Photo Report: The Watches And Wheels Of The 2019 Goodwood Festival Of Speed

July 12, 2019

While the Goodwood Revival Meeting celebrates a romantic era of motoring thats now just a speck in the rear view, the Goodwood Festival of Speed is all about pushing the modern limits of driving. Gentlemen drivers, race teams, even factory teams descend upon the Goodwood Estate in southern England for a weekend to see who can set the quickest time up the long winding driveway belonging to Lord March, Duke of Richmond.? This year a 20-year record was unofficially broken by Romain Dumas driving the Volkswagen I.D. R, an electric vehicle that set the quickest lap at the Nurburgring in an EV just a month before. Dumas put down a time of 39.9 seconds up the hill, over a second faster than the record, held by F1 driver Nick Heidfeld, that was set back in 1999. ? The cars were clearly the star of the festival, but theres a quiet sideshow going on among those with a burning fascination with all things mechanical. It doesnt take place on the course, but rather on the wrist. Beyond the cars, the festival serves as an excuse for enthusiasts to strap on their favorite timepiece, reveling in the notion that theres a tiny mechanical machine beating away on their person while observing the larger machines running at full tilt on the course.? Ferrari 250 GT SWB Fiat Abarth 750 GT World Rally Champion Petter Solberg's WRX "The Beast of Turin," a Fiat S76, features a 28.4-liter inline-four cylinder engine. Porsche 911 RSR Rally-prepped Ford Escort Lancia Fulvia HF 950 Ferrari 166 MM Barchetta Bugatti Type 35 1965 Ford GT40 Roadster The record-setting VW I.D. R 2019 Subaru WRX STi rally car driven by Oliver Solberg