Are these the 9 best Land Rover Goodwood moments?
Land Rover, which is celebrating its 70th birthday today, and Goodwood have plenty of history together. Old Land Rovers have been caked with mud and secret new ones covered in camouflage. They have blasted up the hill at 100mph and crawled through the Sussex undergrowth at 2mph. They have driven on two wheels, done donuts and had an off-road race with a Spitfire.
Classic Land Rovers have changed hands at the Bonhams auctions, and battered old ones been reborn shiny and new by Land Rover Classic. Defenders have shown people how not to get stuck in the Sussex mud while Discoverys have rescued cars from car parks and transported families over impassable estate tracks. The latest models have been test driven up the hill at the Moving Motor Show, and they have delighted kids of all ages at the Land Rover Off-Road Experience at the Festival of Speed.
Land Rovers have even been stuck 100ft in the air on a massive steel sculpture in front of the house, while Members’ Meeting and Revival would not be the same without the sky-blue heritage Defender tow trucks of Everyman's Garage.
Here are our nine favourite Land Rover moments – as Goodwood’s birthday tribute to a legend…
Stunt driver Terry Grant gets a Monster Range Rover up on two wheels at the 2017 Festival of Speed. Oh, and there are donuts as well. A crowd-pleaser? Just a bit.
It was 2014 at the Festival of Speed when what was then the fastest, most powerful Land Rover ever was let out of its box. It was the debut of the Range Rover Sport SVR, complete with 550hp and still wearing its disguise after hot laps at the Nurbürgring. It sounded like nothing else….
When Land Rover was featured marque at the 2008 Festival of Speed, the Central Feature in front of the house was suitably Land Rover tough. Gerry Judah’s imposing steel interpretation of a mountainside saw four silver Land Rovers mounted to its sides at unbelievable angles. 120 tonnes of steel went into the structure, which was 34m (111ft) high.
The Goodwood Off-Road Experience wouldn’t be complete without its Land Rovers. These are not shiny new ones either, but heritage models full of character that are not afraid to get down and dirty. Which makes them among the very coolest cars at Goodwood.
An off-road race down Goodwood’s grass runway between the Range Rover Sport and the Supermarine Spitfire that lives here is such an intrinsically Goodwood thing it just had to be done.
When Defender production came to an end the Goodwood Revival of 2015 marked the occasion with a tribute to the 4x4 icon on the Motor Circuit. Forty-eight of the earliest, most historically significant and best-loved Land Rovers built up to 1966 (it was Revival remember) made it a farewell to remember. The parade was led by a replica of the very first 1947 centre steer prototype, closely followed by the famous No1 ‘HUE’ and then a procession of everything from Winston Churchill’s military Land Rover, fire engines, amphibians and Dormobile conversions to a circus Land Rover, apparently driven, by an elephant.
Festival of Speed visitors are used to seeing the newest cars first and that was certainly true in 2017 when they could get up close and personal to the new Range Rover Velar… and then watch as this svelte machine powered up the hill for its dynamic debut appearance. They liked what they saw, too.
The Land Rover Off-Road Experience has long been one of the Festival of Speed’s most popular attractions. The course gets bigger, better and even more devilishly difficult looking each year. Despite that everyone is welcome to have a go at taking the latest models around it.
The tow trucks at historic racing events should be… historic shouldn’t they? At Goodwood Members’ Meeting and Revival, they are, courtesy of Everyman's Garage and its fleet of blue heritage Land Rovers. They're not there just to look pretty either. Like all old Landies, these have to earn their living.
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