Goodwood Festival of Speed 2023

Goodwood Festival of Speed 2023

It's been on my bucket list for a while now. Ever since I became an Evo Magazine addict in the early 2000s, I knew this was one of the most iconic events. Later, when Polish edition of the Top Gear magazine came out in 2006, it became even more familiar, with its Editor-in-chief, Piotr R. Frankowski, being the first Pole to drive up the hill. The Festival of Speed coverage was always a highlight and a joy to read about. This has continued until the magazine's unfortunate early demise in 2016. The plan to visit stayed on.

This year, the dream finally came true. With a group of 12 (!) fellow petrolheads, I boarded the plane towards Luton on Wednesday, July 12. To add to the excitmement, we were all about to rent cars and drive down to Chichester on the wrong side of the road. Some of us (like yours truly), for the first time.

We were greeted by a mix of British weather and sunny afternoon, which was to be expected. Our rental fleet consisted of two Kias and a Golf MK8. Very dull in comparison to what we were about to experience the next day.

rental cars

On Thursday, we got up early and headed towards the Goodwood Estate. First surprise - how organized entering the parking lot was. Second surprise - what was actually parking there. Just a few (out of a few hundred) examples:


911 991 50 Jahre

Mind you, this wasn't even the 'performance car' parking lot.

On to the main event. The sheer scale of the grounds is probably the biggest surprise when you first enter. Also, even though it was Thursday, theoretically the 'less busy' day, there really was a lot of people and this is something you don't really see in the coverage or on YouTube.

But we came there to watch cars, not people, so that's exactly what we did. Starting from the main partner - Porsche, which coincidentally celebrated its 75 year anniversary. And they celebrated with a blast - bringing together some of their most iconic racecars to drive up the hill, including the 962 Le Mans winners, the Dakar 911 Safari, or the famous Kremer-Porsche 935. Two of them, in fact, in the Jagermeister and Vaillant liveries. A feast for the eyes and ears. The fact that you can later see these cars up close in the paddock is mind blowing. That's another shocker. Apart from the Porsche parade, my absolute highlight was seeing the legendary Mazda 787B Le Mans winning car live on the hillclimb. It has been my dream ever since playing Gran Turismo 4 on PS2 almost 20 years ago and it finally came true. Where else, if not in Goodwood?

Porsche 962 on the Goodwood Hillclimb

Then, you start walking around some of the stands. In the sad era without major car shows we are living now, it seems like this is one of the most important events in the calendar for brands. Porsche, BMW and other performance and hypercar brands all took it very seriously, creating awesome stands (buildings really, like Hyundai N or Lotus) and bringing the best they have. Great stuff that brings to mind visiting the IAA or Geneva back in the good old days. More on that on another occasion.

To summarize, my personal highlights included the new Singer DLS-Turbo (which also looked stunning in motion) and the McLaren F1-powered 911 930 Tag Turbo by Lanzante. Amazing. Oh yeah, the Koenigsegg Gemera was nice, too... Among the more down-to-earth cars, I was really positively surprised by the Lotus Emira, a great looking car. Saw lots of them on the parking lot, too. Way to say farewell to ICE cars, Lotus.

Porsche Stand at Goodwood Festival of Speed
Singer DLS Turbo
911 930 Tag Turbo Lanzante
911 930 Tag Turbo by LanzanteKoenigsegg Gemera

Keep in mind, that walking around takes a lot of time, so there is zero chance to see everything in one day. Luckily, we came for four days. Well, three, as it later turned out - for the first time in history on the FoS, Saturday was cancelled due to severe weather conditions. We took the opportunity to take a day trip to London, which we really enjoyed. 

London Bentley Bentayga

On a very packed schedule, it seems like spending three days at the FoS is the absolute minimum to be able to absorb everything that is happening. There is a constant fomo feeling when you hear cars on the hillclimb and are on the other side of the grounds. Luckily, some of the elements of the main schedule are happening daily, so it's fine if you miss something one day - you can see it tomorrow.

Did the event meet my expectations built over the years? Most definitely, it was everything I hoped it would be, and more. A true celebration of car culture and a testament to the fact it's still alive and kicking. Every petrolhead needs to go there at least once.

Enjoy some more pictures by the talented Kilan Project below.


Lamborghini Revuelto
Guntherwerks stand, PTRLSM sweatshirt