Festival of Speed review
We pick six of the best cars to grace Goodwood and speak to the stars

Aston Martin at Le Mans
Motor Sport joins the team in the pits; Sam Hancock reports from the cockpit

Ferrari P4 can-Am
This rarity started life as a successful sports racer before heading Stateside

The logistics of F1
Williams reveals just what it takes to get a team to 19 Grands Prix a year

Lunch with… Mika Hakkinen
His run-in with Senna, his Adelaide crash, and that pass on Schumacher

Stuart Turner
Former BMC and Ford competitions boss recalls a golden time for rallying

Turbocharged talk
F1 chiefs discuss proposals for a 2013 engine with worldwide potential

Road cars
New section includes Goodwood motor show review and Mercedes SLS test

Le Mans Classic
Maserati Tipo and Porsche 917 are among the greats racing at La Sarthe

Pageant of Power
Cholmondeley Castle showcases some of Tom Wheatcroft’s favourite cars

Classic Racing Cars
The Porsche 911 Carrera RS – a road car that redefined the sports car ideal

You see, we’ve made another tweak to the magazine as we strive to add greater depth and diversity. Nothing too dramatic, you understand, and certainly not a departure from tradition. In fact, you could describe it as an echo of times past.

Road cars always featured prominently in the ‘Green ’un’, thanks to the road tests and commentaries provided by the, er, independently-minded missives from editor Bill Boddy. He didn’t pull his punches when delivering a verdict. Today, we’ve continued to dip a toe into the industry waters thanks to the columns and tests of another forthright ex-editor, Andrew Frankel. But now we’ve dived back in head-first, with full commitment!

No more token efforts. Now the road car industry has its own section within the magazine, as Andrew guides us through the latest happenings, events and – most importantly – significant cars on the market. Each month, he’ll be cutting through the PR-speak to explain what is going on in the world of road cars: who is doing what, who is saying what – and what you should consider driving.

This month, Andrew kicks off by delivering his verdict on Goodwood’s first Moving Motor Show, finds out whether the new Mercedes-Benz SLS lives up to its classic ‘Gullwing’ forefather and bombards Bentley’s head man Dr Ulrich Eichorn for our new feature ‘20 Questions’.

And that’s not all. He’s been a busy boy. We also sent Andrew to McLaren to uncover exactly how Formula 1 thinking has influenced and shaped the stunning new MP4-12C road car. Want to know how motor racing brilliance can feed into the real world in the 21st century? Look no further than our cover story.

If you’re reading this and wondering what’s happened to the usual mix of racing stories past and present, never fear! Where else can you read about life in a Le Mans team, Ferrari P4 Can-Am cars, what Mika Häkkinen talks about over lunch, how F1 teams hit the track in Abu Dhabi – five days after racing at Interlagos, what Stuart Turner remembers about a colourful career in rallying… and why Nigel Roebuck found a kindred spirit in smokin’ daredevil Patrick Depailler?

You know the answer. So lock the door, turn off the phone and lose yourself in Motor Sport – a world with a proper sense of perspective.

Leaving aside the fun and frolics of the Isle of Wight, it’s interesting to look back on what was a highly charged season, brutally fractured by the death of Jochen Rindt at Monza in September. Already we’d lost Piers Courage at Zandvoort and Bruce McLaren in a test session at Goodwood. It seemed it couldn’t get any worse, but it did. The 1970 season is an example, too, of why we should keep an open mind. And this applies as much today as it has done over the decades.

If you recall, the mesmeric Rindt dominated proceedings, winning five races through the summer, from Monaco to the Hockenheimring. The only glitch came at Spa when the Cosworth in his Lotus 49C let go after 10 laps. Two weeks later Rindt, now in Chapman’s innovative 72, won the first of four on the trot. The championship, we thought, was surely his and deservedly so. But motor racing, as we have seen again this year, is full of surprises. Some happy, some sad.

