10 things to watch at Goodwood’s Members’ Meeting
1 Lotus genius across the board
Colin Chapman’s Lotus marque was the most successful across Goodwood’s 71 contemporary era Members’ Meetings, from 1949-66. ACBC’s feisty lightweights carried drivers to 129 victories. Closest rival MG scored 45, 17 before Chapman opened his account in a MkVI in July 1953.
For Lotus fanatics, this year’s MM features six streamlined Elevens plus a 17 and two rear-engined 19s in the Robert Brooks Trophy race alone. Scottish pro Andrew Kirkaldy holds the trump card in Sandy Watson’s Eleven, the agility of which coupled with his apex speeds should be sufficient to outrun the opposition. Danish veteran Otto Reedtz-Thott and countryman Jakob Holstein exercise the two-litre Climax FPF-powered 19s.
Elan 26Rs will be outgunned, but not outhandled, in the Graham Hill Trophy, although Nicks Fennell and Padmore (the latter sharing Robin Ellis’s Shapecraft coupe) are out to claim the scalps of larger-engined cars.
Japan’s Katsu Kubota drives his Ford V8-engined Type 30 in the Surtees Trophy prototype showpiece. Andrew Thorpe, Werner Pircher and rapid Italian Enrico Spaggiari uphold Lotus honour in the 1000cc F3 set, named for period MM 7 to 41 winner Derek Bell.
