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Event Coverage ,Members' Meeting
NOV 16th 2023

Simon Ostler

The 10 best Members’ Meeting demos ever

The 81st Members’ Meeting presented by Audrain Motorsport will mark ten years since the Members’ Meetings returned to Goodwood in 2014. Over the past decade we’ve seen our legendary Motor Circuit play host to so many memorable moments, during what has become the traditional opening weekend for our annual motorsport calendar.

Among some of the best are the traditional demonstrations that have brought some of the greatest eras in motorsport history back to life. We’ve seen and heard some amazing things this past decade, but here are our ten favourite demos in Goodwood Members’ Meeting history.

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Photography by Jordan Butters.

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10. Drift (79MM)

Let’s start with something a little bit different to what we’re used to at Goodwood. The 79th Members’ Meeting featured a demo by some of our favourite drivers in the world, the legends that tear up tyres in Drifting championships.

For a brief moment, the high-brow Goodwood backdrop was broken down and reduced to hooliganism, as six outrageous drift cars were unleashed on the start-finish straight to lay down a new surface of molten rubber.

The skills on show were supreme, as the drivers – which included multiple-time Formula Drift champion James Deane and friend of Goodwood Steve ‘Baggsy’ Biagioni – absolutely hurled their meticulously engineered cars into seemingly impossible slides. It was a spectacular and infinitely entertaining interlude.

9. Porsche 917 (77MM)

At the 77th Members’ Meeting, the first of two demos to appear on this list was the celebration of the legendary Porsche 917, a sports prototype that was raced to huge success all around the globe. In our demo, we saw a stunning line up of five iterations of the 917, from the original car that was first introduced in 1969, through to the eventual leviathans that raced in Can-Am up until 1973.

Not only did we have a list of cars that included a 917, 917K, 917/10 and two 917/30s, but one of the men who drove these cars in period, Richard Attwood, was once again out on the Motor Circuit to showcase the wonder of these scarcely believable cars. It’s the variety of shape and size that is most remarkable, that Porsche was able to morph and mould its prototype into seemingly any form it wanted, and was still able to make it fiercely competitive. The car that Mark Webber drove is case in point. It’s barely recognisable as a 917, and yet, powered by a monstrous version of the flat-12, beefed up to 5.4-litres and producing more than 1,100PS (820kW), it was one of the more dominant Can-Am racers in history.

Of all the cars we’ve seen during the past decade at the Members’ Meeting, to have these five very special cars in one place was truly magical.

8. 3.0-litre sports prototypes (75MM)

The 917s were an impressive sight, but two years earlier at the 75th Members’ Meeting we were treated to unforgettable sights and sounds. Once again we had several Le Mans successes on the entry list for our 3.0-litre sports prototype demo.

In the years immediately after the likes of the Porsche 917 were outlawed by a regulation change, the Matra MS670 was the star of the field in endurance racing. It won at Le Mans at all three of its attempts, winning all but one round of the World Championship for Makes in 1974. So to have it wailing around Goodwood with its biblical V12 engine was utterly unforgettable.

As spectacular as these cars are to look at, the sound of them on the Motor Circuit was what really made this demo special. Alongside the Matra, we had a Ford DFV-powered McLaren M8C, a V8 Alfa Romeo Tipo 33/3, Porsche 908 and more, and the speed at which they were flying around only worked to exemplify exactly what we love about these cars.

Can-Am demo 81MM Goodwood MAIN.jpg

Can-Am monsters to roar at 81MM

7. Goodwood Super Special (78MM)

Things were a little different at the 78th Members’ Meeting. We were slowly making our way back towards normality in the wake of the pandemic, and Goodwood was making up for lost time with two events in quick succession. Just one month after the Revival, we were back again for the Member’s Meeting that had been postponed from its original date in the Spring. And with the darkness drawing in on a late-October weekend, we were presented with a host of new opportunities.

Our favourite was this, the Goodwood Super Special, a rally event that incorporated four decades of rally cars into one event and included a night-time run of the stage. What a showpiece it created. As the Motor Circuit action came to an end, spectators would normally be expecting to be heading over to the customary Member’s Meeting party on Saturday evening, but instead they were treated to a host of rally legends tearing it up with their headlights blazing.

Among the most recognisable cars were a Ford RS200, an Audi Quattro S1, Lancia 037, a pair of MG Metro 6R4s, a Toyota Celica ST185 and an Escort Cosworth in that striking Repsol livery. We also had more recent entrants in the form of Subaru Imprezas, a Ford Focus and Peugeot 206 WRC. In true Goodwood style, this night time rally action made the best of a tough set of circumstances.

6. GT1 (80MM)

Continuing with the theme of sound, the GT1 demo that took place at the 80th Members’ Meeting was possibly one of the loudest moments in the history of Goodwood. The early-2000s were close to the peak of what’s possible in the GT classes of endurance racing. Consider a list of GT1 racers that includes the Aston Martin DBR9, Ferrari 550 GTS, Corvette C5.R, Saleen S7 and Chrysler Viper, with cameos from Lamborghini, Marcos, Lister and more, this is a seriously stacked line-up of V12s, V10s and V8s.

