Gulf Cars At Goodwood

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Gulf's Aston Martin 009 featured at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

	Fast becoming a summer tradition in the UK, the Goodwood Festival of Speed draws a huge crowd for a superb 3-day event. It is a great opportunity for motor enthusiasts of all ages to see a wide variety of cars, ranging from the latest Formula 1 cars and and Le Mans winners, to the early examples of racing, sport and even classic car and motorcycle designs. To get a really good feeling for this event we suggest you visit their excellent website (click here).
This year a section of the F1 Paddock was devoted to Gulf-liveried Sports cars, and it certainly drew in the crowds. Amongst the cars was the Gulf-liveried Aston Martin DBR9, Number 009, fresh (although still unwashed!) from its recent victory at the Le Mans 24h race. Alongside sat a brand new Aston Martin DBSR and the 1995 McLaren-BMW F1 GTR, a 1965 Ford GT40, a 1970 Porsche 917K, a 1973 Mirage Cosworth GR7, and a 1970 Porsche 908/3. As well being on static display in the paddock, these cars took to the asphalt for a few runs up the short hill climb track in front of crowds of excited enthusiasts.
A characteristic of the Goodwood event is its intimate nature: all visitors can see the cars up close, can talk to the owners and mechanics and even the drivers. Thus, Antonio Garcia, one of the 3 drivers of the winning GT-1 Car No. 009 at Le Mans this year, was present to answer all questions and to sign autographs. The popularity of the Gulf brand was clearly evident; there were many visitors wearing Gulf-logo T shirts and the famous "Steve McQueen" style jacket (hardly any examples of clothing promoting any other oil company were seen amongst the crowd). Our licensed clothing and merchandise partner, Dakota, had a large ‘Grand Prix Originals' shop in the tented village and it was extremely busy all day.

The Gulf UK CEO, Jonathon Turner, was instrumental in the set up of the Gulf sports cars display. Jonathon, the current owner of car 009, also arranged several meetings for the Gulf team, led by Alain Dujean, with the Goodwood management and even Lord March himself (the owner of the Goodwood Estate and the real driving force behind the Festival). There was a surprise too for Gulf-enthusiasts: the Festival's Official Programme carried an 8-pages feature article entitled "FLYING COLOURS - there are times when a paint scheme can be as memorable as the cars themselves. This year's Festival celebrates one of the most evocative liveries that motorsport has ever seen".