Don’t you know Goodwood? Then something went wrong in your upbringing. The Goodwood Festival of Speed has been an annual pilgrimage site on Lord March’s driveway since 1993 that should definitely be on your bucket list. It’s to car enthusiasts what Burning Man is to festival-goers, but with more clothes. And as always, a brand will be highlighted in a big way this year with a work of art in the garden along the track. This time we see a huge BMW sculpture at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.
The driveway of the Goodwood Estate in England is so long (1.86 kilometers) that you can easily hold a hill-climbing race; and that’s exactly what happens every year. You really see everything passing by, from rare classics to brand new supercars. But there is also a lot to see off the track, such as this bizarre building. Here are five things you’re bound to like to know.
01. The BMW sculpture on Goodwood is quite pricey
How much do you think it would cost to hang five cars in the air on some kind of hefty cocktail sticks for a wild weekend? Well, rumor has it that BMW had to shell out a cool £1 million (about 1.17 million euros) for it. ouch. And that was before they even sent someone over to the local fireworks store. A revolving sun and some screaming kitchen maids would have been nice too, wouldn’t it?
02. The cars are real
Don’t think—like us, at first—that the cars in the BMW sculpture at Goodwood are a bunch of hollow fiberglass replicas. All five cars are the real deal† For example, the 3.0 CSL Batmobile comes from the historic collection of BMW UK. Hopefully they used enough superglue to let it dangle there for four days.
03. But they did undergo one major adjustment
To be incorporated into the sculpture, the cars had to be drained of all fluids (obviously) and their engines had to be completely removed. There is probably a shed somewhere in the area with some very valuable four, six, eight and twelve cylinders hidden in it.
04. One man has been responsible for every sculpture since 1997
For 25 years, each edition of the Festival of Speed has featured a featured manufacturer – usually one with something important to celebrate – for which a sculpture is erected on the grounds in front of Lord March’s home. Artist and designer Gerry Judah has been responsible for this from the start. Manufacture has been at the local company Littlehampton Welding Ltd since 2004.
05. In the BMW sculpture at Goodwood you see the new BMW LMDh car – for the first time
Are you going to the Festival of Speed this weekend? Bring your binoculars and you can get a relatively close look at BMW’s upcoming endurance racer, the M Hybrid V8 LMDh. This is the very first time the car will be shown at a public event. And because it hangs upside down, you can clearly see the festive ’50 years of M’ camouflage. He is joined in the BMW sculpture at Goodwood by the glorious V12 LMR, the aforementioned 3.0 CSL, an M1 Procar and Jörg Müller’s old 3 Series WTCC racer. Very cool.
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