All in all, a momentous year. Jacky Ickx was back at Ferrari after a year away at Brabham and by mid-summer the glorious 312B was coming on song, Ickx winning in Austria, Canada and Mexico. But it was not enough. Despite the tragedy of Monza, the mercurial Rindt could not be caught and he remains the sport’s only posthumous World Champion.

Intriguingly, if Ickx had won the penultimate round at Watkins Glen in October he would have beaten Rindt to the title. But it wasn’t to be. In a dramatic race that typified the season Ickx duly started from pole but this day the Ferrari was no match for the other man on the front row, Jackie Stewart in the new Tyrrell 001. Stewart led easily while Ickx pitted just after half-distance with a broken fuel line, returning in 12th place and storming back to a superb fourth by the flag. Meanwhile, a minute in the lead, Stewart retired, the Cosworth leaking oil. Who came through to win and wreck any hopes of a world title for Ickx? A young Brazilian called Emerson Fittipaldi in a Lotus, in only his fourth Grand Prix.

You needed a very open mind to keep up with the scriptwriter in 1970, and a strong stomach. It was both thrilling and awful, the sport at its best and worst. And it wasn’t over yet. Ickx won a chaotic final race in Mexico where spectators climbed the guardrails, stood trackside, and the maddest ran across the circuit itself. Eventually a dog escaped and ran into the path of Stewart’s Tyrrell, damaging the suspension and forcing the Scot to retire. Ickx came through to win and the 1971 Mexican Grand Prix was removed from the calendar.

Triple World Champion Jack Brabham hung up his helmet, having started his final season with a win in South Africa. Clay Regazzoni scored his first Grand Prix victory in a Ferrari at Monza. March arrived in Formula 1. Tyrrell built its first Grand Prix car, Stewart putting it on pole first time out in Canada. And Goodyear introduced slick tyres to the sport. What a year.

Clark’s final race
One of the few English journalists at Hockenheim in ’68 recalls fateful day

Colin Chapman
The Lotus boss was a complicated but brilliant man, as a new book recalls

Goodwood preview
What’s new at the Festival of Speed

Renault’s renaissance
How F1 team overcame ’09 setbacks

The ‘new’ Silverstone
Racing royalty and the Duke of York turned out for the track’s relaunch

Sir Jackie Stewart’s scrapbook
The triple World Champion’s career has been uniquely captured in a new book

Lunch with… Tom Kristensen
We meet most successful Le Mans racer

Mark Blundell’s race return
He’s not raced for seven years, but now an Audi R8 GT3 and Spa are calling

Jaguar’s Le Mans return
American Paul Gentilozzi is readying an XKR GT2 for the 24 Hours

David Murray
The Ecurie Ecosse boss tasted success at Le Mans, so why did he disappear?

Road test: Jaguar XJ
New saloon combines charm and ability

Women in motor sport
Michèle Mouton and the FIA want to encourage more female racing drivers

Monaco Historique
Period F1, F3 and sports car action

Mille Miglia retro
BMW victorious, 70 years after first win

Classic Racing Cars
Don’t be put off by its bulk – the Jaguar XJ220 was one seriously quick car

As far as we’re aware, these two have never been interviewed together before, and yet these giants of racing formed a bond 40 years ago as team-mates at Ferrari racing in both Formula 1 and sports cars. When they joined us for our inaugural Motor Sport Hall of Fame event in February we had the perfect opportunity to reunite them – and get them talking about the Prancing Horse. The result is the cover story for the June issue of Motor Sport.

Editor-in-chief Nigel Roebuck was handed this enviable task, but it wasn’t exactly smooth running. He was made to sweat. Nigel had arranged to meet the pair in Signor Sassi, a favourite Italian restaurant, on the day of the Hall of Fame in London. Andretti had arrived from the States safe and sound the night before, but Ickx wouldn’t be so lucky.

Jacky spends much of his time in Mali these days, but he’d told us flying in from Africa would not be a problem. As it turned out, it wasn’t. But taking the short connecting trip from Brussels would be – his flight was cancelled. Typical!

