WestSide VW show 2022
Welcome to pictures and review from this years Westside 2022 for PVW Magazine
2022 will certainly be a year that so many people remember for all the things that have happened good or bad. Saying that as a United Kingdom I think we have had the proverbial kicked out of us over the last few years.
Very recently with the death of our beloved Queen, change of prime minister, and the war in Ukraine, it’s taken a heavy toll on people’s feelings and taken a hefty chunk out of our pockets.
Now that the Pandemic is well sort of over, restrictions relaxed and people are allowed out again, it has taught us all that friends and family are a stay in our lives.
With that said I have the tune from “cheers” the American comedy about a bar where the lyrics say…
“Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name, and they're always glad you came.
You want to be where you can see, our troubles are all the same, you want to be where everybody knows your name”… That’s exactly what Westside provide !!
For me, it’s one of the stars in my calendar that I try my best not to miss. Held at the Chalfont St Peters Cricket Club, Buckinghamshire it’s central for most people in the South of the country and it’s only an hour and ten minutes for me up the M4 corridor.
From a working perspective (photographer) it’s a bloody nightmare because every time I stop and take a picture, I bump into someone who I haven’t seen in either a year and this is where we get to catch up on what’s been going on in our lives or I get to see friends that I haven’t seen in years. A ten-minute chat can turn into 40 minutes.
Checking the weather over the few days leading up to the show it promised to be a sunny day, and it certainly delivered. British weather at its best, sunny blue skies but at the same time no so hot that it made you uncomfortable.
I arrived just before nine in the morning, excited to see the Westside lads again and to also see the quality of the metal on display. Already at that time, we had to queue, and the cricket ground was packed.
Guaranteed at this show there is the highest of standards and the variety of cars mainly German, with the odd bit of rice cake and some ooh la la (French cars if you don’t get the reference) to give some spice. High-end Lambo’s Bentleys and Porsches all graced the show. There was a good mix of old-school Mercedes mixed in with more modern BMWs.
There was a good attendance of Caddies, but I think the most popular where the old school Golfs ranging from the stunning Mk1’s, MK2’ a large selection of MK3’s now getting harder to find and of course, the MK4’s had a large presence, including me in my MK4 wagon. MK5’s, some pretty sorted MK6’s, 7’s, and 7.5 were also showing a strong attendance.
Catering this year was on point with burgers and BBQ chicken on offer, and even though there was a large attendance at the show I didn’t see large queue for each of the different caterers, showing their efficiency for the hungry crowds.
I just have to add that the in-house catering by the Westside guys did furnish the show ground air with spicy smells of dishes, and on more than one occasion I would salivate passing their “Kargo“(pot of chicken, onions & spices).
With so much to see and so many people to catch up with the day flew by, before I knew it the time was ticking on for four in the afternoon and the trophies were being given out. Time to depart before the onslaught of heavily modifies cars would once again start to filter onto the roads of the surrounding area.
Thank you Westside for a fantastic day, a relaxed atmosphere, and the chance to catch up with friends.
Until next year…
Scott.
Salon Privé 2022 - Blenheim Palace
My favorite large-scale, high-end show of the year and they planned not to disappoint. This year Salon Prive they were hosting the Ferrari 75th Anniversary Class, a star attraction at its Concours d’Elégance presented by Aviva.
‘There have been many concours events in the past where rare Ferraris have been on display,’ said Salon Privé’s chairman, Andrew Bagley. ‘Blenheim Palace’s South Lawn, Salon Privé audiences will see a truly extraordinary collection of unique and ground-breaking Maranello cars – more than half of which with the prized Classiche certification - that defies comparison.’
WEDNESDAY - PRESS DAY:
This year would be different for me, on Wednesday the 31st was “press day” and I attended with all the other Media and Togs and we would get to see the reveal of so many special machines and have the chance to get up and close with the cars and the designers and production teams. On “press day” there are no visitors just us…
Wednesday was rather hot, so I decided to chance wearing shorts and a t-shirt. I packed trousers and a shirt in the car just in case but the staff at the event were nonjudgmental and didn’t seem to mind as I was working.
Sitting down in the marquee where the staff would welcome us for the day, we were offered coffee and Croissants. After the briefing, the PR Director and her staff would set out the day for us and what could be expected.
