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Fried clutch and cooked pistons, served on a bed of smoked tyres
Highlights of Goodwood's delicious motor cuisine at the 2002 Festival of Speed

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Motorsport gourmets were well treated at the 2002 Festival of Speed. So for everyone having missed out on the historic appetizers of the year and the seasonal dishes of raw power, topped off by a delicate desert of modern technology, here are the delights of this year's menu.

Hillclimb specials

I have always wondered why the Goodwood mile up the hill didn't feature more hillclimb specials. Sure enough we saw Auto-Union's Bergrennwagen featured on the Audi exhibition in 1999, while Audi's Pikes Peak quattro also made an impressive debut that year, but these were shown in leisurely demo drives. Why not exploit the characteristics of the track to showcase the awesome power and traction needed to for a balls-out timed run on the hill? This year our expectations were fully rewarded with two of the meanest hillclimb machines ever in a serious attempt at FTD. And there was more.

The attention grabber of the weekend – which wasn't hard with that huge rear wing – was of course Rod Millen's Pikes Peak Toyota Celica, well, 'Celica'. Very popular with the crowd because of its aggressive style and dramatic turbo dump-valve whistle, at the end it was the official FTD holder. It was also narrowly beaten by the also present PP-spec Audi quattro for ugliest car of the meeting, although I must admit it did have a certain je-ne-sais-quoi… Graeme Wight's Gould GR51 did its best to outdo the 850bhp monster but found that the Goodwood hill is not your typical British hillclimb. Having said that, Kiwi Millen also complained of hitting the rev limiter twice on his runs in a car still set up for the fiersome Colorado mountain.

While the Toyota, Audi and Gould did (almost) nothing to please the eye, the Ferrari 212E Montagna sportscar hillclimber provided great-looking variety to the fast-ascending cars. On looks alone, this car was the full opposite of the high-strutted 80s rally cars, that were solely constructed with effectiveness in mind...

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The car that set new standards on downforce...
...not to mention horsepower...
...but a few years later another car would top that.
With this!
Only Celica by name...
It huffed and it puffed...
...and went seriously fast to set FTD
Gould GR51: A modern hillclimber pur sang.
One of the grippiest cars up the hill.
Pretty Ferrari 212E Montagna.
Audi quattro: 4WD revolution.
Ove Andersson blinding everyone in his 'Safari' Celica.

A century of Renaults

I must admit that I have never cared much for Renault's road cars – or any French car except for the Citroën SM, if I may say, but that was designed by an Italian and powered by an Italian engine. Over the years this attitude rubbed off on my appreciation for Renault competition cars. Or was it that Renault-powered F1 cars were usually up against the cars and drivers I supported? Having long left behind my teenage fan behaviour, I am now able to fully admire what Renault has accomplished in a full century of motorsport. The lightweight 1902 Type K was a fantastically reliable long-distance machine, while I was left in awe of Renault's 24-hour speed record car of 1926. In the hands of Jean Ragnotti it looked heavy and cumbersome on its way up the hill but at Montlhéry this 9-litre leviathan must have been flying. Not to mention that its effective design is unlike anything I've seen from the twenties. Or the thirties, or the forties, or…

The turbo effort of the late seventies and early eighties can't be applauded enough too. I can still remember the laughs when the awkward-looking Alpine-Renault A500 test hack with the Renault-Gordini turbo was pumping round Paul Ricard in 1976. That is, when it held together – a fate usually connected with Renault's RS01 too. But in a time when virtually chanceless F1 teams – and they don't even to be new – set themselves a four-year target to become World Champion (“I can be champion in 2006”, “We want to challenge for the title by 2005”, etc.) the fact that Renault were pole setters and race winners by 1979 speaks volumes for the engineering skill, innovation and determination at Viry-Châtillon. Now for Renault's sake, let's hope the same applies to Enstone as well…

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Renault was the centerpiece of attention.
Jenson's reward for losing his 2003 Renault drive was to drive Marcel's Type K.
9-litre, 40hp Montlhéry coupé.
A look inside the cockpit.
Ragnotti dragging it uphill.
It was an uphill struggle now, but it flew back then.
Alpine-Renault A500: Renault's turbo test hack.
The steering wheel of the driving Laboratoire.
F1's first-ever turbo engine, with Amédée Gordini's name on it.
Turbos used to explode like popcorn.
Renault RS10: A couple of years on and Renault are the fastest thing on earth.
RS01 to RE30B: from laughing stock to title challenger.
Prost only failed to land the title in 1983 because of BASF's missile brew.
Arnoux happy to sit in a car that he fought hard in 1983.
Ferrari F1-87/88C: at the highpoint of the turbo era Renault were gone as a works team.
Single-race winner, thanks to Jean-Louis Schlesser.
Turbo technique perfected within the space of a decade.
Enstone people working as on a regular Grand Prix Friday.
They even took their telemetry seriously!
Jenson forced to spare Jarno Trulli's spare...

