Any engine can scream with the right exhaust pipe. The best ones can sing. The finely tuned, fully mechanical, half-century-old motors in the racing cars at the Goodwood Revival have pipes like Pavarotti. And hearing an entire chorus of them is enough to make a grown man weep. Unfortunately, hearing it through your AirPods wouldn’t have the same effect but I can give you a pretty nice visual tour of what many car nerds call the best automotive event of the year.
The Goodwood Revival is an annual sensory feast of cars and culture from the 1940s to the 1960s. Hosted at the Goodwood Motor Circuit on the 13th Duke of Richmond’s expansive grounds southwest of London it’s part car racing, part immersive historical appreciation. It’s also generally the only place you can see throngs of people in vintage formalwear while listening to the rapid cackle of ancient unfiltered exhaust systems. More than a handful of industry people I know told me I was in for, not just their favorite car thing, but their favorite thing, period, that comes around annually. I’m hoping that this photo tour helps you get a sense of why that is!
In the name of celebrating cars, Subaru of America hosted me and a few other car-media people at this year’s event. Among the group was pro photog Mike Shaffer, who shot and edited an excellent batch of snaps for you to enjoy. Images from the Revival are pretty similar every year, but they’re still a lot of fun to look at if you have any appreciation at all for the golden age of carburation.
We’ve run features from Jerry Perez, Kristen Lee, Lawrence Ulrich, and others that further contextualize the Goodwood Revival, so take a look at their stories if you’d like to dig more into the event’s significance. But here, I’ll just take you on a 150-odd image tour covering the main attractions. If you’re shopping for a new desktop wallpaper pic, you’ll probably find a few great candidates here.
Classic Race Cars in Motion
Revival’s main attraction is the rare opportunity to see truly ancient, ultra-valuable cars pushed to their limits in earnest fender-to-fender racing. The 2024 event had a few good spats of serious rain, making circuit laps super hairy for people on period-correct tires. Drivers didn’t seem to hold back, though. Neither did Mr. Shaffer, who bravely climbed into a poncho and caught some absolute bangers of beautiful machines racing in the rain.
Classic Race Cars at Rest
As fun as seeing stuff in motion, it’s easier to appreciate the finer details when they’re parked. The Goodwood circuit’s paddock is simple and primitive, making these cars from decades ago look right at home.
Even the Spectator Lot Was Lit
You could have rocked up to Goodwood and seen a great car show for free just by walking around the parking lot. I was truly impressed that the owners of some serious supercars seemed willing to not only shunt their treasures through traffic, but also wheeled through some thick mud. I saw a Ferrari Maranello on it with more muck than some Jeeps see in their lifetime!
Military Homages, 80 Years After D-Day
This summer, the 80th anniversary of the D-Day invasion at Normandy was recognized. Every Goodwood Revival has some kind of ancillary theme attached to it, and this year there was a military vehicle parade to commemorate that event. Though not the final battle of WWII, D-Day is, of course, widely recognized as the turning point that ultimately enabled the Allied victory.
The Clothes, The People and The Scene
I’ll stop short of calling Revival a cosplay event. But in the show’s throngs of people, it was very hard to find somebody not wearing a period-themed outfit. Since the event basically celebrates vehicles from three decades, there’s a lot to work with in terms of fashion inspiration. Quite a few folks turned up in World War II garb or something adjacent. I managed to find a pretty sweet seersucker suit from a vintage clothing plug in New York, but our photographer grabbed some highlights of folks who really did the show justice with their attire.
History Repeating
The Goodwood Revival is worth putting on your bucket list if you have an interest in European history, or really, any of the trappings of Western culture from the 1940s to the 1960s. I call it the golden age of carburetors, but there are so many aspects of industrial design from this era that look so elegant from today’s perspective. I’m not suggesting we go back to using leather straps for hood holders and cables for controls, but it’s hard to peel my eyes from these galleries to a modern parking lot without being a little wishful for the past.
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