Watch: all the carnage from Goodwood FOS 2017

2 July, 2017

Goodwood Festival of Speed is known for drawing perhaps the world’s greatest collection of historic performance and race cars — located on Lord March’s massive estate in West Sussex, England — and seeing them thrashed within an inch of their life, as they should be. But, the 1.87km long course proves to be no Sunday drive down your local, with the odd driver getting caught out amongst the hay.

In previous years such incidents have claimed the likes of Rod Millen’s Pikes Peak-winning Tacoma, the class-winning 24 Hours of Le Mans Mazda 767B, and even Ayrton Senna’s Lotus 98T.

This year was no different, and although it hurts us to watch, you just can’t look away:

Just praise the fact that they’re hitting hay bales and not concrete barriers, I suppose …

You’re the one that I want – 1973 Datsun 240K GT

In the early 1970s, Clark Caldow was a young sales rep travelling the North Island and doing big miles annually. He loved driving. In 1975 the firm he worked for asked Clark what he wanted for his new car, and Clark chose a brand-new Datsun 240K GT. The two-door car arrived, and Clark was smitten, or in his own words, he was “pole vaulting.”
Clark drove it all over the country, racking up thousands of miles. “It had quite a bit of pep with its SOHC 128 hp (96kW) of power mated to a four-speed manual gearbox,” he says. Weighing in at 1240kg meant the power to weight ratio was good for the time and its length at almost 4.5 metres meant it had good street presence.
Clark has been a car enthusiast all his life, and decided around nine years ago to look for one of these coupes. By sheer luck he very quickly found a mint example refurbished by an aircraft engineer, but it was in Perth.

The originals – the Ledgerwood Collection

Thanks to Central Otago’s dry climate, it’s no surprise to find that Wanaka couple Jim and Daphne Ledgerwood are steadily developing an incredible collection of amazing coupes. ‘The Originals’ they have are as per factory new condition, and their aim is to keep them for everyone to see how it was done back in the day—pure nostalgia.
An occasional email from Jim usually reveals another gleaming addition. The collectors also have an impressive display of American pickups. It’s our gain and US enthusiasts’ loss, as car agent’s adverts proclaim, “Sorry you missed out. Gone to New Zealand!” Some of Jim and Daphne’s cars are almost part of the family, hence their nicknames.