#FOS2019 Didn’t disappoint!

The Duke of Richmond and his fantastic team of organisers truly outdid themselves this year at Goodwood Festival of Speed 2019. Always pushing the boundaries of the spectacular event every year to keep the crowds flooding into Goodwood House in West Sussex.

With Aston Martin being the head sponsor of this years show they of course came with engines screaming at full tilt to showcase the epic British car maker. Both road and racing divisions packed their stands and the Hillclimb with all sorts of wonderful machinery that James Bond would be proud to step out of in Monte Carlo.

The massive Gerry Judah central sculpture (pictured), which hoisted a DBR1 60ft into the air – celebrating the marques 70 anniversary of its Goodwood race debut, stole the attention of the public as they walked into the event, it was hard to miss even with all the live action going on.

And what live action it was! This year saw the introduction of the Big Arena for all sorts of stunts, drifting, trials and exhibitions of automotive excellence. And the Goodwood Hillclimb was stunned into a deathly silence as the outright record was SMASHED by an electric car of all things! (“They’ll never take off you know!”) The VW ID R racer made a triumphant return by beating its own EV record at the Goodwood Hillclimb – and taking the outright record, which has stood for twenty years, in the process. We can only imagine how low this will get as the technology is developed further…

Alfa Romeo brought some new variants too. The Giulia and Stelvio AR Racing editions made their debut in celebration of Alfa’s return to Formula 1 racing. With only a handful going to be available in the UK is was a rare opportunity for the public to see them in action. Spec’d with red and white livery and carbonfibre-shell Sparco bucket seats as standard they certainly looked great, and from what we saw they performance has been upped to further stamp the Italian car manufacturer firmly in the way of the usual performance super saloons and SUV’s.

It was an epic show, even the weather played ball for the most part, but spirits weren’t dampened on Sunday regardless. The benchmark was certainly raised this year, what will The Duke of Richmond come up with for 2020…?