Festival of Speed

It seems we have spent the summer shuttling up and down from Goodwood more regularly than usual. The scenic trip across the South Downs is always welcome with the SatNav finding new and unusual back roads to circumvent sporadic jams and roadworks. It is not uncommon to find yourself on a well surfaced but incredible narrow lane with both wing mirrors clipping the hedges simultaneously. Luckily at the crack of dawn when we usually travel there is almost no vehicles oncoming. Our latest sojourn south sees us heading towards the Festival of Speed where I managed to snag GRRC half members price tickets for the Thursday and arriving early meant we managed to get a spot in the members forward parking having been somewhat tardy with apply for the Porsche only parking.

Arriving early we had hoped to beat the crowds to snap some photos and paw the goods before every inch was filled shoulder to shoulder with craning necks and iphone clutching forest of arms capturing but blocking every angle.

The expectation of seeing the celebration of 50 years of 911 Turbo never materialised and the Porsche stand although sprawling, only managed two 911’s with the most interesting cars being the offroad display below the main stand. Here they had the Dakar, Safari and various Cayennes old and new among straw bales glamping style tents. If there were any Turbos at any point in the event we did not find them.

We did however see a plethora of Singers and while I can marvel at the quality workmanship and attention to detail I am not sure my fantasy garage would ever venture in that direction in the same way I wouldn’t countenance a gilded version of Venus De Milo in my garden even though it has bluetooth and a 4k TV for a face. While I don’t particularly enjoy the bendy indicator stalk of my 996 it is part of the Porsche story at the millennium.

Sitting on a haybale among the electric car appliances of other marques, I wondered if the Porsche poster child of the 80’s had intentionally been sidelined in favour of the GT cars, leaving it to become a luxury barge to replace the 928. Most certainly sticking your head into a 930 of the late 70’s and 80’s the lack of luxury evident runs a parallel of a cold winter breakfast of a Spartan army marching across a peat bog. With the current Turbo dripping with every conceivable addon while weighing in well over a ton and a half, the GT cars have become the hero spec with lightly foamed carbon planks for seats and styling flamboyant and wings so vast and high you could rest your nose on rather than a cup of coffee.

I have had the pleasure of seeing the full line up of the Turbos while at one of my many visits to Porsche Platz and it is understandable that companies move with the times or die. The ethos that made Porsche and allowed them victories in their formative years has also been abandoned by the likes of Lotus with both companies starting out small and light but evolving with time to what they are today. It did make me wonder when the electric multi million Pound Lotus managed all of twenty metres before comprehensively devouring a haybale if sticking four washing machine motors in a carbon gocart where we go from here.

The Festival of Speed is now a vast even and we didn’t actually get to see any of the on track action beyond on the big screens nor manage to get up to the rally stage as we had in previous years. After last years plethora of 75th anniversary Porsches there was less to engage a flat six enthusiast but the upside was the actual Porsche stand felt more like a gathering space than boutique.