Wednesday Highlights:
An opportunity to witness manufacturers World, European and UK debuts
Plus, see the Salon Privé Concours d’Elégance featuring more than 100 cars
The Platinum Collection – a specially curated display of cars from the past 70 years, brought together for the first time in honour of The Queen’s Jubilee (RIP your Majesty )
Prodrive Legends feature that will celebrate the British company with a line-up of rally cars, racing cars such as the Ferrari 550 GTS and Aston Martin Vantage GT4, and the new Prodrive Hunter – the world’s first all-terrain hypercar.
The Apricale represents a revolution. It is the only hypercar to provide a zero-emissions powertrain in a car whose weight is the same as a petrol-powered equivalent – and half that of some battery-electric equivalents
After seeing the unveiling of the Viritech Apricale, we wandered over to the New Hennessey Venom F5 Roadster The Texas-built Venom F5 Roadster is a new rival to the Koenigsegg Regera and the Bugatti Chiron SuperSport. The guys on the stand confirmed that cowboy boots and hats were not part of the upgrade package.
2022 CLASS WINNERS:
BEST OF SHOW WINNER
Ferrari 250 GT TdF Berlinetta by Zagato
Year: 1956
Coachbuilder: Zagato
BEST OF SHOW RUNNER-UP
Alfa Romeo 6C 2300B Mille Miglia Cabriolet by Graber
Year: 1938
Coachbuilder: Graber
BEST OF SHOW THIRD PLACE
Bentley 8 Litre Saloon by Freestone & Webb
Year: 1931
Coachbuilder: Freestone & Webb
PEOPLE'S CHOICE
Lorraine Dietrich 130HP ‘Course’
Year: 1907
Coachbuilder: Lorraine Dietrich
CHURCHILL CUP FOR MOST EXCEPTIONAL DESIGN
Rolls-Royce Phantom II Continental Sports Coupé by Freestone & Webb
Year: 1933
Coachbuilder: Freestone & Webb
Full listings can be found here:
https://www.salonpriveconcours.com/about-concours-delegance/past-winners/
Sunday 4th September 2022 - Drivers Union
Another early start but this time with The Drivers Union.
Quote “A supercar club Founded in 2012 and with over 1,000 supercar-owning members, the Drivers Union is the largest and most exclusive multi-marque supercar club in the UK. Membership is open to owners of Ferrari, Lamborghini, McLaren, Pagani, and selected models from other supercar marques. We organise coffee mornings and group drive-outs, supercar lunches, dealer visits, discounts on services, and much more”.
I was invited along as one of their club photographers by Syeed Ali its founder and overall lovely gentleman. The day is well organised with members displaying their cars in the grounds of Blenheim palace, food was on offer for members and guests, and for those participating in the day, there were trophies on offer for the members.
The weather held out with blue skies and warm weather. The general public took great delight in viewing the cars on display and I got to meet up with other photographers and was invited onto the roof of the palace for a very special vantage point.
GOODWOOD FESTIVAL OF SPEED 2022
The last weekend of June and Goodwood Festival of Speed is here. Not that I had planned to go, but a friend of mine text me a week before to say he had a spare ticket for Friday 24th June, and would I be interested. Bears and woods spring to mind…
Now I haven’t been in quite some time, so the opportunity to break out the camera, without having to work and just wander around taking pictures of the cars I like.
Signer has just released their Turbo study, and along with most Porsche fans, I have wanted to get a close look at their new vehicle, but more on that later.
After a hectic journey down, lots of traffic, not helped by a rail strike, I arrived just about on time after a 05:30hrs start to the day. Clearing security (car park M), we came across the Jaguar F types drifting on a secure piece of track. It would have been rude not to poke our noses in and have a look, there is a video just below.
It was early so after a quick bacon and egg bap for breakfast courtesy of the in-show catering, we wandered past the BMW stand knowing that with would be pretty much packed even at this time of the morning with visitors wanting to put eyes on the new M3 Touring.
Instagram: @fosgoodwood
Facebook: Festival of Speed
YouTube: GoodwoodRRC
The last weekend of June and Goodwood Festival of Speed is here. Not that I had planned to go, but a friend of mine text me a week before to say he had a spare ticket for Friday 24th June, and would I be interested. Bears and woods spring to mind…
Now I haven’t been to Goodwood Festival of Speed in quite some time, so the opportunity to break out the camera, without having to work and just wander around taking pictures of the cars I like was an opportunity not to be missed…
Singer has just released their Turbo study, and along with most Porsche fans, I have wanted to get a close look at their new vehicle, but more on that later.
