FAMILY JEWEL
The grounds around Goodwood House look disconcertingly different with all Festival of Speed traces removed. Empty, rolling grassland, stately trees, an uninterrupted view of the house, a realisation that that’s where the roads go: now we can see them properly.
It’s reality, but simultaneously surreal. The Duke of Richmond – ‘Just call me Charles’ – is in reflective mood as we burble past the famous flint wall on the famous hill. The burbling is emanating from the exhaust pipe of a dark blue sports tourer, quite compact and a car with which the Duke has a significant family affinity. It’s a 1935 Lancia Augusta March Special.
While recent global events caused a hiatus in the annual running of the Festival of Speed, hillclimb and all, the Festival has been a fixture since 1993. But the hillclimb itself is a much older institution, first run on 23 May 1936.
That inaugural event was both organised and won by Freddie March, grandfather of the present Duke. Freddie was driving a Lancia Augusta with an open sports tourer body of his own design, as marketed by his dealership in London’s Berkeley Square, Kevill-Davies and March. It was one of several March body designs,
