IF YOU’VE BEEN fortunate enough to attend the Goodwood Festival of Speed, you’ll know the magic of that event doesn’t really lay in watching the cars blaze up the hill. The truly gleeful part about Goodwood, and the thing that blows the minds of first-time visitors, is wandering through the paddock. There you’re just as likely to trip over a Singer 911, or happen upon 12 McLaren F1s parked casually on the lawn, as you are to accidentally graze shoulders with Derek Bell as he slides into a Porsche 917 Longtail.
The proximity and trust afforded at Goodwood feels alarming at first, especially for an Australian, as we’re usually barricaded from such precious things by velvet ropes and self-important people in high-vis vests. But at Goodwood you could actually climb inside a priceless Le Mans winner if you really wanted to. The thing is, you don’t, because you can get close enough to touch, smell and hear the cars without taking
