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| Thunderous Spitfire and Mustang take off |
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This is not going to be a race-by-race report. Instead it's just a catalogue of those snatched highs, glimpses of why this event is such a joy.
Arrive in the pre-1966 car park, wander among the greatest real-world classic car show anywhere. Every car is used and enjoyed, be it a customised VW camper van, an immaculate Bizzarrini A3C, a handsome Lancia Aurelia, a cheeky MG Midget.
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| Madgwick corner provided plenty of thrills |
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Watch the first race, the Goodwood Trophy, wince at an ERA R4D brake too late, hit the chicane wall and scatter geraniums everywhere. It's bent but it will mend. Good grief, those old ERAs are fast nowadays.
Wander around the paddock, find the man behind the new Connaught project, Tim Bishop, and chew the fat over the race he's just had in his fabulous-sounding Sauter Formula Junior with its DKW two-stroke engine. Then find 1960s Rootes rally star Rosemary Smith who's about to do the first part of the St Mary's Trophy saloon race in a Sunbeam Rapier. 'It's almost standard,' she says, 'so we'll be near the back. But it'll be fun.'
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| Who do you think you are kidding Mr Hitler... |
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Ah, that saloon race. This is the one for big-name racers, and Lord March's take on the cars' technical regulations is wonderfully loose to encourage some eclectic machinery. If it will please the crowd, then run it. So Ivan Dutton has created an impossibly fast 1954 Alvis Grey Lady in which Gerry Marshall briefly leads before being beaten by a Jaguar. Third place goes to Tony Jardine in a tiny Austin A35, narrowly pipping Tony Dron's Ford Zodiac. 'The A35's engine blew up yesterday in practice,' says Dron, ' and the new one they put in seems suspiciously quick.' Other oddities? A Peugeot 203 (Patrick Tambay), a BMW 502 V8 (Marc Surer), a Lincoln Cosmopolitan from the Carrera Panamericana (Desiré Wilson) and a squad of lovely Alfas. And a fantastically fast Austin A105 Westminster and a Tatra. Really.
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