I’m going to the FoS on Thursday first time for me and very excited!

Any tips and tricks people recommend? Or too places to view the cars?

Also what’s it’s like getting in and out of the car parks? Should expect long queues and waits?

I’ve not been for a few years but definitely walk to the top of the hill to where the cars turn around, it’s a good place to see the cars and drivers up-close.

Thursday used to be the moving motor show day.
If it still is, then it wont be as busy ad the next 3 days.
I would get there early, before 0800.
Take food as its crazy expensive inside
Spend the fitst few hours looking at the display stands
Then work your way up the hill, watch for a while then move up.
Rally stage was my favourite, talk to the drivers, get up close to the car etc.

Any tips and tricks people recommend?

Sun cream! It gets hot on the hill and there’s not much shelter..

Take the tractor to the rally stage, it’s a long walk and there’s a lot to see and not a lot of time to waste.

Check the itinerary to be in the right place for the ‘thing’ you want to see in advance, have a basic plan of attack. It’s a long hot and hilly walk to nowhere otherwise.

Park somewhere else and get the train to Chichester, get the train and bus from Chi, the bus uses a dedicated entrance route that will be closed to other traffic.

Personally I like getting blind drunk but your motivation may vary.

Been every year for decades. Tend to go Thu-Friday nowaday.

Follow the traffic signs – dont try and be clever or cut through anything you see on google maps. They’ve been doing this for decades and want you in as quick as possible, they know what they are doing. Its not that bad.

Wear decent walking shoes/boots – you’ll be on your feet all day.

You wont get to see ‘all’ of it in one day so dont even try.

Dont spent too much time on the motorshow/big manufacturer stands as theres not much you can’t see in your local dealer.
Visit both paddocks, top and bottom. Make sure you visit the lawn and whatever is inside the little yard/stables area this year.

Enjoy. Its superb.

Oh and take a set of car keys for every manufacturer you own.

There wasnt much of it happening last year due Covid but in the past, a set of car keys sometimes gets you into an ‘owners’ area on lots of stands with some useful freebies,seating, ice creams, pop, snacks etc.

Definitely make the trip up the hill to the rally stage. It’s the best bit there imo.
Also get into the paddocks, get chatting to the teams/drivers/mechanics. All good.
Avoid, if you can, the relentless main manufacturer stuff, regardless of the gimmicks like have-a-go trackstand comps etc (team sky?).
Packed lunch, save your quids for an ice-cream.
Follow the entrance signage, it’s actually fairly quick.
Have a plan for things you really want to see. Want to see the porsche 917/30 up close? Make sure you are in the bottom paddock when they start it up for the hill climb etc.

Take some ear plugs you can pop in if it gets too loud. Especially useful in the bottom paddock (which as above is superb) as there’s constantly absolute monsters getting fired up in there!

Molecomb corner is my favourite spot on the hill and is the most popular (think there’s 3 grandstands covering this bit). You see the cars coming into the corner, hard on the brakes then up the hill disappearing under some trees. Plus someone normally always bins it there going too hot into the corner.

You’ll have an amazing time. Bit gutted I never booked up this year but hoping to get back next year!

Enjoy

The main paddock is awesome, worth going just for that especially when the cars start up and they move out to go on track or return, you probably wont see a lot of the cars running on the hill unless you can nab a good spot just above the brodge (and even then its blink and youll miss it).
Agree about trying to get to the top of the hill where the cars turn…always good to see.
Ditto with the parking, dont try to cheat, the marshals do know their stuff. Just try to get in early.
I can reccomend standing on the starting grid doing final prep, setting up GoPros on cars and chatting to the drivers which you can only do if you have the right wristbands/safety passes and are from one of the companies showing off your wares:)
Not there this year, FoS involves a lot of prep and work: one event involved about 48hrs straight work to get stand and cars fully set up then 1hrs sleep then straight into the 4 day event then the whole take-down afterwards so everyone was pretty much wrecked at the end of it. It takes a lot of time to do as an exhibitor but it is amazing and good if tiring fun. Also our event category got removed for the hill climb as we were allegedly showing up too many supercars/hypercars and apparently some manufacturers got the hump.
Watching someone drive a McLaren into the back of a Praga GTR car in the supercar paddock a few years ago was entertaining though. Cue huge cheer from the crowd and one very embarassed driver…

thank you so much folks! 😘

constantly absolute monsters getting fired up in there!

