Lancia recreation was one of the stars of the Bonham's Auction.
Story and photos by Jonathan Sharp
The Four Days of the Goodwood Festival of Speed June 11-14 2013
The Goodwood Festival of Speed has become a four day affair. In addition, this year was the 20th Anniversary of the Festival of Speed and all of the stops were pulled to celebrate.
Thursday is the Moving Motor Show day, a new style of motor show where if you are lucky and your chosen manufacturer thinks you are a genuine customer, one is allowed to drive a test course around the Goodwood Estate including the hill climb course. The number of chosen is large and getting larger.
The press center was sponsored this year by Maserati who are launching the Quarttroporte (MK6 ?)and the smaller 4 door Ghibli. Talking of launches, in the Alfa Romeo pavilion taking center stage was the production model 4C which was on display with a T33 Stradale which was stealing the 4Cs thunder.
The T33 stole the thunder at the Alfa 8C introduction.
At the Bonhams auction, the star was of course the ex-Fangio Mercedes-Benz W196. Where else would you see the star lot displayed with the Mercedes streamlined single car transporter complete with ramps rolled out as if the W196 had just rolled off the back.
Maserati 300S was another star of the Auction.
Other star lots included the ex-Bill Shepherd Maserati 300S, chassis 3053, the Alfa Romeo 8C 1934 2300 owned by the third Viscount Ridley, and a Lancia Aurelia B20GT with aluminum bodywork by Da Corsa. This Aurelia Chassis 1082 was built by Luciano Basso, the Lancia Museum’s official restorer. Seven examples were made in period by Lancia but alas none exist as they were broken up by Lancia when their D50 GP cars were handed over to Enzo Ferrari.
Friday was the second day at Goodwood and the first official day of the 20th Anniversary Festival of Speed. I am a huge fan of Land Speed record cars so I was pleased to find the most amazing line up of LSR cars. Now Goodwood being Goodwood, they are not simply parked on the grass — oh no, far too easy. They were displayed on a replica of Daytona Beach complete with several tons of sand, palm trees and sea weed which makes the place smell of the sea. All that is missing is the sea.
Cambell's 1935 Bluebird complete with sand. Next year the salt from Bonneville...
Cambell’s Bristol Proteus-powered CN7 broke the LSR record in 1964 at Lake Eyre in Australia with a speed of 403.13. Perhaps the star of the show was Sir Malcolm’s Rolls-Royce powered Blue Bird which broke the record firstly on Daytona Beach on March the 7th 1935, at a speed of 276.88 mph, and on the Bonneville salt flats on September 3rd 1935, hitting 301.129 mph.
The Seagrave Golden Arrow was also displayed on the sand.
Sir Henry Seagrave’s two cars were also there. His 1000 HP Sunbeam did 203.79 mph and the famous Golden Arrow which broke the record on its second run with an average speed of 231.44 mph. Of particular interest to VeloceToday readers was Gas Turbine Renault Etoile Filante. This car set a record for turbine powered cars in 1956 at Bonneville with a speed of 191 mph. (Read the story).
The Renault Turbine did over 190 mph in 1956, but on the salt at Bonneville.
Lurking in the paddock was Babs, Parry Thomas’s LSR car which ultimately claimed his life and was buried in the sand on Pendine Beach in Wales until it was rediscovered and disinterred by Owen Win Owen. Babs is being driven up the hill each day by Geraint Owen’s son. In the next stall to Babs was the Fiat Centro Storico’s Mefistofele’s as driven by Sir Ernest Eldridge to a record average of 145.89 mph in Arpajon France on the 12th July 1924. This was the last time that the LSR was broken on a public road.
Saturday, in front of the Stable Yard one found the Cartier Style Et Luxe display. Highlights among the 50 or so cars on display included in the Art of Elegance class was the Henri Binder Coupe De Ville Bugatti Type 41 Royale, a 1908 Rolls Royce 40/50 HP Silver Ghost and a 1933 Renault Reinastella.
Miguel Gonzalez’s 1938 Bugatti Type 57 S Atlantic.
The Streamlined Sophistication class included a Lancia Astura Pinin Farina Cabriolet, Miguel Gonzalez’s 1938 Bugatti Type 57 S Atlantic, Peter Mullins Delage D8 120 Cabriolet and the Phantom Corsair, Rusty Heinz’s (of the 57 varieties) jaw-dropping , sinister black beauty of 1938.
Ferrari 250 GT Speciale chassis 0403 with Hugh James Bizarrini 5300 Stradale,
In the Coupe De Grace class was a 1953 Fiat Otto Vu with Zagato Coachwork, the 1954 Alfa Romeo 1900 Sportiva, and a Jaguar XK120 with Ghia Supersonic coachwork. From the Museo Dell’Automobile Di Torino the 1954 Fiat Turbina and John Collins gorgeous Ferrari 250 GT Speciale.