I got the message in the morning and started to sweat. Jacky was one of our star guests for this special night and now I had images of him failing to make it (the message I got was that his flight was cancelled and I had images of him stranded in Africa!). But with characteristic coolness, Jacky came through for us. He jumped on the Eurostar, came straight to the restaurant and being a true gent was full of apologies (even though it wasn’t his fault, of course). Phew! The Hall of Fame was saved and I’d still get my future cover story.

Following the entertaining lunch, Nigel met up with Andretti again in Bahrain at the Grand Prix and Ickx at the Goodwood press day, topping up the material he’d already got from the two of them together. The result was 19,000 words of transcription from his Dictaphone – and he hates transcribing! I know, it’s hard to complain when you’re listening back to gems from such heroes, but we have to hand it to Nigel this month: he’s put in the hours…

Aside from Ickx and Andretti, there is an eclectic mix of stories in the new issue, from just about every era. Highlights for me include Anthony Rowlinson’s terrific interview with design genius John Barnard, Bruno Giacomelli talking to Paul Fearnley – and the photos of outlandish second-generation Can-Am cars in Gordon Kirby’s retrospective. The stars that passed through that series in the 1970s and early ’80s – including Jones, Villeneuve, Tambay, Rosberg and that man Ickx – has bestowed cult status on the era. So right up our street, then.

My friend Robert Dean is an engineer, a mechanic, a racer of vintage cars and generally one of the good eggs of our universe. By our universe, I mean that which is inhabited by those of us who are just crazy about racing cars. Or just crazy. Robert’s role in life, apart from a being a doting father, is to look after a collection of racing cars owned by one Bernard Ecclestone.

I mention this because last year in the desert of Bahrain I did two things I never imagined I would. I slid down into the cockpit of a Ferrari 312 and I perched on the seat of a BRM V16 Mk ll.

For me, these were Big Moments – not only a pleasure, but also a privilege. As a child, I watched Ken Wharton and Ron Flock hart racing this BRM at Goodwood and, while the memory is hazy, I remember the noise and I know it must have left a big impression on me. I know this because I later joined the BRM Supporters Club, proudly wearing the enamel badge at every possible opportunity. There was something about a BRM, so very British in that dark racing green, and so often the underdog until Graham Hill came along and won the World Championship in 1962. By that time you couldn’t keep me away from the racetrack.

Then there was the Ferrari, this the very car raced in 1966 by Lorenzo Banding and John Surtees. You probably remember the cockpit of the 312, that wonderful black leather cladding, and that snaking nest of white exhaust pipes on the glorious V12 engine. Take a look at pictures of Banding in this car, or Ludovico Scarfiotti (who won at Monza in ’66) and if they don’t stir your blood then you won’t get what I’m going on about. The car is so comfortable, the cockpit hugging your sides. Close your eyes and you could be coming down to the Parabolica – if you were brave enough. No belts, remember, and fuel tanks all around you. Eventually I stepped out, but I didn’t want to.

So, thanks to Mr Dean, I have taken a seat in the theatre of dreams. The point, however, of these ramblings is that it is days such as these that remind us why we fell in love with Grand Prix racing.

In recent years I have sometimes struggled to maintain my enthusiasm. They all look the same, they all sound the same. They can’t overtake each other unless there’s a thunderstorm and Lewis Hamilton has a red mist inside that yellow helmet. Wandering among the cars collected by Bernie reminded me that simplicity is good – big fat tyres, tons of power, not very much grip and lots of nice engineering that you and I can understand.

No, I am not bogged down in the past. And yes, I will be watching the Chinese Grand Prix. I’m not giving up on this thing after six decades but I do believe that something radical needs to be done to improve the sheer spectacle, the drama of motor racing at its highest level.

BRM is long gone, but there will be Ferraris on the grid in China. All is not lost.

