Continuing Britain’s ‘it-hasn’t-been-this-hot-since-1976’ heat wave, Goodwood’s gates were thrown open extra early for another breakfast club lazy Sunday. You snooze you lose, literally.
Arriving at the crack of the sparrows means the full potential of the sun hadn’t been reached, and yet the sky was textbook perfect. With over 800 cars registered to display, the variety was superb. I sadly didn’t get to see everything, but here are my stand-out cars.
1962 JAGUAR E-TYPE FHC 3.8
Go to Goodwood and you’ll always see a sea of E-types, but this car was different (and I don’t mean the opalescent dark blue colour). I chatted with owner Russell Brown, who was visibly excited to share his car’s debut outing after a lengthy restoration. Besides the immaculate rebuild, the draw to this series 1 E-Type is its original owner, one Paul de Ferranti Craddock Pycroft from Anglesey. Paul was handy behind the wheel as it turns out. He entered, and won, the very first Goodwood race circuit in 1948.
He raced the car from when it was new until 1964. It’s one of only 76 to be supplied with a close-ratio gearbox, which indicated this beauty was always destined to be driven spiritly. Despite its fresh rebuild Russell intends to use the Jag regularly.
1969 FORD MUSTANG FF PROTOTYPE
For me there’s nothing better than going to a car show and learning about a historic vehicle you never knew existed. Take this 1969 Ford Mustang ‘Cobra jet’ 7.0-litre for example. It was sent to Brabham when new to be tuned and then, along with another 7-litre car and two smaller 4-litre V8s, given to tractor entrepreneur Harry Ferguson.
At the time he was converting a few Jensen Interceptors to 4 wheel drive using his 4x4 tractor technology, and he did the same to these muscle cars. It cost twice the price of an Aston DB6 to convert but it was one of the first cars to be equipped with [Dunlop Maxaret] ABS. While the remaining surviving Mustang lives in an American museum, this amazing piece of history was driven to the breakfast club. Respect.
VOLVO P1800
It’s hard to believe that before Volvo became obsessed with safety in the ‘80s and ‘90s, it produced some to-die-for shaped cars. Well, one. The P1800 was Roger Moore’s choice of car when he was Simon Templar in The Saint. In 1960 the car was unveiled and the public were told it had been designed by the then-fashionable Italians. It had in fact been designed by the young son of the Volvo engineering consultant.
Based on rugged but certainly not exotic Amazon underpinnings, the P1800 wasn’t fast but it was gorgeous on the eye. This gun metal grey second generation P1800 stopped me in my tracks at the Breakfast Club paddock. Back then cars with alloy wheels were a scarce sight, so steel wheels were made to imitate their expensive brothers. This 1800’s rims were steel wheels with alloy ‘clover rim’ hubcaps. Absolutely love them.
1968 DODGE CHARGER 4-SPEED MANUAL
Ok, I’m going to come clean and admit this is my own car. I did the 400 mile round trip to the Breakfast Club in her and it was nothing but a hoot. Now in its 50th year, I’ve owned the Dodge for 10 and brought it over from San Diego. Originally a green car from San Francisco – where the Bullitt movie was filmed - someone painted it brown/bronze in the ‘70s and it inherited some suspicious bullet holes in the boot lid.
It’s rare for one of these to have a manual gearbox, and with no power steering or servo brakes, the driving experience is one of commitment. I know it’s biased but for me the Dodge is my perfect tonic to the technology-laden lifestyle we all seem to have been sucked into. When I drive this my phone goes off, there’s no radio and there’s full escapism.
The next Breakfast Club is on October 7. See you all there. I am hoping to bring down a special little car that’s not yet finished. Fingers crossed I can complete it in time…
For exclusive video highlights from all the Goodwood Breakfast Club events visit https://www.ers.com/goodwood
