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Festival Of Speed

·376 words·2 mins
Matthew Sawasy
Author
Matthew Sawasy
Always busy. Never bored.

For about a year, I had been excitedly waiting for the 2017 Goodwood Festival of Speed. I bought the tickets about 10 months before the date of the Festival.

After selling off my possessions, this was the only thing I was nervous about travelling with. Everything else, I can live without or replace.

When the day came, I was happier than a butcher’s dog.

Flying into London was a bit of an event. At the border, the guards were leaning to not letting me in. I think they didn’t realize I had a visa from the French government and were concerned I had overstayed a Schengen visa. Once the senior guard noticed this, I was stamped through.

My night in London was larger than I expected. I met a friend (and then another) and ended up on the tiles until after 1 AM. Getting up, getting my rental car, navigating London traffic on the opposite side of the road was quite an adventure. Adding on top of this, the crummy in car USB wasn’t producing enough power to charge my phone and run Google Maps at the same time.  It was a touch stressful.

I prevailed.

Goodwood and the Festival of Speed was a blast.  Camping was cool. I picked up a little tent on the way down, so I was sorted.

The event itself was amazing. The weather behaved and it was sunny most of the time.  I also got to take in some of the dream cars from my youth. Here are some of the highlights of the event.

Ferrari F40 and me

There were Ferraris.

There were Pagani Zondas.

A sweet Koenigsegg CC8S…

My dream car, a 1993 McLaren F1 (This one is a prototype XPS I believe?)

A Jaguar XJ220

I also saw The Hoonigan Ford Escort

As well as this cute couple in the “exotics parking” area.

While walking around and snapping these pictures of the cars was a trip, the coolest part of the event was the hill climb.  So many classic cars charging the hill, along with drift cars, current winning cars and so many more.

I would do this trip again, in a heart beat.  Maybe, I’ll skip navigating London traffic with a hangover. Or, maybe, all together.