Porsche celebrations at Festival of Speed. Seventieth anniversary celebrated in style. More than 200,000 visitors made the pilgrimage to Goodwood to witness the Festival of Speed’s special celebration of Porsche. The sculpture in front of Goodwood House is redesigned each year in tribute to the event’s main marque, which is why this year’s 52m-high structure featured fully functional Stuttgart-crested crackers in the form of a 356, a classic 911, a 917, a 919 Hybrid, a 918 Spyder and the Porsche Museum’s amazing 1986 Paris-Dakar 959.
“The Festival of Speed is the epicentre of motorsport fandom,” said Alexander Klein, head of vehicle management at the museum. “All Porsche cars carry motorsport genes. It is an honour to be allowed to present them at Goodwood.
The quality of the drivers and the standard of cars at the Festival of Speed is very high. In this respect, Porsche is perfectly suited to the event. Sportiness and quality meet on equal footing!”
Alexander’s team presented nineteen different Porsches at Goodwood, including the 961 (the racing version of the 959 and the first all-wheel-drive Porsche campaigned at Le Mans), the 962C which won the 1987 24 Hours of Le Mans, the 935/78 ‘Moby Dick’, the 1994 Dauer 962 GT Le Mans, the 1998 911 GT1 (the first Porsche racing car with a carbonfibre chassis) and the RS Spyder, which Porsche used to bring home all available silverware at the 2005 American Le Mans series.
Porsche’s entries into the Formula classes were also well represented at Goodwood, not least of all thanks to the presence of the 804 Dan Gurney raced to victory in the 1964 Formula One Grand Prix, marking Porsche’s only F1 win as a manufacturer. The 1988 2708 IndyCar and 911 Carrera RSR Turbo were also in attendance, as were many iconic road cars, such as a standard 993 Turbo, a rare Carrera GT, a 918 Spyder, a classic 911 2.7 RS and the recreation of the first 356 assembled.
What are the best and fastest racing cars without their drivers? Certainly not nearly as successful, which is why Porsche invited many of its current and former works pilots (Kévin Estre, Laurens Vanthoor, Neel Jani, Hurley Haywood, Derek Bell, Mark Webber, Walter Röhrl, Glijs van Lennep, Manfred Schurti, Gunther Steckkonig and Richard Attwood) to dynamically present the iconic vehicles along Goodwood’s famous hill climb.
All of the Porsche vehicles in attendance, (including privately owned cars, such as an immaculate 356 A Coupé, 356 B Carrera Abarth GTL, 550 Spyder, 904, 908 ‘Flunder’ and the 935 K3 Flachbau) were led one after the other in opposite directions onto the circular gravel driveway in front of Goodwood House for what the Duke of Richmond billed as “the Porsche moment”. As the vehicles were parked, a small orchestra and a choir performed a musical piece written by Irish songstress, Enya, while daytime fi reworks were launched from the rooftop of the stately home.
“I’m convinced we won’t see another Porsche spectacle like this any time soon,” remarked factory test driver, Porsche brand ambassador and two-time WRC winner, Walter Röhrl. “Where else will you see so many of these historically significant cars in a single location? It’s simply incredible.”