After a hectic journey down, lots of traffic, not helped by a rail strike, I arrived just about on time after a 05:30hrs start to the day. Clearing security (car park M), we came across the Jaguar F types drifting on a secure piece of track. It would have been rude not to poke our noses in and have a look, there is a video just below.
It was early so after a quick bacon and egg bap for breakfast courtesy of the in-show catering, we wandered past the BMW stand knowing that with would be pretty much packed even at this time of the morning with visitors wanting to put eyes on the new M3 Touring.
BMW celebrates 50 years of their highly sort after M series of cars, and what better way to celebrate it than at one of the world’s most prestigious motoring events.
Walking towards the hill climb and past the Bugatti stand, we were greeted by the Red Bull Lexus absolutely haring up the track with its rear tyres alight. The sound on this machine was awesome and with its green exposed carbon fibre it looks as mean as it sounded.
Drifting a Jaguar F Type…
After watching a few more runs by various cars going up the hill we decided to hit the pit area. Crossing the Goodwood bridge that you see in all the pictures you could hear, feel, taste, and smell the cars as they passed at speed underneath giving all of your senses a first-hand experience.
ASSEMBLY & PADDOCK:
The pit area is fantastic to be fair… Such an array of different machinery to be observed, sometimes allowed to touch these icons of the sport, and there are more than enough people within the pit area to answer any questions you may have. One thing you do find in the pit area is the checking of engines before going on the hill climb, which obviously means starting them and reviving them. At times we had to come away from the areas because we would be choking on the fumes of some of these beasts.
It was nice to see this Mercedes being prepped
Aston Martin’s Bulldog was getting a lot of attention in the pits
This Redbull Racing drift car was an absolute monster
NEXT:
So now that we had filled our eyes at the pits area from vintage track racers, new F1 racing cars, drift cars, and just about everything noisy smelly, and fast, it was time to grab a coffee soak in the atmosphere and then have a wander around the car park (Performance Parking West).
There were a lot of lovely machines parked in this area. A collection of cars belonged to the YouTuber Tim Burton - professionally as Shmee150 (you can tell by the number plates). Seen were his AMG Black series, Aston Martin GT8, Ford GT & AMG GT Black Series.
A few other cars I spotted while in the area… a VERY clean Lamborghini Gallardo in black with silver alloys and it just looked fresh and quite understated. I found a rather lovely Porsche GT3 in red, a load of McLarens in various colours, many more Porsches, a fair few Ferraris, and just countless lovely pieces of machinery. One thing you can say about Goodwood Festival of Speed is the amount of expensive cars and opulence on show for the public to come and view is staggering.
McLAREN HOUSE:
After our coffee break and a sit down we then headed towards Goodwood house, but first, it was time to have a look at the McLaren’s and to have a look at the Artura. As with a lot of the high-end motors they are on display stands where there is no chance of getting close to it for viewing or obtaining close-up, high-end pictures of details.
GOODWOOD HOUSE:
Wandering around the side of Goodwood house and then coming into sight is the main sculpture. The sculpture pays homage to five decades of the division and showcases some of its most iconic models of BMW’s M class.
Frank van Meel, CEO of BMW M said: “As BMW M, we feel honoured to play a very special role at this year's Festival of Speed. For our 50th anniversary, we couldn't imagine a better place to celebrate our products with fans of the brand. I am particularly looking forward to unveiling a certain vehicle to the world’s public for the first time - a vehicle we have been waiting a long time for”.
The Duke of Richmond said: “We are delighted to be celebrating 50 years of BMW’s hugely successful Motorsport division at this year’s Festival of Speed, and it is especially fitting as we prepare to honour ‘The Innovators - Masterminds of Motorsport’. BMW M’s success can of course be attributed to half a century of innovation and we look forward to honouring the marque’s past, present and future achievements at Goodwood in June.”
An overview of Goodwood house and the crowds taken from their live streaming for 2022
All the vehicles that are on display on the sculpture are genuine vehicles (these are not fibre-glass models) although before being displayed on the plinth all of their fluids were drained and the engines have been removed.
You’ll be able to get a first look at BMW’s upcoming M Hybrid V8 LMDh endurance racer. This is the very first time it’s been shown in the flesh and although it’s upside down you can get a good look at the celebratory ‘50 years of M’ camouflage. It is accompanied by the glorious V12 LMR, the aforementioned 3.0 CSL, an M1 Procar, and Jörg Müller’s old 3 Series WTCC racer.
A little bit of history about the Sculpture - It has been in place in front of The Earl of March’s house since 1997 and was designed by artist and designer Gerry Judah.
