GT1 perfection into the dusk at Goodwood

The sights, sounds and smells of these machines lining up on the grid and taking on the Goodwood Motor Circuit at speed as the sun went down, were enough to give a 20-30 something car enthusiast a quarter-life crisis, leaving us hankering for simpler days. With the team right on the pit exit, they also left some of us wishing we’d brought earplugs. That loud…

All of a sudden, we were transported back to the Playstation 2, peak Top Gear era of cars, when the machinery on track was pretty much widened, bewinged versions of the cars of our dreams. The by-and-large racing green cohort of Aston Martins was broken up only by the black and blue car and of course, the Gulf car, though not even lapses in uniform could shake what was a united British front. 

The trio of Ferrari 550s were positively luminous in their bright red hue by comparison, with two of them regularly taking on the start-finish straight in tandem. The Corvette ranks were fortified by two C5Rs and a C6 GT1, bellowing out some truly gut-rippling V8 thunder to fill the lower frequencies left alone by the screaming V12s. The outliers? The Saleen and Marcos in silver and orange, and the trio of Vipers in their multi-coloured privateer presentation, with roaring V8s and thunderous V10s making for damn sure that our ears will be ringing as we try to get to sleep tonight. 

A key difference between running the cars here at Goodwood versus their period racing appearances? The cars were free to move, without the worry of a charging Audi R8 LMP1 car to move out of the way of. All in all? A deliciously Gran Turismo 4 meets Forza Motorsport 2 meets early-onset hearing loss line-up tackles Goodwood in waning light, giving us a snapshot of a golden era of endurance racing. Can we go back? For these 20 minutes or so, we had no need. Let’s do it all again tomorrow.

The 80^th Members’ Meeting presented by Audrain Motorsport is live now! You can watch every second of the action right here on GRR.

Photography by Pete Summers, Toby Whales and Joe Harding.