Roland Dane: Goodwood puts on a show

Ignore the Formula 1 cars, strip out the kaleidoscope of racing machines and the cacophony of two wheeled Grand Prix bikes from across the decades, and the Goodwood Festival of Speed remains the biggest exhibition of new car products in the United Kingdom.

But this year was different. This year was the year the Chinese arrived in earnest and spent big. Seriously big.

In a space dominated by Lotus (with sister Geely brands), BYD and MG, only Land Rover and the BMW brands competed in terms of exhibition space and size. Hyundai/Kia gave everyone a run for their money as well but the rest of the Euro major manufacturers and also the Japanese were also-rans.

The good point for many enthusiasts is that most of the interesting supercar and hypercar brands were well represented. The likes of Pagani, McLaren, Lamborghini and many others were highly visible. And the niche market Ineos Grenadier was superbly exhibited as well.

MG, which is Chinese through and through in all but name of course, was the ‘star’ of the Festival of Speed this year as the 100th anniversary of the founding of Morris Garages was celebrated. I found it difficult to take that seriously as there’s no link other than the octagonal badge between the MG of today and the company that produced the likes of the MGB.

However, MG it was that took pole position on the regular superb sculpture that dominated the front of Goodwood House. Pride of place went to the new electric sports car that they will shortly offer to motorists across the globe. It’s almost certainly an excellent example of a very good value for money electric sports car. But that’s an oxymoron for me. A sports car isn’t supposed to be electric. Maybe in years to come, but right now I still want an internal combustion engine in my sports cars. EVs are conveyances of convenience and can be excellent, but, as an open top sports car, the concept doesn’t float my boat.

Elsewhere within the precinct there were unlimited examples of, from brands you’ve never heard of, the huge strides taken in Chinese automotive engineering exhibiting superb body fit and finish to unbelievable (and unnecessarily complex) interiors that have been designed to compete with the very best offerings of the European luxury brands. One and all were electric.

It’s clear that the Chinese brands saw the Festival of Speed as a great place to draw attention to themselves in a very premium location. It’s also clear that they spent a vast amount of British Pounds to make their presence felt. But is it just me who feels uncomfortable with this potential transfer of the automotive design and engineering (let alone a huge manufacturing base) pinnacle away from the established homes in Europe, the US and Japan to the Middle Kingdom?

I’ve written about the security implications for Australia before of the influx of Chinese vehicles, almost all of them with a potential direct link back to their homeland. Now, that’s a reality on the shores of one of our major allies, the UK. When will the United States raise this in the same way as they did with Huawei?

Anyway, back to the green and pleasant pastures of southern England in summer.

Goodwood was a feast for every automotive enthusiast, as usual. There’s little point in going to an event such as this just to see the same cars, and bikes, as one can see in the street. Here, at the Festival, were all the road cars of dreams, the racing cars and bikes of bygone decades alive and well, and a plethora of stands to interest and amuse most people. The bars and food stands were buzzing again this year, as visitors watched the hill climb action on big screens. It’s just so well executed and laid out. The only criticism I can level at the event is the silly lack of enough toilet facilities. They need Tony Quinn to go over and tell them how to get the ratios right. You can’t expect to fill people with that much beer and not expect it to flow right out of the other end!

Next year, we in Australia really must work together as an industry to ensure that we show a decent array of Supercars over there, past and present. I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever that the Goodwood crowd will love to see them, including the current Gen3 cars. Skids on the hill in a Camaro and a Mustang driven by todays stars would do wonders for the profile of Supercars in Europe. It should be a part of a strategy to increase overseas media rights values.

The closest we have to a Festival of Speed in Australia is the Adelaide Motorsport Festival. That event needs to be supported to the full, in my opinion, by not only the motorsports community but also the wider automotive one. This year the AMF took a big step forward in terms of exploiting it’s timing close to the Australian Grand Prix and next year we’ll hopefully see that link stepping up further. The nannies in Oz would stop it being re-named to celebrate “Speed” of course, but we all know that’s really the underlying theme, as it should be. Fast cars, race cars, rally cars from decades ago to the present day. And don’t forget the bikes. No boring cars please. We see those everyday.

I, for one, am looking forward to both of these festivals in 2025 despite the probable ongoing presence of Chinese EVs.