After arriving safely at my Airbnb just outside Godalming, the kettle was promptly put into action and the laptop fired up. As Benjamin Franklin said: “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” Knowing I had just one day at Goodwood for this year's Festival of Speed meant I had to have a strong plan to make sure I could fit in as much as possible, and my Lord there a lot to fit in. 

A slight misdirection on the sat nav meant instead of heading to the press car park, I ended up joining the queue for the main car park on the south of the house - not ideal when you need to collect your press wristband from the car park to the north of the house. Seems like planning is all well and good except when you rely on modern tech instead of following your nose. Thankfully given that it was just before 7am, Goodwood traffic was quite kind and I still made it into the event while many of the day’s visitors were still enjoying their cornflakes and croissants. 

With sign on completed, I headed from the press centre through the paddocks as the festival began to wake up, as mechanics removed the protective covers and started the engines for the first time. 

In front of Goodwood House each year is one of the centrepieces of the Festival of Speed, the main feature sculpture. This year's theme was MG, and artist Gerry Judah had created a celebration of this iconic British marque which gave a nod to the Chinese owners of the brand with the latest Cyberster at one end of the red metal spar. It's not as impactful as some of the previous sculptures I have seen at the event, my personal favourite is still the 91 ft tubular Jaguar E-Type from 2011. 

The first item on the itinerary for me is always the Cartier Lawn outside Goodwood House for the Concours display. I like to do this while it’s still quiet and spend time appreciating the gathering of some rather special cars. This year had some especially interesting classes with celebrations of the Pagani Zonda and the Bugatti Type 57 along with commemorations of cars designed by the late Marcello Gandini. 

It was quite strange to see a stunning Bugatti 57S Atlantic which has a value of around £40 million just a few yards away from a Citroen BX 16V! Other classes would include Cultivating Classics: a celebration of tractors from brands like Porsche, Lamborghini and Renault. Jaw Droppers and Door Stoppers would further celebrate the work of Gandini specifically for Lamborghini with cars like the Diablo, Countach and Muira featured, and the Ethereal Excellence class would showcase examples of Rolls Royce’s iconic Silver Ghost.

The final class was perhaps not suited to the particularly grey skies that were over Goodwood on Friday morning and was entitled Sun Tan Motion – Jolly Good Beach Cars, with examples of the Volkswagen Beach Buggy, Fiat 500 Jolly and a very rare one-off Felber Ferrari: a Michelotto designed open top car based on the 365GTC/4. 

My time on the Cartier Lawn was disturbed as the cars in the Brooklands Paddock began to fire up and head for the assembly area to prepare for the first run of the day. This first run was a celebration of the main theme of the event ‘Horseless to Hybrid’ and would see cars from 1890 – 1960 take to the famous hill. I can never resist seeing these cars up close especially when Duncan Pittaway trundles past in the ‘Beast of Turin’ (a 1911 Fiat S76) and leaves it idling just near you. There is something mesmeric about watching the flames popping from the vents while listening to the deep thrumming of the engine. It’s a sight that still makes me smile as I write this article. 

With class 1 safely dispatched to the bottom of the hill, I headed to the courtyard for the BMW showcase which hosted examples of their current range along with a glimpse into the future, courtesy of the Vision Neue Klasse and Skytop Concept cars along with the very interesting i5 Flow Nostokana - the third concept to feature BMW’s colour changing technology.

The next port of call was Cathedral Paddock, usually home to rally cars and touring cars, however this year it would see a celebration of 20 years of Red Bull Racing. What an amazing display RBR had put on, with examples of cars from across the last 20 years being perfectly lined up along with memorabilia from the team and drivers. Although F1 is not really my thing it certainly made for an impressive sight, and I would return to this area later in the morning for the unveiling of the new RB17 Hypercar.