In photos: Fast cars and fancy parties at Goodwood Festival of Speed

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MATT BUBBERS

Goodwood, england

Special to The Globe and Mail

Published July 23, 2015

Charles Gordon-Lennox, Earl of March and Kinrara - Lord March to his acquaintances - is the lucky descendant of King Charles II (1630-1685) and his French mistress Louise de Keroualle. This, to make a long story short, is how the good Lord came to run the 12,000-acre Goodwood Estate like a theme park for all things English. Picture Disneyland, keep the castle, but replace the roller-coasters and gift shops with grass and forests, stables, a sculpture garden, golf course, race track, kennel, and an aerodrome. Lord March took over his family's estate in 1994, and wasted no time devoting it to his favourite pastime. He reopened the Goodwood Motor Circuit in 1998, after founding the annual Goodwood Festival of Speed in 1993. Women wear summer dresses, sandals and big hats and pink pumps while sipping Pimm's cups. Despite the heat, some men are in three-piece suits. More than a few bow ties are spotted, and there is at least one ascot. There are children, too, dressed like miniature versions of their adults. Gin and tonic seems the most appropriate thing to drink at 11:30 a.m. The Goodwood Festival of Speed is ostensibly a hill-climb, a timed race up Lord March's driveway. It is a chance for classic car collectors and supercar makers to present their cars righteously: at full-speed. And over the past couple decades has turned into the de facto British motor show.

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