Nothing else like standing right next to an Auto Union V16 being started and warmed up

Who are you going with? I went with Mrs C – she is definitely not into cars and despite being very game and not moaning at all it did ruin it a bit. Not deliberately, you could just see the boredom in her eyes.

It was so very hot and as said, shade was hard to come by.

We are going on Sunday. Taking my two boys, eldest is an F1 super fan. The other has more diverse car interests.

Logistics are a mare! Train strikes won’t help either. If you can get the vintage shuttle bus it’s a lot more civilized than driving.

That main paddock on the house side is really good as is the vintage car concourse if you like that sort of thing. Ear plugs may be useful there.

The other place I didn’t see mentioned to have a good look at the cars is in the marshalling area down the bottom of the hill by the start line where they are warming up tyres etc.

Personally I like the rally bit up the top of the hill but if you’re not into that sort of thing it’s an easy thing to exclude and save some time. I’ve been with a few people who’d happily pass that up as it just doesn’t float their boat.

In previous years they’ve had MTB and MX displays off to one side of the site.

Many of the manufacturer stands are something of nothing really, although some gems hiding in there so worth a stroll through to see if anything catches your eye.

As others have said suncream, hat, sunnies, suncream, water, suncream, food, suncream (yes I’ve got mildly crisped there a few times in the past). Also really comfy footwear.

The only other thing is enjoy and accept you won’t see it all! 👍

I’m there all weekend,can’t wait! All good advice above, you’ll struggle to see everything in one day but don’t stress it and just have a good time. There is a full timetable on the FoS website which would help your planning. Good shout on watching at the bottom of the hill where the cars turn round to go to the startline. Always lots of burnouts and donuts plus a few failed attempts that get lots of cheers 🙂

I’m heading down with relatives who have flown over from India. The dad is reasonably into cars and the two boys appear to love super cars and F1 and there is genuine excitement and interest from them at the moment so I think it will be a fun day.

Being true Indian residents, I think they will cope with the warm weather better than me, its probably a mild spring day for them while I’m roasting away 😄

Look out for Easter eggs at main marque stands. Went 8 ish years ago and managed to drive an off road course in an volvo estate 4×4, blat round a field course on a mx bike, do a drift course in a gt86. Got to get in and get your name in early. if they’re still doing thst kind of thing.

More details required please muddy@rseguy – proper hillclimbers?

muddy@rseguy
Also our event category got removed for the hill climb as we were allegedly showing up too many supercars/hypercars and apparently some manufacturers got the hump.

I’m in no way a car nut, but I really enjoyed it. Masses to see, much more than the hill climb. Speaking of which, I managed to blag a Ferrari vip ticket so spent the day in their bit outside the house right by the hill climb track, the food and wine was top notch (the company less so, Ferrari owners are incredibly boring). The Ferrari people knew I blagged the ticket and thought it was funny, so gave me a spare seat going up the climb. I never knew cars could go that fast!

Live streaming on YouTube

Going tomorrow for the first time, well excited 🙂

I’m in no way a car nut, but I really enjoyed it. Masses to see, much more than the hill climb. Speaking of which, I managed to blag a Ferrari vip ticket so spent the day in their bit outside the house right by the hill climb track, the food and wine was top notch (the company less so, Ferrari owners are incredibly boring). The Ferrari people knew I blagged the ticket and thought it was funny, so gave me a spare seat going up the climb. I never knew cars could go that fast!

Username checks out…

How is glorious Goodwood OP?

Anyone watching highlights on ITV? I’ve just watched some EV fan car go up the hill in what looked like fast forward! Never seen anything like it, off the line it was utterly bonkers! It was like a rocket. Max Chilton was driving and didn’t look like he blinked at all 🤣

Max Chilton drove the McMurtry Spéirling yesterday, today Mr Not Blinking was Alex Summers.

I know Sir David McMurtry quite well, he was at our wedding as a guest of my brother in law, who has worked for him for 40 years & my Father in law is in Rotary with him both 82 and never seem to stop.

