I love Goodwood. I even enjoy the early morning start from London down the A3, over the South Downs in the DB2/4 to the rasp of the W.O. Bentley designed twin-cam, with no cyclists or horse riders or runners to worry about because they are all still in bed. And then into the infield of the circuit through the tunnel, to slide into place in the pit garage and meet up with the other Astons.
And today, we were blessed with great weather, which, like baby bear's porridge, was not too hot, and not too cold: in short, just right. This is important – twice over the last four years the event has had to be abandoned halfway through – once because of torrential rain, another time because it had become too scorchingly hot for the officials...
So, who have we got here today, all bright and eager? The Ever Ready Guy Staudt in the lovely white V8 Vantage Sportshift, with his lovely wife Huguette as pit crew (her fans will be disappointed to hear that she has not finished her book in French); Peter House in the V8 Vantage Rally GT4 – it was bust, and now is not – his mechanical wizards worked all the hours on the gearbox to get it ready; Mark Chandler in the Wolf in Sheep's clothing that is his 6 cylinder DB7 with the tyres fashioned out of millstones. And I had the Sheep in Wolf's clothing, the aforementioned trusty, smelly, scruffy DB2/4 Mk ll – this time, I am happy to say, sans misfire.
The AMOC is an invited club for the Brighton and Hove Motor Club's Figaty Spring Sprint, and it was as usual very well organised and run to a tight timetable – which it needs to be, with 110 cars entered.
I have written about this circuit before (see AM Quarterly Summer 2024 for a detailed description of a fast lap in a DB2/4) so I won't give you a corner-by-corner exposition of it. All you need to know is that it is fast, flowing and fabulous. A real power circuit: ideal for big grunty V8s and things with superchargers and good brakes. Which is a pity as far as I am concerned since my old thing not a V8, has no supercharger, and to be frank, leaves a bit to be desired in the power and braking departments.
Never mind: the key thing is to get out there, take a Brave Pill and, as motor sport types seem always to say, “to have some fun”. Preferably without pranging the kite. And speaking of kites, once again we were treated to Spitfires taking off and landing, buzzing the circuit which, as everyone knows, was a WW2 fighter station, and generally roaring about overhead. It just doesn't get any better.
Back to business. Unlike Mallory Park, where Anne Reed, our target setter from AMOC HQ, had no data to go on, here there are loads. These are the target times that she had come up with: Guy – 101.22, Peter 102.5, Mark 103.98 - and me 118.47.
After practice and the 1st timed run, we all retired to The Aerodrome Cafe and had a really good lunch – not ridiculously expensive – and wondered how we could go faster. The sun came out, and the Spitfires whizzed about even more. Nice.
But then it it was back to the action. Much straightening of shoulders and hardening of eyes before buckling up for the last two timed runs – for in our minds, these were the ones that would count, where we would manage that perfect lap, a perfect start followed by braking just late enough to carry the maximum amount of speed through each corner without messing the whole thing up or falling off. Or worse.
Here are the results.
You can see from this that Guy was generally steady: tried something new in Run 2 which did not work, and then tried something else in Run 3, which did. He was quickest, reducing the 2019 Gaydon Standard cars Class Record by 4.96 seconds. Peter in the Vantage GT4 did a bit of cross-country in practice, then settled, but could not quite break his target, but still came in second. Mark (he of the 100 year old tyres) found that the harder he pushed, the less the front ones gripped (better get some new ones, Mark!), and meanwhile, I was Mister Dull and Steady, each time chipping away at my target time, and finally ending up a whole quarter of a second faster than my target time, which unbeknown to me, was a new Felltham Standard cars Class Record.....but still plumb last.
I have added the “Overall” number for interest. This was where we were placed over the entire field of 110 cars including a lot of very quick single seaters. In spite of the DB2/4 being one of the oldest cars there, it managed to beat 10 much newer and more modern things, including four Toyotas, a Fiat Panda pick-up, and a Honda Acclaim, and was only just pipped by a very racy looking Volvo Amazon. So there.
Then it was time to pack up and say our good-byes; for Guy and Huguette to fly back to Luxembourg, for Peter to head back to Ripley (it took him over seven hours on the way down) and for Mark to go back to his donkeys in deepest darkest South West Wales near Traeth Pentywyn (Pendine Sands to you), and for me to trundle back to The Smoke.
What a lovely day.
Nigel Grice
Photographs from the day can be seen in the
2025 Goodwood Sprint Photo Album.