An all-new 'Moving Motor Show' heads up an exciting year of events at the famous Goodwood House and racing circuit. The motor show takes up the reins where the
British Motor Show left off in 2008 and the Goodwood version promises visitors the chance to drive any of the cars on display up the historic hill climb course.
The one-day Moving Motor Show will be held on Thursday 1 July just ahead of the fantastic Festival of Speed - which runs from 2-4 July at Goodwood House. With more than 20 manufacturers already confirmed for the Moving Motor Show - including Audi, Ford and Volkswagen - the new event is aimed at offering British enthusiasts a show to rival the best from
Geneva,
Frankfurt or
Paris.
Following on immediately from the Moving Motor Show, the Goodwood Festival of Speed promises to be bigger and better than ever. This year, the Festival celebrates the 100th anniversary of Alfa Romeo and the weekend will see the UK debut of the new Giulietta hatchback. Alongside the Giulietta will be 50 of the most important Alfa cars from the company's history.
As ever, the Festival of Speed will see racing drivers past and present blasting historic cars up the hill climb. Signed up for 2010 is current Formula One World Champion Jenson Button, along with Lewis Hamilton and Stirling Moss, who it's hoped will be fully recovered from his recent accident. Also there will be six F1 teams running their cars to help celebrate 60 years of Formula One.
World Rally Champion Sebastian Loeb will also be on hand in his Citroen C4 WRC car, while Ken Block will be entertaining the crowds in his new Ford Fiesta rally car. On two wheels, motorcycle legends Giacomo Agostini and Kevin Schwantz will be strutting their stuff.
The Festival of Speed will also be highlighting 60 years of the infamous Carrera Panamericana road race (which our very own Kyle is sampling this week in a brand new Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG supercar). Other landmarks being noted at Goodwood this July include 50 years of the RAC Rally and the half century of Australia's tough Bathurst 1000 saloon car race.
Away from the roar of the engines, the Festival will also witness an auction of custom cars from the world's best rock guitarists. On show will be cars from Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons and Jimmy Vaughan.
If you can't make the Moving Motor Show or Festival of Speed, Goodwood will also be running its Revival meeting on 17-19 September at the Goodwood circuit. Mixing glamour, period dress and full-bore racing, this is a must-see event for anyone who loves watching classic race cars being driven as they should be: hard and fast.
Everything from multi-million pound Ferraris and Astons mix it with Minis and Ford Anglias around the challenging Goodwood circuit. It's also worth wandering around the rest of the race track to see famous drivers, celebrities and everyone else getting into the spirit in period costume.
Goodwood is also running its regular Breakfast Club event throughout the year. There's a meeting almost every month and each one is themed around different classic and performance cars. To find out more about the Breakfast Club calendar and all the other events taking place at Goodwood in 2010, visit:
www.goodwood.co.uk.
Alisdair Suttie - 22 Mar 2010