Racing cars look so good outside Goodwood House. It just feels right. And nobody entertains with more style than the Earl of March. To get the day under way the Royal Navy brought a Lynx helicopter, proceeding to fly it backwards, sideways, every which way in a wake-up display that defied the laws of gravity. Down below they blew the dust off Ayrton Senna’s Toleman and Lewis Hamilton’s McLaren.

“Thank you all for helping us to make our events what they are today,” said Lord March, addressing the media gathered outside his home. Every year we think how will the Festival of Speed stay fresh and alive? Will the Revival continue to surprise and stimulate us? After 17 years of the Festival and 11 of the Revival it would appear there is little wrong with the formula. If it doesn’t need fixing, don’t fix it. In the background, of course, there have been changes, the Festival becoming a celebration of the motor car in all its guises rather than a hillclimb for historic racing cars, while the Revival has become a theatrical garden party with pure, full-blooded racing at its heart.

Sitting around a table on the grass outside Goodwood House at lunchtime, I spied BBC Formula 1 commentator Jonathan Legard, veteran author and journalist Maurice Hamilton, Deborah Tee (whose family once owned Motor Sport and Motoring News) and our very own Nigel Roebuck. And this is partly what makes Goodwood special. This is a place where enthusiasts gather, people who have a passion for motor racing.

Just back from Bahrain, having robustly tried to make a dull Grand Prix watchable television, Jonathan was bravely defending F1 in the aftermath of a disappointing start to the season. Maurice, celebrating his birthday with a glass of Lord March’s Veuve Clicquot, regaled us with hysterical stories from days gone by. And Nigel, muttering about the dreaded double diffusers, went off in search of Jacky Ickx to cheer himself up. Paul Ormond from Honda, which has supported the Festival since its inception, came by to tell us about the marque’s plans for Le Mans. Multiple World Champion Dougie Lampkin rode by on his trials bike, weaving his way between the tables to jump over something else. The new McLaren MP4/12C rolled in on its first public appearance, all matt black and still a work in progress.

No other event draws such a diverse and colourful collection of characters, cars, bikes and racers. If you have the passion, you will be there.

There were 80 cars at the Goodwood launch this year. Remarkably, that is more than the entry for the first ever Festival back in the summer of 1993. Down at the startline, under the budding lime trees, there were more people soaking up the sights and sounds than stood there on that June Saturday when it all began.

This year the Festival of Speed will support a charitable foundation set up by John Surtees in memory of his son Henry. The Goodwood crowd will give generously because not only do they love their sport, they care passionately about its past, present and future.

Well, he goes out of course, but not so much to motor racing events since he walked away from Grand Prix racing having made a fortune and as many enemies as friends.

But that would never bother Eddie. Not much does as long as he’s having fun and making money, both of which he is very good at. In many ways, he was born too late, and should perhaps have been racing with the Hunts and Villeneuves of this world.

No, it wasn’t turning up that surprised, it was that the man seemed to be really enjoying himself back in the limelight. Wearing a black T-shirt emblazoned with the words ‘Who do you think you are?’ – nice irony here – he signed autographs, chatted with his many fans and swapped some good gossip with the Formula 1 fraternity.

Perhaps this was all because Irvine had been invited to drive a rather important Ferrari. This was the 312 T3, now owned by Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason, and built by Enzo Ferrari for Gilles Villeneuve back in 1978. At that time Irvine was just 13 years old, a schoolboy in Northern Ireland dreaming of one day becoming a racing driver. He told us at Goodwood that he remembers watching Villeneuve winning the Canadian Grand Prix in this car on television, and thinking how cool it would be to race a Ferrari. This was Villeneuve’s first Grand Prix victory, having joined Ferrari from McLaren during the winter of 1977.

The 312 T3 was in fact no match for Colin Chapman’s Lotus 79 with its ground-breaking aerodynamics and clever ‘ground effects’ engineering. But Villeneuve drove the wheels off it and this Ferrari, with its 3-litre flat-12 engine, still won five races. So, for Irvine to sit where Gilles sat, and to get a taste of what he goggled at as a boy, was an opportunity he clearly wasn’t going to pass up.