Another McMurtry fact is the last episode of Sherlock Holmes with Benedict Cumberbatch was filmed at his very high tech house next to his main factory.

I also know Sir David, a very nice down to earth man and an incredible engineer. Great to see the car going so well, I was stood at Molecomb yesterday and the cornering speed was amazing. I fear tomorrow they won’t break the record just because of the driver switch.

GeForceJunky you are so right he never seems to stop thinking & sketching stuff, even on the napkin at our wedding. He has some nice classic Jaguars as well. Have you been on a tour of McMurtry towers 😉

Gotcha. So Max driving again tomorrow? I didn’t realise the IDR from a few years ago held the record, I thought it was still the Heidfeld one from donkeys ago as the IDR time was on Sat not Sun. Need to get back on Google and get my facts straight!

Either way I hope the McMurtry absolutely smashes it tomorrow.

I went yesterday (sat) with three 15\16yo lads. What an amazing day.
It was almost too much as every time you focused on an amazing car there was another three surrounding it catching your eye.
The Michelin super car paddock was jaw dropping. I had front row standing when all the cars started up and trundled off to the paddock for their hill climb session. Visceral moment.
Oh, the drift cars on the track. Just wow.

Went yesterday with my 9 year old, lucky enough to go vote a link with a manufacturer, so had access to one of the grandstands near the first and second corner, so to be honest spent most of the time watching stuff go up the hill!
Was an absolutely amazing day. As others day, you can’t do it all in one day, so decide what you want then just fill in the time with whatever the next incredible thing round the corner is. The Goodwood app is really good for sorting out a schedule, highly recommend downloading it.

That fan car was mind bendingly quick, utterly phenomenal. I think it was within a tenth of the record yesterday.

Highlights for me was my son declaring it as the best day ever, 90s Touring Cars, LM and GT racers, and the Zonda at full chat. I adore those things.

McMurtry car is bonkers it genuinely looked like its at x4 speed. on that hill

McMurtry car is bonkers it genuinely looked like its at x4 speed. on that hill

Dear god

I fear tomorrow they won’t break the record just because of the driver switch.

Pleased to say you feared unnecessarily. Utterly unbelievable machine and a sizeable dent in the record. 🙂

Back from a brilliant weekend. Interesting to hear that Wayne Rainey was using Shimano SPD’s to hold his feet in position. He even pulled a few wheelies! So much to see and do, was tiring but worth it. Even spoke to Dani Pedrosa for a while which was cool.

Ten fastest runs below, that mcmurty car and driver are nuts

Loving the Viper- proper Gran Turismo, sponsored by Playstation 2! Loving Pastrana’s GL too

I was there yesterday with my 10 year old son. What a great day out. Can’t think of anywhere where you can watch cars racing like that – hillclimb, rally, off road arena. Found a spot on the hill to watch all three at the same time, amazing

The speed of the electric cars is amazing but I find it hard to get excited about them in the same was as ICE cars. I’m going to be like one of the previous generation who misses steam power. The lack of drama is a thing for me, the noise from the older race cars is incredible. That McMurtry is tiny, in the flesh it’s much smaller than you might think. It’s obviously rapid but I wonder if the size means you can make the most of the narrow track

Thought there was more to see this year. The concours type stuff (and the RR and BMW i areas) wasn’t for me but everything else was ace. Paddocks are amazing, so’s the performance parking to be honest. More tool stands this year than last too, was nice for a browse, although show prices were generally no better than amazon. We were there over 12 hours in total (parking up car to driving out) and still didn’t do/see as much as we wanted

singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/goodwood-festival-of-speed-2/#post-12439666

Shame they didn’t put the actual quick lad in the McMurtry for the last run. I don’t know what downforce or power settings each were running through the weekend but Alex Summers jumped in it for a single run and made MC look like pretty ordinary.

I imagine they were seduced by the “ex-F1” mystique, or his dad’s money.

Just watched it back on ITV Hub, what an awesome event! I’m as big a fan of a fire-breathing V16 as the next person, but it doesn’t define motor racing for me – speed does, and that McMurtry is scary fast! Brilliant stuff, really enjoyed that. 🙂