TheTravellingGinga

I’ve written before about how I think Goodwood puts on some of the best motorsport events around.  Having recently attended the 83rd Members meeting, I’m inclined to not change my mind. Members meetings are run differently to other Goodwood motorsport events in that, as the name implies, they are open only to members of the Goodwood Road Race Club (GRRC) and their guests, so there is a slightly more ‘exclusive’ feel to the day.  You might think this would make it feel like a stuffy boys club event, but you couldn’t be further from the truth with that. The history of Members Meeting go back to 1948 when the 9th Duke of Richmond opened the circuit and held the first in a series of meetings for members of the British Automobile Racing Club (BARC). There were 71 race meetings, the last one being in July 1966, after which motor racing at Goodwood ceased. The Members Meeting was revived in 2014 in response to demand from Members of the Goodwood Road Racing Club. Members meetin...

Something I’ve started to notice as I travel around the roads of the UK in my car, on my bike, running or walking. What has happened to car design?  Car designers seem to have given up, downed tools almost.   Put their sketch pads down and stopped ordering any more clay to make nice models of their designs.   Gone are the days it seems where you could look at a car and know what it was, the make and more than likely the model.   Where manufacturers went to great lengths to distinguish their brands and its models through unique design and features. Instead, as we en enter the dawn of the electric/hybrid era, cars just seem to have become so very dull and bland and more than ever all look very similar, to the point where you struggle to make out what it is you are looking at…..is that a Jaecoo, or a BYD, maybe its an OMADA, no surely its a Chery…..no its a Leapmotor.  Its as if the design department  has had its budget stopped, so they’ve packed up and left ...

I’ve loved cars for as long as I can remember.  As a kid walking along the road I’d be trying to guess what car was coming behind me based on the noise of the engine.  I’d get some right but my ear wasn’t really that good. But you could, with practice, get enough right to feel quite chuffed with yourself.  My Dad had company cars with his job so I got to experience ‘new car day’ more than most of my mates at the time.  I devoured car magazines at any opportunity. Oddly I was never a huge fan of car shows but would attend some with friends and even had my own car on display at some shows.  I always felt out of place at these events as the level of knowledge of some owners was akin to knowing the Haynes manual for their car word for word.  I just loved cars and driving them. As I’ve got older I’ve become more particular about where I spend my time and money.  One place that gets plenty of both is Goodwood.  Whether that be the Festival of Speed (FOS...