three days. Wherever you look, there are captivating machines that hark back to Goodwood’s golden era. The RAC TT Celebration cars – machines like the AC Cobra and Bizzarrini 5300 GT – brood in one corner, while in another are the 1960s saloon cars from the St Mary’s Trophy. These are school-run cars turned into competition machinery. Elsewhere, the Barry Sheene Memorial Trophy motorcycles are packed into paddock shelters ready for their knee-down battles.

How about the sight of Ford GT40s and Lola T70s ready for their battle in the Whitsun Trophy? Or cars that date back to the 1930s for the Goodwood Trophy – the kind of cars that competed when the circuit opened after World War Two.

In addition to the racing cars, we also have machines that celebrate the career of John Surtees, a host of beach buggies for the morning parades and military machines for the D-Day parades. They’re all going to come to life over the next three days for what promises to be a memorable Goodwood Revival.