Lord March and his merry men of the Goodwood motorsport creative committee have settled on a theme for the 2016 Festival Of Speed. “Full Throttle – The Endless Pursuit of Power” will summarize next year’s event.
Goodwood representative Gary Axon writes that the “theme will be vividly brought to life at next summer’s Festival of Speed (23-26 June 2016) through an abundance of brute power, including Can-Am racers, 1980s-era turbo Grand Prix cars, Group B rally weapons, early Land Speed Record machines and wild drag racers, where power is thrust to the fore, above all else.”
AutoExpress points out that the 2016 running of the Goodwood Festival Of Speed will coincide with quite a few anniversaries; the “100th running of the Indianapolis 500, the 50th anniversary of the Can-Am Series, the 40th anniversary of James Hunt’s F1 World Championship, and the 50th anniversary of Sir Jack Brabham winning an F1 World Championship in a car bearing his own name.”
We always see an interesting spectrum of old, new, fast, and incredibly fast cars at Goodwood. Sounds like “the endless pursuit of power” year will focus on the latter.
But what does the theme really mean to the casual spectator? I mean, maybe not much. You’re going to see a diverse collection of cars and some very interesting personalities behind them at any Goodwood event.
To put “themes” in perspective, AutoExpress to was kind enough to recap what they’ve run with at Goodwood in the last decade:
2006 – Racing for Glory – a Century of Grands Prix
2007 – Spark of Genius – Breaking Records, Pushing Boundaries
2008 – Hawthorn to Hamilton – Britain’s Love Affair with World Motor Sport
2009 – True Grit – Epic Feats of Endurance
2010 – Viva Veloce! - The Passion for Speed
2011 – Racing Revolutions – Quantum Leaps that shaped Motor Sport
2012 – Young Guns – Born to Win
2013 – Best of the First 20 Years of the Festival of Speed
2014 – Addicted to Winning – The Unbeatable Champions of Motor Sport
2015 – Flat-out and Fearless – Racing on the Edge
2016 – Full Throttle – The Endless Pursuit of Power
Whatever you want to call it, I’m stoked to see high-horsepower cars make a mess of Lord March’s lawn again.
Image via Goodwood Festival Of Speed; a 1905 Darracq at the 2015 event.
Contact the author at andrew@jalopnik.com.