Goodwood Festival of Speed 09 (PICS!)

[CharlieP]

Nice.....but no rexs...I mean what the...

[Test Drives Unlimited]

Some nice cars there Nik & I even spotted in the back ground of one of your Photos,a Aston Martin Bulldog I think they only built 5 :2Rolleyes
 
I try & go next year,missed it 2 years on the trott now

[Nik da Greek]

Nice.....but no rexs...I mean what the...

I was proper p***ed off with that, tbh. Mazda usually manage at least one racing rotary, but nothing at all, it was a disgrace. Their stand/hospitlaity looked crap too, leaving aside the concrete cows (WTF!?). It had a hardtop MX5, the new R3 RX-8 and two little rubbish hatchback things that I can\'t even drag up from memory they were so anonymous. The stand looked like it was designed to hold about ten cars so it looked really barren, and not in an arty kinda austere way, just a "ooops, forgot to pack some cars" kinda way.

One of my friends was talking to a salesman and having a go in the MX-5 cos she\'s thinking of buying one, and I got talking to another Mazda bloke whilst I was waiting. He explained about how my RX-7 would have been an import, because there were only 600 UK models sold. Errrm, sorry mate? Not 120, then? You sure? :confused:

Yep, apparently 600 FD Uk models were sold. Right, then. And they look really dated now and just don\'t stand out if you see them on the road at all. The RX-8 is far more of a head turner and much more exclusive. Like, WTF!? Is this man a random lunatic that blundered onto the stand by mistake...no, he\'s got a Mazda poloshirt on and a clipboard, he must work here then. Sorry, mate, again please....FD RX-7s look really boring and don\'t stand out if you see one on the road, yeah!? . Rx-8s are exclusive!? :Giggle

I was looking around for the hidden cameras, couldn\'t believe that a Mazda employee would know so little about his own marque! I thought he musta been doing it for a laugh cos he was bored of talking to idiots, but he was dead serious. Considering Mazda are a title sponsor of the event, it looked like they dragged along the bare minimum because they had to, and it sucked donkeys. They wanna sort it out for next year, or I shall not be impressed at all :mad:

[Adriansturgess]

Well my Rex was in the car park - It\'s the least I could do!

Must say it was a fantastic day (went on the Sunday). Didn\'t take many photos though, so nice looking back through Nik\'s collection. I note you took a photo of the streamlined Auto Union - There was no sign up and I was trying to puzzle out what it was - certainly not a track car, it looked more like a Land speed Record vehicle to me.

One of the \'anonymous\' hatchbacks on the Mazda stand was the Mazda 2 in vivid green and my daughter absolutely adores it - I had to photo her sitting in it and she vows to one day own one (when she\'s finished Uni and got a job) - so horses for courses, but I do take your point it was generally very uninspired.  

It was generally a great day, just sitting watching all that exquisite machinery thundering up the hill (the Peugeot Le Mans winner would have put a London Bus to shame with the plumes of thick grey smoke billowing out the back on down shifts. One of the highlights of the day was when we sauntered up to the top paddock at about 6 o\'clock just in time to see Jenson Button come thundering in in a 1930\'s GP Mercedes (he had no \'last years\' car to use). He then jumped out and came across to greet the crowd and sign autographs etc, this was quite an unexpected bonus as we thought the day was over.

Can\'t recommend Goodwood enough, this was my third visit and I\'m just starting to get the hang of where everything is and where the best viewing places are.