And we brought them all together, and we mean all of them, for a demonstration grid of more than 20 exquisite racers from a period spanning 1998-2008. As Members’ Meeting demos go, this one came awfully close to replicating an all-out race, as the grid was filled with cars and drivers absolutely raring to go. From the relentless howl of the Aston V12s to the brutal rumble of the Marcos, this had everything.

To make it even more special, we sent the cars out last on Saturday, so that they could scream into the sunset with their headlights ablaze, harking back to their time when they’d be racing into the night at Le Mans. What a spectacle this was.

5. V10 era F1 (79MM)

Speaking of peaks in motorsport, was the V10-era of the 1990s and early 2000s the pinnacle of Formula 1? If we’re focussing on the sound of the cars, surely there can be little argument that the 3.5-litre engine formula that graced the sport from 1989-1994, and the subsequent 3.0-litre V10s that were the heart of F1 until 2005, produced a truly spectacular soundtrack.

A soundtrack that we brought to Goodwood for the 79th Members’ Meeting, as we celebrated the V10 era of F1 in some style. Among others, we had Bruno Senna driving his uncle’s McLaren MP4/5B, Jake Hill in a Footwork FA14, and, stealing the show somewhat, a Jordan 195 being driven like it was 1995 all over again. All V10s, all reminding us why we miss those days of F1.

It just goes to show that, even when the list of cars involved isn’t filled with legendary race winners from Ferrari, Williams and the like, the sound of a proper F1 climbing towards 17, 18, 19,000rpm is something we can never get enough of.

4. McLaren F1 GTR (73MM)

It’s a rare thing, when a single car can capture the imagination of an entire generation, rarer still when one such as the McLaren F1 can enthral multiple generations. Even now, some 30 years after it was first launched to the world, the F1 is still one of those cars that has an air of myth about it.

First launched as the fastest road car in the world, it didn’t take long to be turned into a racing car, the McLaren F1 GTR, that would win at the Le Mans 24 Hours at its first attempt in 1995. Powered by a specially made 6.1-litre BMW V12, there were 28 GTRs made between 1995 and ’97, and we brought 12 of them together to put on a wonderful demonstration at the 73rd Members’ Meeting.

With a handful of memorable liveries on show, from the Fina BMW cars that ran in the FIA GT championship, to the Harrods car that finished third at Le Mans in 1995, and of course the instantly recognisable Gulf-liveried ‘Longtail’ which just looks utterly brilliant in full flow around the Motor Circuit. This one was one of the greatest moments we’ve ever seen at Goodwood.

3. Ground effect F1 (74MM)

So how do we beat that? Well bear with us. Let’s start with this, one of the most evocative eras in the history of Formula 1, brought back to life in the most incredible way. The ground effect F1 demo of the 74th Members’ Meeting was split into two parts by virtue of there being 33 cars in attendance. That in itself is simply jaw dropping.

Then they made their way out onto the track and time stopped. Numerous world championship-winning cars, memorable machines once driven by legends including Andretti, Prost, Senna, Mansell and Villeneuve. Everywhere you looked there was a view that honestly was enough to put a lump in your throat. These cars are of an age that you might not expect to ever have the chance to see them in action. Yet here they all were flying around the Goodwood Motor Circuit.

Even a full half an hour of these wondrous machines wasn’t enough, as the second batch left the assembly area it was arguably even better than the first, bejewelled with the Brabham BT49, Williams FW08 and the McLaren MP4/1. This was more than just a demonstration, it felt like a once in a lifetime opportunity.

2. Group 5 Prototypes (74MM)

If a collection of Porsche 917s was good, three years prior at the 74th Members’ Meeting, Porsche’s famous Group 5 racer was joined by a host of contemporaries from that incredible period from 1970-’75.

With a list of cars that included several of what is considered to be one of the most beautiful Ferraris ever built, the 512, alongside several more 917s, Lola T70 Mk3Bs and a McLaren M6GT, the spectacle on the track was otherworldly. It’s cars like these that truly capture the imagination, with their streamlined long-tail shape, enormous roaring engines, and massive rear tyres.

As spectacles at Goodwood go, this one came very close to being one of the very greatest things we’ve ever seen on the Motor Circuit. It was an opportunity to relive a truncated yet iconic period of motorsport, and the chorus of 5.0-litre 12-cylinder engines with a bit of Chevrolet V8 mixed in was a treat for the ears.

1. LMP1 (77MM)

On a list of moments that all have a realistic claim to the top spot, we’ve gone for a demo from the 77th Members’ Meeting that raised the bar to an impossible level. We’ve celebrated some of the very greatest eras of motorsport over the past decade at Goodwood, and the LMP1 showcase was simply breathtaking.

At the time, it encapsulated an era of endurance racing that covered a 20-year period of Le Mans Prototypes, the LMP1 cars were the pinnacle of competition in the World Sportscar Championship that would morph into the World Endurance Championship in 2012. Roaring into the dusk on Saturday evening, these cars were in their element, with headlights on and engines howling.

The queue of cars led by the 2003 Le Mans winning Bentley Speed 8 included Audi R8s, a Peugeot 908, and Dallaras powered by screaming Judd V10s. Simply incredible machines, more capable than anything we’d seen on the Motor Circuit before. Even as they ran well within their limits, these cars put on one hell of a show as the sun set and the South Downs echoed with the sounds of Le Mans.

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