Thank you, Ken

One of the themes I was most looking forward to was the celebration of Ken Tyrrell's Grand Prix machines. It was Tyrrell's peculiar and mind-boggling P34 that caused an 8-year-old boy to fall in love with Grand Prix racing in the first place. And I happened to support almost every driver that used to drive for Ken or had just decided to: Scheckter, Depailler, Peterson, Jarier, Alboreto, Bellof, Streiff, Alesi, Modena, Tarquini, Salo, and of course, Verstappen. In hindsight, after I included motorsport history among my major interests, these were joined by Stewart, Cevert and Johnny Servoz-Gavin.

If Colin Chapman was the man to combine innovation with drop-dead gorgeous looks, this even applying to the Lotus cars that failed, then Tyrrell's designers – no doubt inspired by Ken himself – plainly went for innovation instead, worrying about looks only later. You can hardly say that an 002, 005/006, P34, 008, 011, 012 or 019 (all of them present at Goodwood) were ‘pretty', or ‘svelte'. But they all exude effectiveness to such an amount that they become beautiful for those who are appreciative of typical Tyrrell awkwardness.

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A magnificent display of Tyrrell's finest machines.
JYS on a stroll in 005: He made a promise to Ken in 1973 to never drive one of his cars hard again.
Michele's 011: 1983 turbo killer.
Memories of Stefan Bellof...
P34: front-end grip now finally works.
Martin Stretton almost took FTD again.
Spectacle guaranteed.
019: The car that launched Jean Alesi's F1 career.

Lotus engineering genius

I usually associate what is known as 'the unfair advantage' with two superb designers – Gordon Murray is the first, the second is of course Colin Chapman. Whereas Gordon in his Brabham years would be purposely looking for loopholes in the existing regulations, Chapman would raise Grand Prix engineering to a completely new level previously unthought of by the rule makers. On a plain that would remain deserted by everyone bar Lotus, “Chunky” thus created the unfair advantage for his drivers for at least a season until the opposition caught up.

He did it with the 25, the 49, the 72, the 78 and its 79 refinement, and tried it with the 63, the 76, the 80 and the 88. He brought monocoques, the DFV, the wedge shape, and ground effects, and tried to introduce four-wheel drive, the “wing car” and the double-chassis car. In his later days one could feel that he was losing his touch, and so in a way it is good that he never lived to see the turbo era in full fledge. This was a development that he had missed, and his latest innovative designs – while now only overseeing design work as a technical director – had been outright failures (the 80) or unappreciative of the rule makers' stance (the 88), something that he would have seen coming in his younger years. In between Lotus came up with ordinary cars that brought ordinary results. It was satisfying, however, that he could throw his black cap into the air one more time at Zeltweg in 1982, witnessing the close-call victory of his last protégé, Elio De Angelis, in an aptly-liveried, DFV-powered JPS 91.

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Lotus 25 was supposed to be a "works evolution" of the 24...
Lotus 49B in splendid 1968 British GP livery.
The day of Seppi's last win for Rob Walker.
Emmo reunited with 72D.
Lotus 76: A failure but it looked great, and still does - especially when the driver is wearing that helmet.
The twin-chassis Lotus 88 in British GP livery.
And this is what two chassis look like.

The decade of the super-prototypes

So Audi got a new record at Le Mans by winning three times on the trot with the same combination of car and drivers. Historic, yes, but where was the opposition? Wasn't this what Le Mans used to be about? Fortunately Goodwood brought us back to the days when Le Mans was all about “glorious sportscar manufacturer vs. huge car manufacturer” battles – Bentley vs. Mercedes, Jaguar vs. Ferrari, Ferrari vs. Aston Martin, Ferrari vs. Porsche, Porsche vs. Ford, Porsche vs. Ferrari, Matra vs. Porsche, Porsche vs. Renault, Rondeau vs. Porsche, Porsche vs. Jaguar, Jaguar vs. Sauber, Peugeot vs. Toyota, McLaren vs. Porsche, etc., etc. If Audi would have entered nine R8s the result would probably have been a copy of the 1983 race…

Of course the best of these battles came between Porsche and Ford, Porsche and Ferrari, and Porsche and Renault. The cars looked great, sounded awesome and had fantastic driver line-ups. And most of it happened before my day… So it's always a joy to be re-united with the sight of these amazing super-sportscars.

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Pedro's 917: Thank God for video.
Ferrari 512: One of the best-looking failures in sportscar history.
As efficient as they were 25 years ago - Porsche 936 fired up.
The 936's big turbo engine.
Ickx in 936: So good to see that dark-blue helmet again.
The long-tail Le Mans version.
Alpine-Renault A442B: Rivals finally won in 1977.
A442B made a buzzing sound in its charge up the hill.
2002-spec Audi R8 fresh from Le Mans victory.
Familiar sight for all comers at Le Mans.

Smoke screen

Since John Dawson-Damer's unfortunate accident in the 2000 event it has been seriously unfashionable for the current F1 cars on display to try and attack Nick Heidfeld's 41.6s hill record set in 1999. Not entirely illogical, there was a silent understanding between the organizers and the Grand Prix teams that the cars would restrict themselves to demonstration runs, which in Johnny Herbert's case two years ago meant thrashing the lights out of the R1 he hated by treating it to several burnouts and donuts. Since Johnny's astute form of car hooliganism was well received this sort of 'demo run' has become the norm among today's Grand Prix outfits.