CARTIER STYLE ET LUXE:
Next, we visited the “Cartier Style et Luxe” area. We were greeted by a gaggle of McLaren F1’s from the XP4 experimental car to Rowan Atkinson F1 which was unfortunately in an accident. These cars do not get written off and the insurance company paid out over £900’000 to have his car put back on the road.
Being spoilt with so many stunning examples we then ventured further down in the area to be greeted by a stunning Ferrari F40, F50, an Enzo, La Ferrari, and a 288 GTO to mention but a few…
Singer Vehicle Design really shouldn’t need any introduction if you have even the slightest interest in cars. Their new release to the public is the 911 Turbo or as they call it the Singer Turbo Study. I have been itching to see this car in the flesh since it was announced and I have no shame in saying I am an absolute fanboy. YouTube has a lot to answer for in keeping me locked in and going down many rabbit holes with anything slightly “backdated” or “reimagined”.
The stand was swamped by people and Photographers, and it was hard to get anywhere near the car. It wasn’t placed on the stand as it had been destined for the hill climb, so space around the car to get pictures was difficult, to say the least.
Sitting in the drivers seat Dario Franchitti
CATHEDRAL PADDOCK:
We wandered down to Cathedral Paddock to check out the endurance and Rally cars. There were all sorts there from the Redbull Dakar Rally pickup trucks, to Peugeot 3008 Decar Rally Cars, Ford group B Rally car RS 1700T, RS200, Metro 6R4’s, Citron Zara , Citrion ZX Dacar, Subaru impretsa, etc.
START LINE:
Before going to grab some food we decided that the next destination would be the start line. As you can imagine it wasn’t too long before we were getting covered in tyre smoke, breathing in the noxious fumes, and having our ears battered by the sound of screaming 4 cylinders units, flat 6s, V6’s, V8’s, V10’s (I do love a sound of a Lamborghini on full chat), V12’s and V16’s. The EV’s were impressive with their speed but the ones we saw unfortunately lacked any drama.
Although saying that (and I have to eat my own words here) McMurtry Automotive Speirling fan car broke both official and unofficial hillclimb records on Sunday driven by Ex-Formula 1 and IndyCar driver Max Chilton
Officially, the history books had Nick Heidfeld down as the true record holder courtesy of his famous 1999 run in the McLaren MP4/13 F1 machine that buzzed the line at 41.6s.
Unofficially, however, Romain Dumas had been the fastest driver up the famous 1.1-mile route aboard the Pikes Peak-winning Volkswagen ID.R - he eventually posted a 39.9s effort. However, Dumas’ run in the ID.R, which was tuned specifically for Goodwood, was set in the Saturday qualifying session and not in the officially recognised Sunday shootout climax.
Regardless, Chilton has surpassed both benchmarks thanks to a remarkable and definitive 39.08s charge in the astonishing McMurtry, which instantly deploys 2000kg of downforce from a fan.
Watch the video below courtesy of Goodwood Road & Racing
As you can see we were pretty close to the start line… The bloke in the picture is not me by the way lol
This beautiful Singer was on the hill climb and it just sounded amazing going through the gears up the hill. The car sounds better and better and as the noise reverberated off the wall at the top of the hill… no words can describe how good it sounded.
You may be wondering what racing car drivers were at Goodwood Festival of Speed this year? Follow the link for an article by Ben Miles who breaks down the drivers by category and gives a bit of an insight into who the drivers are. LINK
Food was next… We had walked and talked, gasped in amazement at the fantasicle machines on display, but the primal urge for a burger and chips with a nice pint of larger was getting stronger by the moment. Refreshed and somewhat lighter of a few guinea’s it was time to go soak up what was on offer with the exhibitors, then we visited the Electric Avenue, FOS Future Labs, and taking in a what is the future and Electric.
One car company that did catch my eye was the Polestar concept cars. The Polestar O2 is described as “taking the design language established with Polestar Precept further, creating a new premium performance paradigm as an all-electric roadster. A unique two-door convertible concept that merges art with technology. Remove the roof to experience pure performance, without the noise”.
So with the Festival of Speed done… Almost, it would have been rude not to pop into the Porsche stand on the way out… But now I was truly shattered, the weather had been great, the organisers had thrilled us and it was time to take the next part of the day in my stride by heading home with a camera full of pictures, a belly full of food but most of all memories that I will cherish until the same time next year.
Thank you all for coming and reading my blog and looking at my pictures.
Take care…
Scott.