A visit to a Country Estate
July 23rd, 2008 / No Comments » / by Adam
A couple of weeks ago now, I was fortunate enough to get to the Goodwood Country Estate in West Sussex. Those of you who know me, especially when I was younger, know that I was (and still am) car mad. Less so now, but they are still very much my passion.
The Festival of Speed provided me with the opportunity to get unbelievably close to some machinery which is the stuff of dreams. Like a big kid, I almost squealed with delight, when, in the paddock, the Jaguar XJR-9LM, one of the most famour cars in endurance racing history, parked right beside me.
Jan Lammers, along with co-drivers Andy Wallace and Johnny Dumfries, drove the XJR-9LM to victory from sixth place on the grid in the 56th Le Mans 24 Hours.
An evolution of the XJR-9, the XJR-9LM was designed by Tony Southgate and built by TWR specifically for the 24 Hours of Le Mans where the requirement for high straight line speeds on the Mulsanne straight necessitated a low-drag aerodynamic package.
Jaguar went to Le Mans with an entry of five XJR-9 cars, all powered by the Jaguar V12 engine producing 750bhp from a capacity of 7.0 litres, which was based on the 5.3 litre V12 from the XJS. At the end of the race three cars were still running finishing first, fourth and sixteenth.
The winning Jaguar completed 394 laps and covered a distance of 3313 miles, in comparison the winning D-type of 1957 covered a distance of 2732 miles.
Also there was the Gold Leaf lotus, the first Formula One car to run advertising:
The iconic JPS Lotus:
Alan Jones’ awesome Saudia Leyland Williams:
James Hunt’s Hesketh, the car which launched him towards a drive with McLaren:
And the Lotus 49:
Among others 
Goodwood is a throughly enjoyable day out, with the opportunity to get close to both modern day machinery and historics. If you like cars, go!
