Goodwood FoS: Episode 4 up - More Hill action

Thanks for those Seth!

Rysz.

Lovely stuff. I was picking rally stage mud out of my hair all weekend - Saturday morning was particularly slippery. ;D


Did you also get chastised by the marshals for loitering on the footbridge trying to get aerial shots...?

Have you got a program? Do you have details on what number 32 is and who owns it?

Great pictures as always.

On the Audi Le Mans winner. The back is off, but note the fabric cover over the engine. You didn't get to see it at all at Le Mans and they were VERY secretive about it this year. Whenever the back came off there was someone on cue to stand in the way and a cover went on. The same goes for the aero section in the rear bodywork. Whenever it came off they would either hide it away, cover it up, or stand it up in a way so you couldn't see it. I would say that it's not just slung on the hedge like that, it's deliberately where it is so you can't see inside it.

Briliant photos,thanks.

Ta chaps. Jonny, yeah I noticed they'd covered up the Audi's running gear but hadn't twigged that they maybe wanted to hide something in the lid. There was space next to the car though so why they put it on the hedge (where someone could have walked off with it!) I don't know.

Episode 3. Up the Hill.

I took something like 600+ photos just of cars going up the hill. Some appropriate editing has got it down to a bit over 200 that I've uploaded. Perusing the programme on Thursday evening there were three batches of cars I particularly wanted to see. We knew we wouldn't get there in time for the first batch on Friday morning but they were just returning down the hill when we arrived. So this is the first photo I took at the FoS this year, on the wrong settings and everything but I was like, woah, Cobra Daytona!



Having hiked to the top of the hill we decided it’d be good to stop and watch the next batch as they were one of those I wanted to see, it wasn’t yet raining and it was good to stop and rest.

‘Americana’















Touring Titans





(I had a go at doing some ‘edgy’ photos of the sort I normally don’t as there was still the whole weekend to go to take straight photos. I’m glad I didn’t do many of them as I’d probably now have a funny neck.



Pikes Peak





From there we went through the rally stage (see episode 1) and when we were done the Lotus group were just finishing coming up and collecting in the top paddock.

Some of these people might be famous drivers? Or just wealthy owners.









The next hill action we watched was right after having lunch when Batch 1 was due up again and had the misfortune perhaps of having to vie for attention with the Red Arrows. While waiting for them to appear the supercar/future car lot came down the hill past us. The Toyota 2000 EV was the most intereresting in that lot. Yes it’s a real one. Yes they’ve taken the running gear out and replaced it with solar re-charged electric. 160km/h for a range of 100km. Then to fully re-charge, park it outside for two weeks (I presume you could also plug it in for a quicker charge)



So with seven red planes whooshing about in the sky I enjoyed this lot of pre and post war GP cars.









Rarr! V16 BRM. A (mostly) failure but a sweet sounding one.



Tony Brooks in a Connaught.



Brabham Climax



On to the Classic Endurance Racers and International Sports Cars







Here’s an indication of how hard some of the cars are pushed. Note the debris from cutting the grass on the inside and the four wheel drift attitude .





Lola Cosworth.



Stirling Moss and Norman Dewis on board the C type they used in the 1952 Mille Miglia.





More action to come...

Brilliant pics and report, thanks Seth!
Enjoying this thread!

Friday just worked really well for us. We walked in the entrance at Molecomb at about 9:15, and walked straight up to see batch two from the uppermost clearing at about 9:30. Then into the rally stage. We were done up there by about 12:30 and the red arrows were due at 2 (Ickle_Seth is a fan) so we walked all the way back down the hill and had lunch outside the house at 1:30ish. Watched ‘Batch 1’ as the planes were flying then headed up to the F1 Paddock for a look around. Then headed down to the Style et Luxe for a quick look around having met some friends. Wanted to watch the Group C/Sportscar batch that were due at 4:30 though I think they were running a bit late which gave us a bit more time and went up to Molecomb to see them before heading home (as the car was parked nearest there). That day just worked somehow. Didn’t go into the Cathedral Paddock at all as we could save that for Sunday and we normally don’t bother much with all the trade/manufacturer stands.

I was going to mention photography spots. I have been lucky enough to have a press pass in previous years but not this time but still found getting good spots quite easy. There’s only a couple of decent ‘extra’ places a normal press pass (ie not a photographer’s bib) will get you and many of my photos in the past have been from public spots anyhow. Friday morning it was very quiet up at the top for that first batch. Friday afternoon there was no problem getting a spot in front of the Molecombe grandstand for the next lot. Sunday afternoon I was pretty amazed as I managed to get right to the bales at the first corner with no issue at all when in previous years it’s been a couple deep there. You have to try and get a spot when there’s nothing running as people come and go a fair amount and then just wait for the next group or whatever. Of course during the modern F1s it’s normally crammed but I’m not so interested in them so am off doing other stuff.

So as I said, Friday afternoon and we headed to Molecomb getting a good spot at the exit from the corner. Previous batch we heading down.













Then we got on to some really quick cars going up the hill.







1971 Ferrari 712, the biggest ever racing Ferrari engine at 6.9 litres. (V12)


1972 Shadow Chevrolet, 8.1 litre big block.



A couple of more recent British efforts, all lit up.





The came the Group C cars I really wanted to see. First a trio of Jags.







I think I’ve only seen a C9 running once before and had forgotten how good they sound. Proper throaty V8 noise.



Porsches were special.









Dunno why but the Lancias never captured my imagination.





The next hill action we caught was the Lotus batch on early Sunday afternoon. These were a struggle to photograph as we were down by the house and there were lots of people about. I stood on a small stool (about 6”) and managed to get a few over the heads of the people in front.







Moss in ’61 Lotus-Climax



At some point I noticed that if I was lucky I could get the Lotus stand in the background and succeeded a couple of times.







DAD1O Elite is familiar and I’m sure has history but it doesn’t mention anything in the programme.




So, later that afternoon it was approaching the time we needed to head for home but I got a good spot at the inside of the first corner and the plan was to watch the 1st (oldies) batch run through and they were being followed by the cars who were going for quickest times which always provide some serious action.



Jochen Mass in 1937 Mercedes W125



Much better head gear than the modern helmets the 1903 Mercedes crew were wearing earlier.



Bentley Blower that Ickle Seth had sat in that morning.



XK120 drifting.



Richard Atwood and Sir Jackie Stewart are down as drivers of this BRM P261 but I’m not sure if this is either of them,.



GTO is Nick Mason’s I think.



Third appearance in this thread. But I’m not going to make excuses.



1978 Alpine-Renault A443.



Group a 635 CSI



Right, so then on to the serious business of time setting. The motley collection made their way down to the start, some trying to get some heat into the tyres.









The it was time to put the hammer down. We could watch them fly by then turn around and watch the rest of the run on the big screen behind us.













And here is the last photo I took at the 2012 FoS.



The Tacoma is an astonishingly quick car but difficult to control with the wrong number of wheels on the tarmac….




Wow! So that’s most of my shots done. All the hillclimb ones are here.

s198.photobucket.com/albums/aa65/sethke/Classics%2012/GoodwoodFoS/Hillclimb/

Still some other miscellany to go though.

Awesome pics!

Whenever I've been I never frame the cars properly - I end up with lots of pics of spoilers and bumpers but nothing else!