This year, according to the programme at least, we were in for the same. Having got used to the new procedure I set to fully enjoy the experience. At a modern GP event you don't get to see this kind of car treatment, so why not take it in while you can? We got it in full, with BAR test driver Ryo Fukuda perfecting the art of burnouts within three days, turning the Sunday into a true spectacle as the quiet Japanese invited the audience from his cockpit to create a drumroll announcing his Bridgestone rub-in. Another who tried and succeeded was Luciano Burti, before he managed to fry his clutch and damage his radiator on his Saturday run up from Molecomb. So on their weekend off the Ferrari mechanics had a late night to replace some parts, something they must have become unaccustomed to... Darren Turner's blasts on the straight were also enjoyable to watch, while Ralf Schumacher – who was said to be grumpy after a contretemps with the organizers over their insurance waiver, and “isn't into historic racing” anyway – was just enough of a professional to not disappoint the public, although his replacement Marc Gené was a lot more entertaining on Sunday...

But all this showing off was not what Allan McNish and Toyota had in mind. Although technically on a demo run, Allan tried all weekend to dive under Heidfeld's record, and while looking less spectacular than the young German on his final 1999 run, the Scot finally beat Nick's time by 0.4s. Mind you, this was in a 2002-spec TF102 with traction control fully functioning whereas Heidfeld set his time in a 1998 McLaren MP4-13 and has never looked as ragged on a Grand Prix circuit ever since. So Nick's not only the official record holder, but still the moral one as well.

Pictures

Fukuda lets it rip in the BAR.
The F1 cars were not the only ones to light up their tyres. Here's Ollie Gavin burning rubber at the start in his Corvette C5R.
Don't say you can outdrag a dragracer!
Friday: An F2001 with its clutch and radiator still unharmed.
Luciano on his way to overcooking his clutch.
The crowd go wild over Burti's screaming V10.
The harm's been done.
A dead Ferrari sits pretty on top of the hill. When a Ferrari breaks these days it's usually on a Saturday...
Ferrari mechanic showing a particular interest in next year's Honda challenge.
And he seems to like this one too.
Biggest paradox of the weekend: Once hapless ATS (designed by ex-Ferrari folk) passes driveless World Championship car.
So why didn't he like being at Goodwood? He didn't need to overtake someone, did he?
Allan romping to an unofficial BTD of 41.2s.
Calm, efficient, hugely fast.

Fifties favourites

While my interest was not with the fifties for this year – having had an overdose at last year's Revival Meeting! – I still couldn't help myself. This must have been a great era to have been around, in racing terms that is. And while most of the event's fifties entries were your regular show-stoppers – such as the Aston Martin DBR1 driven hard by Peter Hardman as usual – there were some special surprises for me.

Sir Stirling being reunited with No.722 Mercedes 300SLR was one. Tony Brooks harrying his Vanwall up the hill, and not at half speed, was another.

Pictures

Hardman in the DBR1: Never one to disappoint the crowd.
Stirling and 300SLR: Magic Mille Miglia combination.
Tony Brooks hasn't lost anything of his touch.
Vanwall simply flew on Sunday.

Are you for real?

I still don't know where I stand on this one. I appreciate the critical stance most people take on replicas. Yet I also see the need for creating some of them. And it's personal, as I belong to a pretty young age group among the people interested in the history of motorsport. I know it's silly, childish and a gross overestimation of my person to actually wish to see and feel a car with my own senses before being able to value its contribution to motorsport history but a picture or two can only do so much.

I have never seen a Lancia D50 race, never looked in the insides of an Auto-Union C-type. I can understand why people make replicas of these cars. Some of these cars are so rare that taking them out of their museums and bringing them out into the open would be too dangerous – or uninsurable. Other cars have all been destroyed, such as the Ferrari 156 “Sharknose”. That's enough reason for me to applaud the spectacular work of such specialized firms as C&G.

Pictures

Attention to detail: Biela wearing period overalls and goggles.
Auto-Union: The name of the game.
The hot seat in the hottest replica of the event.
The craftsmanship is simply superb.
Shiny details.
More shiny details.
And yet more shiny details.

And everything else…

So this is a guys' sport? Largely, yes. Not in the least because the cars weren't the only curvy things around. And some people just want to be in the center of attention.

Pictures

Nothing went wrong on the weekend. Except for the American amateur that axed his priceless Can-Am Lola sideways into a tree when the car violently snapped away underneath him before the start. Easy winner for Most Embarrassing Moment award.
Martin Stretton in all cases proving to be a master in selecting the right material.
Ah yes, that trouble focusing on the important bits.
Preparing for take 13. "Let's do that one more time, shall we?"
Vote for Most Un-British Behaviour goes to these marshals doing their best to emulate a group of drunk Dutch football supporters. They have their colours right but the rest of the impersonation needs improving.
The drivers were anxious to leave their marks.
But a shame about those grooved tyres.