A maverick figure, not always happy to doff his cap, and a man to speak his mind, Mr Irvine was not everybody’s cup of tea as he rose to the dizzy heights of nearly winning the World Championship after team-mate Michael Schumacher crashed at Silverstone in 1999. But the Irishman was a lot more serious about his motor racing than perhaps he wanted you to know. He made that pretty clear when refusing to be rattled by Schumacher in the Japanese Grand Prix at the very beginning of his F1 career. People began to take notice.

He chose, for some reason, to wear a helmet from his Jaguar days at Goodwood. You might have expected one of his helmets from his time at Maranello. Maybe he sold them all.

The point of all this is that only at Goodwood will you find these characters. And there are just so many of them. And you can talk to them without yelling through a security fence. This year the Festival of Speed was somehow better than ever – there’s just nothing like it anywhere else in the world. If you love motor racing, it doesn’t get any better than Goodwood.

We hope you enjoy it as much as we did…

Watch the video now (below) or watch it on YouTube

For me, nothing will ever be as good as Goodwood on Easter Monday. Yes, I know we haven’t been there since 1966, but it was such a wonderful event. We went as a family, took a picnic, and sat in our usual seats in the grandstand at the famous Chicane. Anyone who was anybody was there. I savour today the memory of Graham Hill and Jimmy Clark fighting for the lead of the Sunday Mirror Trophy in the spring sunshine of 1965, the last year in which Goodwood held a proper race for Formula 1 cars.

The BRM and Lotus were rarely more than 20 feet apart for the first few laps, with Dan Gurney’s Brabham tucked in behind them. Then Clark passed Hill on the Lavant straight and pulled away, setting a new lap record. The BRM began to falter and Hill dropped back behind Gurney and a young Scot called Jackie Stewart. But the race was far from over. Both Gurney and Stewart retired, leaving Hill in second place, while Clark took victory for the second year running. Fabulous stuff.

Later in the day a spectacular hailstorm came over the Sussex Downs and flooded the circuit just in time for the saloon car race. But this didn’t bother Jimmy Clark, out again in his Lotus Cortina, and winning a waterlogged race from Jack Sears in another Cortina. Those were the days, my friends.

Easter is here again and, away from all the lies and videotapes of Formula 1, there will be plenty of good, honest club racing around the circuits of Britain. And despite the anxieties of this recession, fans and families will make their annual pilgrimage to one of these traditional events. The Formula 3 cars will be at Oulton Park, the Superbikes at Brands Hatch and just up the road from us, at Thruxton, there’s a decent programme of national championship racing run by the BARC, which would in the old days have been orchestrating the events at Goodwood. There I go again.

Further afield, the A1GP series will be at the new Portimao circuit in southern Portugal, where Tonio Liuzzi will race for Team Italy. Liuzzi’s talent is largely wasted at Force India where he is test driver at a time when testing is banned during the season. But don’t be too surprised if he takes over from Giancarlo Fisichella before we get to Abu Dhabi in November. By all accounts, the new Grand Prix track in the Algarve is pretty impressive and there will be a good crowd there this weekend to cheer on Felipe Albuquerque at his home race.

So Happy Easter everyone, wherever you are, whatever your plans for this welcome break from the usual schedule. I doubt, however, that there will be much rest at Brackley, where the opposition is growing gradually larger in the mirrors of Jenson Button’s Brawn-Mercedes. Speaking of Mercedes, it must surely be pinning its hopes on an older, wiser young man from Britain this year.

Newsprint is tomorrow’s cat litter. Broadcasts come and go. But damage has been done. Eggs (well, it is Easter) have been broken and egos dented. Easter Monday at Goodwood suddenly seems like a very different world. Yet the sport survives and there’s much to look forward to in the coming months.