The Girly Girl’s Guide To Goodwood

Here’s our beginner’s guide to the world of motorsport...

How to keep up with the petrol heads at the Festival Of Speed...

Name-check some veterans Murray Walker, Stirling Moss (no relation to Kate)... these guys are like celebrities in the motor racing world. Google some legends before you go so that you at least know who everyone’s talking about.

Talk about horse-power Drop in as many car-type facts as you can when you walk around the exhibition. Every show model has a sign next to it with details of engine size, max speed, etc., which you can totally pinch stats from. And if you’re not impressed by machines, be impressed by their price tags. The ‘Fearsome Four-Nine’ Ferrari 375-Plus was sold for £10.7 million at Goodwood’s vintage car auction this year.

Don’t cover your ears! Engines are loud. Very, very loud. But sticking your fingers in your ears will make any rookie stand out immediately. Seasoned Goodwood goers don’t even flinch when a throbbing McLaren Honda MP4/4 car thunders past them. Maybe it’s because they really are that hardcore, or maybe it’s because their passion for the sport caused them to go deaf a long time ago.

But what should I wear? Step away from the floral hair garland. This is not that type of festival. Goodwood’s 100,000 strong crowd generally wear anoraks, jeans and trainers - a look we would probably deem to be ‘normcore’ but actually in this mass practice it’s just normal people wearing... normal stuff. Oh.

And finally… If you spot a fellow girly girl who didn’t get the memo about the engine grease (we’re looking Yasmin Le Bon’s pristine white playsuit and mega-wedges combo) then do the decent thing and compliment her outfit. Your show of solidarity will restore her faith in this new found mechanical world and you might just make a new friend.

With thanks to Honda