Viva Veloce - The passion for speed
Honouring 100 years of Alfa Romeo, the theme for the 2010 edition of the Goodwood Festival of Speed was 'Viva Veloce - The passion for speed'. The centenary of one of the world's most iconic manufacturers was celebrated in great style by bringing together a remarkably large number of Alfa's legendary competition cars, including some very rarely seen examples. On the lawn in front of the house the traditional sculpture was also dedicated to Alfa Romeo. Representing a clover leaf, the sculpture featured the very successful P2 Grand Prix car of the 1920s and a contemporary 8C Competizione.
Another major anniversary marked at this year's Festival of Speed (FoS) was 60 years of the Formula 1 World Championship, of which the first two seasons, coincidentally, were dominated by Alfa Romeo. Grand Prix cars from all six decades were present, ranging from a Maserati that competed in the very first race at Silverstone to a 2010 vintage Williams. Further themes included 60 years of the daunting Carrera Panamericana and 50 years of the Bathurst's 'Great Race'. Familiar events like the Bonhams auction on Friday and the Cartier 'Style et Luxe' concours d'elegance were also on the roster. New for this year was the 'Moving Motor Show' on Thursday before the FoS, which allowed customers to view and sample many of the latest production models.
We were at the beautiful Goodwood estate in the Sussex region of England for the better part of four days, resulting in a mouth-watering and exclusive 290-shot gallery with dedicated pages for every event and class.

Bonhams Auction of Collectors' Motor Cars and Automobilia
Even though Bonhams held its traditional Aston Martin only auction less than two months earlier, examples from the famed British marque also grabbed the headlines in the annual Bonhams sale on the Festival of Speed Friday. The top seller was a very rare DB5 Vantage Convertible, which went 10% over the pre-sale top estimate at 551,500 Pounds; a new world record for a DB5 Convertible. The car had been previously shown at Villa d'Este and came with the original and very appropriate 'VDB 5' license plate. An even more impressive result was recorded by the even rarer Aston Martin Mark II Sports Saloon, which sold for 177,500 Pounds despite a top estimate of 130,000 Pounds. The Bentley 4 1/4 Litre Drophead Coupe, which starred in the James Bond movie 'Never Say Never Again' found a new owner for a respectable 221,500 Pounds. The automobilia part of the auction also featured strongly with the World Waterspeed commemorative silver trophy that had originally been presented to Sir Malcolm Campbell selling for 24,250 Pounds.
At the end of the evening 75% of the lots in the catalog changed hands for a total of 3,707,687 Pounds.

Cartier 'Style et Luxe'
Considering this year's theme, it was hardly surprising to find the concours d'elegance filled with cars styled and/or built in Italy. Alfa Romeos formed the bulk of the fabulous collection lined up alongside the Goodwood house. There were dedicated classes for the fabulous 8C sports cars of the 1930s and for the Tipo 33 based prototypes created by the various 'carrozzerias' in the late 1960s and 1970s. Fans of more recent supercars were catered for by the 'Far-Fetched Fantasies' class, which featured the likes of the Italdesign-Giugiaro styled BMW Nazca C2 and the remarkable Ferrari F.Z.93 penned by Zagato's legendary designer Ercole Spada. Further highlights included the one-off Willment Cobra fitted with a Ghia Supersonic body, the Ghia Gilda jet-engined show car and a very rare Maserati Quattroporte II.
Unique to the Cartier 'Style et Luxe' concours is that the class winners and the overall best of show are picked by a panel of celebrity judges. Among them this year were Hollywood icon George Lucas, British actor Chris Barrie and Queen drummer Roger Taylor. After fierce debate they eventually picked Franco Lombardi's spectacular Maserati A6GCS/53 Pininfarina Coupe as the best of show.

Alfa Romeo's Centenary
Racing is very much part of the Alfa Romeo DNA and the company's rich competition heritage was showcased at the 2010 Festival of Speed. Many of the Museo Storico's fabulous machines were brought from Milan, ranging from a 1913 Alfa 40/60 HP Corsa to the high-tech 155 DTM and ITC cars of the 1990s. One of our personal favourites is the slippery 8C 2900B Le Mans Coupe, which held the biggest ever lead (160 km or 100 miles) in the 1938 edition of the 24 Hours race but was eventually forced to retire with mechanical problems an hour from the finish. Alfa Romeo also brought two very rarely seen examples from their collection; the V10 engined 164 ProCar and the stillborn SE 48SP Group C car. The latter is so obscure that museum staff had trouble answering detailed questions about its history.
Many private owners also demonstrated their Alfa Romeos on the hill. Among them was Goodwood regular Julian Majzub, who had a very uncharacteristic off in his prized 308C Grand Prix car. He was fortunate to walk away from what was a very violent impact with the straw bails at the tricky Molecomb corner. Klaus Fiedler brought his Alfa Romeo 182, which is one of the last Grand Prix cars built by Alfa Romeo. Complementing the Tipo 33 show car class of the Cartier 'Style et Luxe' was a class dedicated to Tipo 33 competition cars, ranging from the early 2 litre V8s to the final Tipo 33 SC 12 of 1977, which used a turbocharged flat 12 engine.

