IN THIS FEATURE The perfect race meeting A catalogue of highs A flash back to pre-Goodwood days TT - Revival highlight

I've been to the British Grand Prix twice in the last few years. After the first of those visits I swore I'd never go again, but I broke my promise. Don't know why; it was the same deal both times, all the cars sounding the same, car numbers invisible, minimal overtaking, no idea what was going on. Pit access was cursory, corporatism ruled. And I was lucky enough to be a guest of a car manufacturer both times. Why the paying public puts up with it I have no idea.

It's enough to put you right off motor sport, but then you go to the Goodwood Revival meeting, the best historic race weekend on the calendar, and it all comes right again. I left this year's event, the fifth one I've been to, on a total high and infused with the sort of car enthusiasm I remember feeling when I got Jack Brabham's autograph in 1968 and photographed Graham Hill in the Brands Hatch paddock.

'60s fashion courtesy of Simon Worland and family, next to their souped-up Imp

Graham Hill is sadly gone, but Sir Jack is still very much around. He was the subject of a fine mid-Sunday tribute, driving his final Formula One car while others drove his past mounts be they Brabhams, Coopers, saloon racers or anything else. But that was just a small part of a weekend full of snatched highs and a past so alive it was the Technicolor present all over again.

The Revival is a time-warp, of course. Dress of the 1950s or 1960s is encouraged and most people, certainly those who venture into the infield, play the game. Bobbies on the beat swelter in their serge, tweed-suited gents huff and puff, ties are compulsory in the paddock if you're a chap (even the mechanics usually comply), ladies absolutely do not bare their midriffs. I wore my father's old sports jacket, an old school tie and some sensible shoes, and blended into the background perfectly.