Porsche’s Massive Display Is Star of Goodwood Festival of Speed
Being the honored marque at Goodwood has its perks, like having a 171 foot-tall statue displaying Porche’s most iconic cars.
In honor of the 70th anniversary of the brand's first production car, Porsche was the featured marque at this year's Goodwood Festival of Speed, the third time Porsche has been granted the prestigious title. This privilege granted the Stuttgartians the largest display at the festival and Porsche gave us a rundown of the exhibition in a press release this week.
The main perk of being the honored guest at Goodwood is having a massive sculpture built for you on the front lawn of the Goodwood Estate, called the Central Feature. For Porsche's sculpture, the designers went with a seven-pointed star atop a large spire, measuring 171 feet tall and 4.7 inches thick. Affixed to all but the tallest point were six of Porsche's most iconic cars: a 356, a 911 (911 R to be exact), a 917 race car in Gulf livery, a 959 rally car, a 918 Spyder hypercar, and a 919 Hybrid, Porsche's untamed prototype race car.
At the base of the sculpture sat Porsche's 356-inspired 911 Speedster Concept, which made its official public debut at the Festival of Speed. Six iconic Porsche race cars rounded off the display, including the 1962 804 Formula 1 (Porsche's only dedicated F1 car), 1974 911 Carrera RSR Turbo 2.1, 1978 935/78 "Moby Dick," 1984 911 Carrera 3.2 4x4 Type 953 Paris-Dakar rally car, 1987 962 C, and 1988 2704 Indycar.
The artist behind Porsche's sculpture is Gerry Judah, who has been designing the Central Feature for 21 of the 25 years Goodwood's been around. He worked with global engineering company Diales and Littlehampton Welding to pull off this ambitious statue, and make sure none of the cars fell off.
"It's not just putting a load of cars up, it's [about] making a sculpture that sings and dances and scares people at the same time, and I suppose that's what motorsport is about," Judah explained. "What I try and do is not overtake the cars...So I wanted the sculpture to really make these cars shine, to show them in the best possible way."
The cherry on top? Countless iconic Porsches participated in the Goodwood Hillclimb, from rare production cars to historic race cars including the beloved 2018 24 Hours of Le Mans class-winning "Pink Pig" 911 RSR and the 919 Hybrid Evo, fresh from its record lap at the Nürburgring.
You can watch Porsche's nearly 30-minute-long hillclimb exhibition below.