Goodwood Revival 2009 – Starts today

The Goodwood Revival 2009 celebrates the Swinging Sixties, with everything from cars to fashion. Mini cars and Mini Skirts.

The social and car fest that is the Goodwood Revival kicks off today in Sussex. Beware traffic jams.

This year’s theme is ‘Swinging Sixties’ which gives us the excuse to run the shot of the Mini-Skirted lovelies at the top. There will be a recreation of Carnaby Street from its sixties heyday, with Saturday being ‘Ladies Day’ with the encouragement to wear the shortest skirts possible (I think there should be a ‘Leg Judge’ to qualify the participants, though – I know, chauvinist pig).

Close by the Carnaby Street area will be a  recreation of Mike Hawthorn’s TT Garage, complete with period Jaguar paraphernalia dotted around. There will also be the return of the BMW Revivalfest, an Oktoberfest type setting with German beer, white pork sausages, pretzels and mustard. Yummy. Oh, and of course a selection of historic BMW vehicles from the BMW museum.

No celebration of ’60s motoring would be complete without MINI, particularly as this year is Mini’s 50th birthday. So expect all things Mini (skirts and cars) to dominate. Goodwood even has Rowan Atkinson parading around on a daily basis as Mr Bean in his famous Mini.

Racing isn’t forgotten – far from it – with 2 and 4 wheel races going on over the weekend. The Barry Sheene Memorial Trophy is for motorbikes made between 1962 and 1966; Sports Car races include the Brooklands Trophy, the Madgwick Cup and the Freddie March Memorial Trophy; Single Seater races include the Richmonmd Trophy and the Chichester Cup. Something for all – whatever your car tastes.

And even though it’s not a exactly a ’60s event (try ’20s), the Goodwood Revival will also be celebrating the 80th birthday of ‘Mr Goodwood’ – aka Sir Stirling Moss – with a total of 80 of the 96 cars he drove in his career on display.

Another great Goodwood day out. Very different from the Festival of Speed, but enormous fun.

But if you’re not going to Goodwood, do avoid the A27. Otherwise you’ll spend the whole weekend in a traffic jam.