The car park at Revival is often as good as the event | Axon’s Automotive Anorak

Before becoming directly involved with Goodwood, one of the highlights of attending the Goodwood Revival for me each September was arriving early to spend some quality time surveying the exceptional pre-1966 car park, before heading over the road to watch the extraordinary on-track action at the historic Motor Circuit.

Those three words “Only at Goodwood…” often came to mind whilst strolling around the outstanding selection and variety of pre-66 cars parked up over the road. Seeing a humble 1950s Austin A30 or Morris Minor parked alongside with a rare and priceless Ferrari or Rolls-Royce of the same era added to the anticipation and unique excitement ahead of heading across to watch the racing.

In recent years the pressures of work at the event have prevented me from finding the time to for a quick break and head over the road to take in the thousands of outstanding cars parked up in the Pre-66 Car Park, and its supporting post-1966 Tax Free Car Park created for younger – but still interesting – classic cars. 

This year, I cunningly arranged my work schedule at the Revival to allow myself a 45-minute indulgence break . With my indispensable ear piece radio hooked on (still enabling me to listen to the race commentary away from the track), I whizzed over the road and take in both the Pre-66 and Tax-Free car parks at break-neck speed. It was certainly worth the effort, with some amazing machinery ready to be admired, driven to Goodwood from all over Europe (including a 1950s Willys Jeep CJ, which made it all the way from Iceland).

With so many great vehicles to see and marvel at, 45 minutes each day was simply not enough time to fully soak up and appreciate the enormous variety of cars to be seen. Among them, row of delectable 1950s and ‘60s Ferraris including a very scarce Vignale-bodied 166 Berlinetta and 212 Export drop head. They were dissected by an Aston Martin DB4 GTZ; what a convoy that must of been to see heading en route down to Goodwood.

Rows of stunning coachbuilt post-war Rolls-Royce and Bentley models were also something to behold, as were at least four of the 99 Gordon Keeble GK1s built locally near Southampton in the early 1960s. Other stand out cars included a pair of delicious post-war Delages, Bristols of virtually every model type, some elegant coachbuilt Lancias, plus Spitfires galore of the road-hugging Triumph variety to complement the evocative displays from the Spitfires in the air. Into the equally enthralling Tax-Free car park for younger classic vehicles there were hordes of classic MGs, Porsches, Range Rovers and Jaguars. An exceptionally unexceptional early Ford Fiesta seemed to raise plenty of smiles and “my mum had one of those” comments, while many intrigued overseas visitors fascinated by a spotless yellow Reliant Robin, the familiar three-wheeler that was launched here at Goodwood (using the racecourse facilities) almost 50 years ago in 1973!

Here’s a ‘best of’ gallery of images taken on the hoof over the Revival weekend in the two classic car parks over the road to see what gems you may have missed.