​Collection cars join Porsche 75th anniversary celebrations at Goodwood FOS

Goodwood Festival of Speed

The Goodwood Festival of Speed is a highlight of any motorsport calendar and is an event that we have been fortunate to be a part of for many years now. This year was a special one for us, with both the 75th anniversary of Porsche and the 100th anniversary of Le Mans at the centre of celebrations.

The 75th anniversary celebrations attracted one of the largest ever gatherings of significant Porsche race cars including 11 Le Mans winners and many other cars that worked towards these Le Mans wins. The Group C corner was represented by two 956s and four 962s.

The other two 962s were both ex-collection cars. The first being the FATurbo livery 962-011, the first of the factory supported Joest team cars and the last 962 to win a world championship round. The second was the Repsol liveried 962-163. This was the first time that the owner has properly driven this car, he was super happy and is looking forward to returning it to historic racing next season!

Henry enjoyed the Works Rothmans 962-004 for the weekend, recently returned to its 1986 Le Mans specification. This car was incredibly driven by 8 Le Mans winners in period so it is an honour to take the seat of so many racing greats.

Touring Car and Sports Car racing legend Anthony Reid took driving duties of the Skoal Bandit 956 for the weekend. Having had two Le Mans appearances in Porsche 962s including a 3rd place finish in 1990, we were sure that our 956 was in safe hands! Anthony was actually the last driver to win in a Porsche 962 in period. He raced in the All Japan Grand Touring Championship in 1994 earning a win and a 3rd place from the two races entered. It is amazing that a platform introduced in 1982 could be so competitive a whole 12 years later. Now almost 30 years after his last championship in a 962, Anthony still does a brilliant job behind the wheel.

Following the high speed demo runs, all of the Porsche 75th anniversary cars gathered in front of the famous Goodwood house and around this years Porsche inspired sculpture. There was an incredible display featuring dancing violinists on the famous balcony with fireworks and coloured smoke bombs above the house. Although the weather tried its best to put a damper on the celebrations, we came prepared with sets of intermediate tyres so that we could continue the fun in the wet.

The Saturday night driver’s ball was also an unforgettable experience; the dinner was followed by a firework display and showcase of highlights from the Festival of speed throughout the years from the first event 30 years ago. This celebration was followed by an electric performance on stage by ZZ Top combined with incredible displays from hot rods and stunt bikes supported by fireworks and flamethrowers…

Sunday brought some dry weather and Gun Hill Studios fitted some onboard cameras to catch the demo hill climb runs. We will have a video coming soon showing what the Goodwood Hill Climb looks like from the perspective of Anthony Reid in the Skoal Bandit Porsche 956.

And there the curtains close on another incredible Goodwood Festival of Speed weekend, we're already excited for next year. Special thanks to Katana Ltd for preparing the cars and ensuring all ran smoothly. Also a big thanks to Gunhill Studios for producing the stunning video and photo content shown on this page.

The lead up...