Sixty years of Formula 1
Formula 1 cars and drivers star at every Festival of Speed but the sixtieth anniversary placed even more emphasis on the pinnacle of motor sport. There were six separate F1 classes, each representing a decade or era of the sport. Lotus was particularly well represented with one or more cars in every class, including the early 12 Climax, the ground-breaking 49 Cosworth and the most recent T127.
Britain's current top running team McLaren was also out in force with a MP4/2C Tag Porsche driven to the 1986 World Championship by Alain Prost and the MP4/23 Mercedes used by Lewis Hamilton to secure his maiden championship in 2008. On Saturday McLaren invited former Porsche engineer and the original builder of the twin-turbocharged V6, Gerhard Kuechle, to start the MP4/2C engine. He was visibly moved to be reunited with one of his creations after so many years. The ex-Prost car was driven by Jenson Button on Saturday and Hamilton on Sunday. Fellow F1 star Bruno Senna was out all weekend in one of his legendary uncle's former McLarens; the MP4/8 Ford of 1993.
There were also various former World Champions out on the hill, including dual-champion Emerson Fittipaldi who was out in the Lotus 72 he used in 1972 and the McLaren M23 raced two years later. An absolute highlight was the reunion of John Surtees with 'his' Ferrari 158 F1, which he campaigned so successfully in 1964. This car is the sole survivor of the V8-engined Formula 1 cars that brought both World Championships to Ferrari that year.
In appreciation for his fine work Red Bull Racing presented designer Adrian Newey with the 'keys' to one of the team's RB5s used by Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel to score six victories last year. Newey drove his present very enthusiastically up the hill several times.

Sunday Times Supercars and FoS-Tech
The Moving Motor Show underlined how important the Festival of Speed has become for the major manufacturers. That had already been evident for many years with the increasing interest for the 'Supercar Run' that traditionally kicks of the action each day. It is not uncommon for manufacturers to preview or release brand new models at Goodwood. This year, for example, Alpina unveiled the new BMW 5-series B5 Biturbo and Bowler showcased the EXR road car for the very first time. The most prominent public debut was the McLaren MP4-12C. Production of the successor to the legendary F1 will not start until 2011 and the car demonstrated by the likes of Button and Hamilton was still a pre-production or 'validation' prototype. Painted in the company's papaya-orange, it looked very impressive.
With the Fos-Tech pavilion, where innovative prototypes are displayed, the Festival of Speed also looks ahead to the future. Several of these alternatively powered machines were also driven up the hill. These included Audi's R8 based e-tron and the ferociously fast Toyota MR-S Base, which combines a hybrid drivetrain with a mid-mounted V6 engine. A crowd favourite was the hydrogen powered London Taxi, which was engineered by Lotus. If all goes according to plan, a fleet of these 'green', black cabs will be available for the 2012 Olympics.

Jim Clark's Indy 500 winning Lotus 38
Unquestionably, the star of the 18th Goodwood Festival of Speed was the Lotus 38 driven to victory in the 1965 Indy 500 by Jim Clark. That historic win was the first for a mid-engined car, a Ford engine, a British car and for a foreign driver since WWI. After the race, the car was handed to Ford as part of the engine supply deal and it did not run again. It toured the show circuit for some time until it was retired to the Henry Ford Museum. Last year chassis 38/1 returned to English soil for the first time and was shown at Goodwood ahead of a complete restoration to full running order at Clive Chapman's Classic Team Lotus. Retaining almost all original components, the Indy winner was carefully brought back to life after 45 years of silence. Goodwood's Lord March was given the honour of driving the ex-Clark Lotus up the hill for the very first time on Friday. The following two days Sir Jackie Stewart muscled the twin-cam V8 engined machine along the narrow course. To honour his old friend he wore a replica of Clark's deep blue and white helmet. The car's original designer, Len Terry, was also on hand. This was the very first time he had seen his successful design driven in anger as he had not made the trip to Indy in 1965.

Fastest Time
Although most cars are driven up the hill in demonstration runs, several do go out to set a fast time. At the end of the weekend the fastest twenty runners took part in a shoot-out, which was broadcast live on Sky Sport 2. Multiple champion of the Goodwood hill, Justin Law, seemingly got his rides confused as he lined up in a Ford Transit. The Transit's speed defied believe until we were explained that during the restoration of the Transit all the running gear of a Jaguar XJ220 mysteriously went missing. Law almost managed to break the 1-minute barrier in the wobbly but very rapid van. The most spectacular runs of the weekend were made by Mark Walker in his 1905 vintage Darracq 200 hp, which consists of little more than a ladder frame, two axles, a massive engine and two small bucket seats. Walker's very committed style saw him slide through almost every corner, easily setting the fastest time in his group. Neither Law or Walker, or anybody else for that matter, however, managed to get close to Roger Wills in his Walter Wolf liveried Williams FW05 F1 car. He set the fastest time in the shoot-out on Sunday with well over a 2-second margin over his closest rival. Earlier in the day he had gone even faster.

Final Thoughts
Each year the Goodwood Festival of Speed is one of our favourite events on the calendar. No other event combines every aspect of motoring so well as the FoS. Nowhere can fans can get so close to the cars and the stars that drove them. These unique ingredients are why entrants and spectators travel from around the world to come to Goodwood. With the celebrations of Alfa Romeo's centenary and sixty years of Formula 1, complemented by the return to action of Jim Clark's Indy 500 winning Lotus, 2010 was another great year at the Festival of Speed. We can't wait for 2011, which undoubtedly will feature a return and possibly expansion of the inaugural Moving Motor Show.