Goodwood Revival 2024
A week on from the Goodwood Revival 2024, and we are still finding mud in unexpected places. What a weekend! Despite the heavy rain and mud rivalling the worst years at Glastonbury, we had a fantastic time. The crowds were still out in force, and everyone was enjoying themselves despite the conditions. Visitors were still wearing their finest vintage outfits, including some very brave footwear choices given the weather, and the car parks were full of classic cars. We’ve had a queue of vehicles in the yard, all needing to be washed after coming out of the muddy car parks. Everything from Goodwood seems to fetch a good price, so we’ve even considered packaging up the Goodwood mud and selling it on!
This year, Goodwood celebrated the 75th anniversary of the XK engine. The XK engine was produced in various formats from 1949 all the way through to 1992. As such, it has been a staple of British motoring and motorsport, and it is only right that its significance was recognised at such a prestigious event. Goodwood organised a magnificent parade of XK-powered machines around the motor circuit, featuring early XKs, C-Types, and D-Types, through to Mk1, Mk2, and E-Type race cars.
We had a very busy weekend on the stand. As ever, it was a great opportunity to catch up with customers. We had a lovely lineup of cars for sale, including two XK120s, a fully restored XK140, an XK150, and an E-Type on display. These received a lot of interest, particularly the stunning XK140 and the E-Type, and we have a few test drives booked in over the coming weeks. There was also significant interest in our servicing and upgrade work, with many new customers booking their XKs and E-Types in for the Twyford Moors treatment. Additionally, a Twyford Moors-restored XK140 went through the Bonhams auction over the weekend, and we were pleased to see it sold for a sensible price.
With so many classics travelling to the event, a few breakdowns were inevitable. We were ready for this with the workshop open on Friday and Saturday, and an emergency toolkit kept on our stand at the show. Over the weekend, we were able to help out a number of European visitors with their classic Jaguars, getting them back on the road. On Friday, Harry was out in the muddy Pre-66 car park fixing a charging fault on an XK140 that had come over from Germany. On Saturday, we had a visit to the workshop from a French XK140 whose windscreen wipers had failed. Monday saw us recovering a stricken C-Type replica, which we managed to get back on the road by the next day. We were able to repair all three cars in a timely manner, allowing their owners to enjoy the rest of their trip.
As always, thank you to everyone who visited us on the stand and helped make it such a fantastic weekend. A special thank you to Guy and Shan from the HCVA, who joined us at the stand for the weekend. Now, I’m off to clean off more of that Goodwood mud!