The OSI Silver Fox.
In the Show Stoppers class, Corrado Lopresto’s 1978 Lancia Sibilo and the 1967 OSI Silver Fox. In the Al Fresco Finesse class JD Classic’s Lancia Aurelia B24S Spyder which was ultimately was judged the winner with the 250GT Speciale taking second place.
Rare appearance of the Fiat Turbine record car.
All these great cars displayed in a parkland setting with various jazz bands playing on.
Sunday. Boy what a weekend, very long but very happy days. Where does one start to sum up the 20th Anniversary Festival of Speed…very very hot weather, stunning cars, great drivers.
Spazzaneve (snow shovel Ferrari 312B3S. Maurio Forgheri devised this radical idea but it was only used in testing.
On the hill on Sunday were Ferraris, including the 312PB, 512S Nart, 712 Cam Am, the ex-Rob Walker 250 SWB Registration 7 SPA, Nick Mason’s 250 GTO, Grant Piston Rings 375 Indianapolis car, 312 B3 (the snow shovel), Jean Francois Decaux’s 1968F1 312, with the white bunch of banana exhaust sitting on top of the engine.
The Silver Arrows of the 1930s are always totally impressive. At 8AM Sunday morning, in the gangway between the shelters, the Auto Union V16 C Type and the Mercedes W154 were being warmed up, the crowd providing a cordon around the cars.
Mercedes-Benz 154 Three liter, 4 cam V12, 483 bhp. Driven by Rudolf Caracciola.
The only way they could get any closer would be to sit in them and if you asked!.
This year we even had 3 Dragsters, Pure Hell and Rat Trap both Fuel Altered class cars and the Marshall Funny Car all 8000HP tire smoking inch of it. At times the air was thick with tire smoke following their respective burn outs.
The 1957 German GP winning Maserati 250F.
Late Sunday afternoon the RAF Red Arrows Aerobatic display team performed a full display to the appreciative crowd. The 9 Red Hawk jets snuck up on everybody by arriving from behind Goodwood House at about 400 mph. Now that’s a Festival of Speed!
1988 Peugeot 405T16GR Pikes Peak.
Fresh from smashing the course record at this years Pikes Pike Hill climb Sebastion Loebs 208 T16 took to the hill at various times over the weekend. Driven by Peugeot test driver Gregory Gilvert the combination took joint fastest time of the day, shared with Nick Heidfield in the Lola Toyota B12/60 2012 LMP1 Le Mans car.
Current WRC rally cars also play an important part. They also have their own forest rally stage designed by Hannu Mikkola. Citroen DS3 WRC driven by Mikko Hirvonen enjoys doing a doughnut, as does the crowd.
Barney Oldfield's Golden Submarine recreation.
Alpine Renault A310, Built in 1977 and entered by Collection Renault, the car was driven over the weekend by Jean Ragnotti, Michel Leclere and Julien Piquet. Guy Frequelin took the 1977 French Rally Championship in this car. Click for full story.
Thomas Bscher's 1933 3.3 Liter Bugatti Type 59.
In 1978 driven by Jean- Pierre Jaussaud and Didier Pironi this car gave Renault its first and only Le Mans victory. six laps clear of the second place Porsche.
Pete, thanks for your great Good wood report!
Wow! Beautiful photo set! I love that Golden Submarine and the Type 57 Atlantic! Awesome. Someday, I will get to Goodwood.
The Lancia Aurelia B20-1082 auctioned is a 1st series car and the body a recreation of one of the Lancia 2nd series works cars of 1952, and was not, I think, one of 3 replica cars made in the early 1980s in Torino also by Luciano Basso with Guido Rosani.
The “Da Corsa” phrase is not a coachbuilder, but the term used for the 1952 works, racing cars with a body quite different from the standard 2nd Series B20s.
These distinctive cars were chassis B20-1505, 1506, 1507, 1508, 1509, 1510 and 1511.
1505 was badly damaged in Mexico by Bonetto and 1510 was destroyed in June 1952 by Faglioli whilst practising at Monte Carlo and he died about 3 weeks later from his injuries. All the others were destroyed by the factory and Rosani published the Lancia C. memos from January 1953 showing this in his excellent book “D24 e le Lancia Sport” (1991). Rosani says that they were definitely all scrapped by the end of the 1954 season.
Ammendola’s car was I think B20-1508, registered TO-129666 in 1952.
B20-1082 is a nostalgic recreation of a 2nd series “Da Corsa” car on an original 1st series platform made in 1951. There a quite a few such B20 recreations around now and not all of them have very honest details attached to them!
500 1st series were made, and I guess at least 45 are known to have survived in various states.
731 2nd series were made, and I guess at least 75 may have survived.
Originally all these cars were right-hand drive, as left-hand B20s did not come until 1955 with the 4th Series.