The 70th Anniversary of Porsche was celebrated at the 2018 Goodwood Festival of Speed, held July 12-15 at the Goodwood Hill Climb in England. With the Festival and Porsche both celebrating anniversaries, there could be only one outcome: an unforgettable moment for all motorsport fans. More than 200,000 spectators couldn’t miss the 21 vehicles from the Porsche Museum that were present on site.
It was pure coincidence that Goodwood’s silver anniversary coincided with the 70th birthday of the Porsche brand – but it was no coincidence that the British were particularly eager to celebrate the German sports car manufacturer.It was clear from the moment you first laid eyes on the sculpture in front of Goodwood House, which is redesigned each year to honour a celebrated marque. The sculpture was created by artist and designer Gerry Judah, who for almost 21 years has been responsible for the breath-taking constructions in the centre of the circular gravel driveway of the Duke’s residence. This year, Judah devised a 52-metre-high structure designed to look like a firework, frozen in the air. The ‘stem’ measures just twelve centimetres in diameter, and splits into seven tapering ‘branches’. Six of the branches feature fully functional icons from the history of Porsche: an original 356 Coupe, a 911, a 917, an LMP-model, as well as the 918 Spyder and the 1986 959 Paris Dakar from the Porsche Museum.
Porsche presented an impressive collection of vehicles at the 2018 Goodwood Festival of Speed — both in the paddock and on the track. In addition to the two examples high above Goodwood House, the museum brought along another 19 vehicles — including the 961 from 1986, the racing version of the 959 and the first all-wheel-drive Porsche vehicle entered in Le Mans, as well as the 962 C, the winning car from Le Mans 1987. Nicknamed the ‘Moby Dick’, the 935/78 — the 845-hp 911 derivative from 1978 that was the first to feature water-cooled cylinder heads — took part in the hill climb on the nobleman’s estate, as did the 911 ‘Paris Dakar’ from 1984, which took overall victory at what was at the time the hardest rally in the world.
“The ‘Festival of Speed’ is the epicentre of motorsport fandom”, said Alexander Klein, Manager of Vehicle Management at the Porsche Museum. “All of our cars carry motorsport genes. So it is both a duty and an honour to be allowed to present them here. The level of the drivers and of the cars is very high. In this respect, Porsche and Goodwood are perfectly suited to each other — sportiness and quality meet here on equal footing.”
In addition to main report and follow-up gallery, Sports Car Digest also brings the following Porsche-focused images from the 25th annual Festival of Speed.
2018 Goodwood Festival of Speed – Porsche Photo Gallery (photos: Porsche AG)
The unauthorized use and/or duplication of any editorial or photographic content from sportscardigest.com without express and written permission from the publisher is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to sportscardigest.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
