Summary
Goodwood Revival is a three-day historic motor racing meeting at the original Goodwood Motor Circuit every September. The cars are race-prepared 1948 to 1966 competition vehicles; the drivers race them seriously and damage to a million-pound Ferrari is part of the deal. Around the racing sit a Battle of Britain airfield, period rock-and-roll, swing-dance floors and a Spitfire flypast.
Goodwood Revival is a three-day historic motor racing meeting at the Goodwood Motor Circuit in West Sussex, held every September. The 2026 meeting runs from Friday 18 to Sunday 20 September. It is the only major British race meeting where the circuit, the cars, the period dress and even the petrol stations are dressed to look as they would have between 1948 and 1966.
It is best understood as part racing meeting, part theatre. The cars on track are historic competition vehicles from the period; the drivers race them seriously. The crowd is in period dress; the marshals are in period uniforms; the petrol pumps in the paddock are 1950s originals; the racecourse café serves spam fritters. The Revival has been called many things; the most accurate description is that it is the last pre-1966 motor race that anyone still runs, every year, with original cars.
A short history of the circuit
From RAF airfield to racing circuit
The Goodwood Motor Circuit was originally the perimeter track of RAF Westhampnett, a Battle of Britain relief airfield used by RAF Tangmere from 1940 to 1946. The 9th Duke of Richmond and Gordon, an enthusiast and former amateur racer, converted the perimeter track into a motor racing circuit after the war.
The first race meeting at Goodwood took place on 18 September 1948, organised by the Junior Car Club. The circuit's length was 2.367 miles around the airfield perimeter. For the next eighteen years it hosted Formula 1 non-championship races, the RAC Tourist Trophy, sportscar races and the Glover Trophy among others. Stirling Moss, Jim Clark, Graham Hill and Mike Hawthorn all raced and won there in the period.
The closure and thirty-two year gap
The circuit held its last race meeting in 1966 and closed to top-flight motor racing that year. The owners' position was that they would not chicane the track to slow the increased speeds of modern racing cars; the choice was to either modify the circuit or stop hosting modern motor racing. They chose the second. The circuit remained in use for testing and trials for decades but did not host a competitive race for thirty-two years.
Racing returned to the Goodwood Motor Circuit on 18 September 1998, fifty years to the day after the first 1948 meeting. The Revival has run every September since, with one exception in 2020, when COVID-19 restrictions led Goodwood to replace the Revival with a closed-doors meeting called SpeedWeek.
The format: three days of racing
How the weekend is structured
The Revival weekend runs Friday to Sunday. Friday is the practice day; the cars run in their respective grids for qualifying and the public have full access to the paddocks. Saturday and Sunday are the race days, with around twelve to fifteen races spread across the two days.
Each race is contested on a specific period and class of car. The format is more like a series of separate vintage rallies than a modern Formula 1 weekend. A typical race has between fifteen and thirty cars on the grid, contests around six to twelve laps of the 2.367-mile circuit, and runs for between fifteen and forty-five minutes. The crowd watches each race from the same grandstands and lawns that the original 1948-1966 spectators used.
The canonical Revival trophies
Goodwood Trophy
Glover Trophy
Whitsun Trophy
St Mary's Trophy
Richmond and Gordon Trophies
RAC TT Celebration
Stirling Moss Memorial Trophy
Settrington Cup
A pedal-car race for children aged between four and ten, run in vintage J-style pedal cars on the start-finish straight before the main racing programme on Saturday and Sunday.
The cars
The cars: period racing in all forms
Every car competing at Goodwood Revival must be a historically appropriate competition vehicle from 1948-1966, in race-prepared trim. The Revival is not a concours d'élégance; cars are raced hard, sometimes contact-raced. Damage to a million-pound Ferrari 250 GT SWB is part of the deal. Some cars are written off across the weekend, every year.
