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Back to FeaturesPhotographs : David Murphy
Date : 9th APril 2008
Location : Goodwood House
Weather : Fantastic
Result : New underpants required
I was listening to the radio one day and they were interviewing someone on how to get into different jobs within the film industry. It covered what schools people went to, what skills they had to learn and what experience would be helpful. They got to the job of Producer and asked a suitably important producer how to get a job in that field, he said “you become a producer by telling everyone you are a producer, eventually a director will ask you for money and then you just have to find them the money from somewhere, but that’ll be easy, because you’re a film producer, you can prove this because you now have a film to produce.” This is exactly how I became a journalist. One day for some reason I decided I wanted to write for a magazine, so I emailed a couple and said I’d got an idea for a feature and that I was a journalist. It seemed to work. I still have a day job however so I still feel like a fraud.
So when I found out about the Goodwood Festival Of Speed press day I thought I’d see if I could go, but it always felt like a blag. I’ve never been to this sort of event and in my brain I pictured some press releases being handed out a handful of cars there and some people to talk to. It turns out I was a bit wrong.
The first inkling of this was when the itinerary arrived and had time scheduled in for the “Veuve Clicquot Campagne Reception”, so I dressed smart, just in case. My run down from home was uneventful, 2 hours 20 minutes, the cheapest Diesel was in Salisbury, Goodwood is signed posted from that A27. Seriously it was very uneventful. Pulling up in the car park was a pretty ordinary experience, car journalists don’t half drive some boring cars, then again I was in my daily too. Not knowing really was I was supposed to be doing I just followed some other people across the field towards the house. There I was greeted by a magnificent sight. Thirty or so diverse but fantastic cars were parked around the area directly in front of the house, from James Bond’s Lotus to Group B cars, from the latest Nissan GTR to well, a much older GTR the gamut of sporting cars was well and truly run.
I spent a bit of time making my way around the outside, I still didn’t know if I was welcome but no one was bothering me so I just carried on. The need for a cup of tea over took my desire to look at cars and take lots and lots of photos, so I went in through the big front door of the house. Well here it was, time to prove I was legit, a table full of badges, being a bit new at this I just said my name rather than hunt out my badge. It was there! Huzzah! I am a legitimate attendee of this event and now I have a badge to prove it, where’s my cup of tea?
Suitably refreshed I take a browse around the room for of sponsors literature, grab anything DVD shaped and scoot. I was there for the cars but I have to say that Goodwood house is incredible in and of itself. Quite the swanky pad.
I managed to find a friend whilst wandering around, Alan Thomas was kind enough to bring his Nissan KPGC10 GTR to the Retro Rides show in 2007 and I spent two very pleasant days in his company as he stayed at the same hotel as I did. Nissan had invited him along to the event as they had the new Nissan GTR there as well and Alan’s car perfectly illustrated its history and sporting legacy.
Next up we were being invited into the house where the Earl of March thanked us for coming and talked up this year’s event, it really does sound brilliant. Once the formal welcome is over with we’re all back outside and walking over to the hills start line for some bacon and sausage filled rolls accompanied by a bit of action on the hill. Here is where my day took a strange turn.
I noticed that there were passengers in the cars on the first runs up the hill and as the cars were getting ready to come back down I did some investigation, some journalistic investigation. This is where I discovered you could sign up for a ride up the hill. It was a bit of a gamble really as you didn’t know who you would end up going up with or what you were going up in, but as everything there was pretty cool it was a guaranteed win. I stuck my name down and got a wrist band, which I am still wearing as I type this, then joined the back of the queue. Once all the cars had returned from their first runs I was handed a helmet and had to walk down the line of cars until there was a passenger seat available. I ended up right at the end of the line, it didn’t look like I was going end up going for a trip up the hill. Then suddenly I was pointed towards the 1999 BTCC Primera GT car. To say I jumped in would be overstating it, I folded myself into what little space constituted a passenger seat and waited. My pilot for the trip was to be Antony Reid who is no stranger to this car. Once I was strapped in I heard a phrase that made my heart sink “I thought the guy from Southern Radio was going up with me....” curses, dropped at the last hurdle. Apparently the guy from Southern Radio was suppose to go up with John Cleland but his car had broken before the first run. Luckily for me and this story they fixed it for the second, so I was good to go. There was just the small matter of starting the car.
Something to do with the starter on the car had lunched itself and it required a push start. It took three attempts, each time I was dreading that I was going to be told it wasn’t going to work. Finally it roared into life... boy did it roar. As we had a few attempts to start the track in front was clear to the start line, so we rocketed off towards it. Despite the marshals happily waving through we stopped at the start line and did a full launch. The sensation was incredible, its launch pushed me back into my seat the way a fast car does, however after a few hundred yards I’m guessing the turbo spooled up because the world just seemed to melt around us as all my internal organs did their best to climb out the back of my body. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call me a bad passenger, I like to be in control of the cars I’m in, so when Antony hardly seemed to lift off as we hit the first corner I knew this was going to be interesting, by interesting I mean terrifying. I’m not ashamed to say I spent most of the brief trip forcing myself tighter into my seat by pushing my feet very hard on the roll cage bar in the foot well. I don’t remember what my hands were doing. What I do remember is thinking “oh my god I’m going to die and its going to be on the news”. Then rationally trying to convince myself that there was no way that would happen and that the driver wasn’t going to do anything to put me in danger. It was about this point that we started shooting past the walled part of the course, that wall was very close to my side of the car, it didn’t help my state of mind. Then suddenly it was all over and we pulled into the area at the top where the previous cars were parked up and stopped.
Clambering out as inelegantly as I went in was greeted by a friendly face, Alan was standing next to his car talking to the guy that was running the Capri. I asked for a lift back down with him in his somewhat flimsy passenger seat. He agreed! Not only did I get to go up the hill with a genuine BTCC driver in one of the most successful BTCC cars ever, but I got to go down the hill in the only Nissan KPGC10 GTR in Europe. This journalist thing is great!
The KPGC10 GTR is a pretty special car, at least if you’re Japanese it is. If you are European you probably don’t know a huge amount about it. Luckily I was with Alan Thomas who had brought along a bunch of literature to go with his car, I was yet to discover this though as I climbed in and we prepared to head down hill. The cars straight through un muffled exhaust system meant it was actually one of the loudest cars at the event, we rasped out onto the hill and Alan gave me the enjoyment of a few tweaks of the throttle as we went down during which I could thrill at the lovely sound of the S20 engine. The car’s slick tyres weren’t really warmed up so it was pretty lively for Alan on the way up the hill, however just having such a fantastic machine out to be appreciated was great. Hopefully it will form part of the main Festival Of Speed line up attacking the hill.
The rest of my afternoon was spent chatting with Alan and soaking in some more of the cars, taking a load of photographs and trying to consign everything to memory, savouring the moments.
So what did I learn? Press days aren’t scary. BTCC cars are. Meeting up with friends and talking about cars and what not is certainly a very pleasant way to spend a day. Oh well, back to the day job...