The world’s greatest car show isn’t what or where you think. It’s quietly taking place yearly at a classic car racing event in the UK amongst the roar of thumping engines a short walk over a bridge away.
As Monterey Car Week morphed into a spectator sport, Goodwood Revival has risen to become more than just classic car racing. A quiet side show of Goodwood Revival is the event’s parking lot, which is now the world’s best car show, and this year it was a mud pit to boot.
In the words of my friend and automotive journalist Kristopher Clewell, these people “took the car.” At the Goodwood Revival parking lot spectators and race car owners alike brought some of the wildest, rarest, and most expensive (or flat-out obscure) metal and just parked it in a grass field at the event. Even in the pouring rain, which turned it all to mud.
This is a place where mud-covered Cobras as sitting next to rare Ferraris, classic Bentleys, Land Rover Defenders, Aston Martins of all vintages, and more.
But it’s not just rare, expensive, or even classic euro metal. It’s an eclectic mix of vehicles from around the globe.
This year a white Honda Turbo II hatchback was sitting next to a green VW Type 2 Transporter pickup with white “Porsche” lettering down the side and a tan canvas bed topper. A classic Mini sat behind them.
There were also two classic Nissan 260 Zs—one a mustard color and another teal; the latter was parked next to a lovely blue Jaguar.
There are things you expect to see, like Ferrari 308 GTBs, or random Aston Martins, but a Bentley Blue Train is a whole different league of rare. Then, just before leaving the parking lot an Auto Union Horch sedan stopped me in my tracks. I’ve never seen one of these classic behemoths in real life, and its presence is nothing short of a Bentley from the era. There was also a DKW Auto Union van painted in baby blue sitting across from the Auto Union Horch sedan, as if to say, “hey bud, we are related and rare.”
There’s random American vehicles that somehow were brought here at some point, and each stands out in the sea of classic Euro metal screaming, “one of these things is not like the other.” A Ford F-100 with solid patina sat next to a Jaguar and VW Bus. A super clean Ford LTD wagon with classic green paint with the fake wood we all saw in movies was parked next to a classic Mercedes SL. Then there was the classic Thunderbird, which was as long as multiple Minis and Alfas parked amongst it. The classic white Cadillac with its timeless tailfins stood out parked between the much smaller MGs it was sandwiched between.
The cars are incredible, but the owners are the nicest people. Enthusiasts themselves, most are happy to chat about their vehicle and its history. A woman getting out of a blue Aston Martin told me her shy husband and her had owned their gorgeous car with a gray interior for 50 years. A lovely gentlemen and his wife pulled into the field in a Bentley. The gentleman said the Bentley is from 1925, and quickly noted, “it’s 100 years and two months old.” The two months part showed this man’s pride in his Bentley’s age and history. He explained that his wife and him have taken the car around the globe on Bentley owner’s club drives including a multi-state journey in the U.S., amongst other places. “It’s not perfectly shiny,” he noted with a chuckle, but that’s because he uses it. His wife was snapping the canvas cockpit cover onto the car as he proudly told tales of the classic in his three-piece gray suit.
Enthusiasts looking to walk amongst shiny, perfect, thoroughly detailed classic cars, or modern metal, will not aghast at the fact these owners are using their vehicles.
But as I watched a classic Aston Martin drive through the muddy grassy splishing and splashing as its narrow tires spun, something inside me remembered that at some level these are machines that are made to be driven. And at the Goodwood Revival, that’s exactly what owners are doing.
In years it’s not raining some people sit by their cars and have a picnic, even out of the back of old Rolls-Royces. Families are hanging out and kids are laughing as innocent kids without a worry should.
Of course sometimes old cars act like old cars, and they are temperamental. Seeing people roll up their sleeves and wrenching on the cars is par for the course.
It’s more than a car show; it’s also partially a used car sales lot. Multiple cars randomly parked throughout the lot have for sale signs on them, some with full build sheets like the Metallic Blue 1999 Bentley Turbo R with a St. James Red interior with only 43,000 miles on it. The owner was seeking £36,500 (which is about $49,634) or offers.
This ad hoc parking lot car show comes in addition to racing, fantastic food, and one of the best throwback period-correct events I’ve ever attended.
Come to Goodwood Revival for the racing and travel back in time with the cosplay, but absolutely do not miss taking a long stroll through the parking lot. It’s now become the world’s absolute best car show in terms of rare classic metal actually being used.
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As Director of Content and Product, Joel draws on over 15 years of newsroom experience and inability to actually stop working to help ensure The Drive shapes the future of automotive media.