The grids cover the full range of period racing: pre-war Grand Prix cars, post-war single-seaters, 1950s sportscars, GT racers from the early 1960s, Mini Coopers and Lotus Cortinas from the saloon-car era, F1 cars from before the 1967 sponsorship era. A typical St Mary's Trophy field might have Cortinas and Galaxies racing against Jaguars and Anglias. A Whitsun Trophy field might have a 1965 Ford GT40 against a Ferrari 330 P2.
Drivers are a mix of professionals (current and former Formula 1, sportscar and touring car drivers come back to drive these cars) and gentleman amateurs who own and race them year-round. The level of driving across most grids is high; the Revival has been known to produce closer racing than many modern meetings.
Off-track: the village, the airfield, the dance floor
The paddocks and period attractions
Goodwood Revival is laid out across the circuit perimeter and the airfield on the inside of the track. The two main paddocks (central and outer) hold the racing cars between sessions; the central paddock is the smartest area and has its own dress code (jacket and tie for men, dress or suit for women).
Around the racing sit the period attractions. The Earls Court Motor Show recreation runs in a converted hangar, with mid-century production cars displayed as they would have been at the original Earls Court in their year of release. The Bonhams auction tent hosts the period vehicle sale. The Vintage Funfair has period rides and games. The Drive-In Cinema shows period films across both nights. The Settrington Cup pedal-car race is traditionally run in two parts, on the start-finish straight on the Saturday and Sunday mornings.
Entertainment: music, rides and vintage transport
Music plays through the day. The Revival's bandstand has live big-band and jazz musicians; the Spitfire Bar and the various pavilions have DJs spinning period rock-and-roll, jive and swing. Vintage Vauxhall and Austin coaches run from the car parks to the gates. The vintage village outside the circuit ("Over the Road") has stalls selling period clothing and accessories.
Air displays are a regular feature on the Saturday and Sunday: a Spitfire or two, occasionally a Hurricane, sometimes a Lancaster on a flypast. The circuit was a Battle of Britain airfield; the Spitfire over Goodwood reads as more than a stunt.
Who comes
The crowd at Goodwood Revival skews older than at most motor racing weekends but the under-30s contingent has grown rapidly. The Revival has become a fashion occasion for the British subcultures that care about period dress: vintage collectors, mid-century aesthetes, rockabilly enthusiasts, swing-dance crowds, wartime re-enactors. They mix with serious motor racing fans, car collectors, and the broader British country crowd that does Henley in July and Goodwood in September.
Notable regular attendees include the British royal family (the King has been a frequent attendee), Formula 1 drivers past and present, Hollywood actors with a vintage interest (the meeting attracts Tom Cruise, Eddie Redmayne and others), and a steady flow of European royals and continental car collectors. The Revival's central paddock often photographs more recognisable faces in a square hundred metres than any other British sporting weekend.
It is also a children's race. The Settrington Cup pedal-car race is the most photographed under-tens activity in British motor sport. The Vintage Funfair, the cinema, the costume hire and the family-oriented stalls in the village pull in families across the weekend.
Practical notes
Goodwood Revival tickets sell out months in advance. Friday tickets are slightly cheaper and easier to find; Saturday and Sunday are the prime days. The Revival also sells year-on-year passes and family passes. Camping on the Goodwood Estate is available; many regulars use it.
Weather is variable. September in West Sussex can run from twelve to twenty-five degrees and from clear to wet. Layered period dress works in both directions: tweed for cold, lighter cotton dresses with cardigans for warm. Bring a coat that reads as 1950s-vintage rather than modern Goretex.
Parking is on the Goodwood Estate or by shuttle from West Sussex park-and-ride sites. The Revival operates its own buses and a vintage coach service. Don't drive your modern car into the central paddock; the visual sets aside any vehicle younger than 1966.
And the simplest piece of advice for a first-timer: dress in period. The proportion of the crowd in costume is high enough that anyone in modern dress feels distinctly outside the meeting. Hire a period outfit for a first Revival, see whether it suits the atmosphere, and then decide whether to buy a wardrobe for next year.
Sian Jones
Senior Event Manager
Senior Event Manager at Imperial Corporate Events, looking after the racing season and the country sporting calendar.
