Every year at the Goodwood Festival of Speed one automaker is chosen as the Celebrated Marque, which seems to involve handing over a vast sum of money to Lord March in exchange for the chance to put some car-based sculpture on the front lawn outside his house.
This year the headline act is Porsche, and not for the first time. This will be the Stuttgart firm’s fourth outing as the Festival of Speed’s Celebrated Marque and coincides with the 75th anniversary of the 911’s predecessor, the 356, so expect some early Porsche machinery to feature heavily in the company’s display. No other automaker has been the show’s star on four separate occasions.
Goodwood says that a parade of Porsche cars that have helped define and guide the company’s vision over the years, both on the circuit and the street, will get to climb the 1.16-mile (1.9 km) hill at this year’s Festival of Speed, which takes place in West Sussex, England, between 13-16 July. The still-secret sculpture that signals Porsche’s status at the show is being designed by Gerry Judah, whose work has appeared at several previous Festival of Speed events.
Related: Hyundai Ioniq 5 N To Be Unveiled At Goodwood In July
The 356 isn’t the only one celebrating an anniversary this year. The FoS turns 30 in 2023 having grown from a small, niche event for classic car geeks into a bucket-list four-day weekend that covers every inch of the automotive spectrum and has become more important than many once-great motor shows.
Though Porsche is the Celebrated Marque for this year’s event, the overall theme of the 2023 FoS is ‘Goodwood 75’ and will included a dedicated hillclimb class that showcases the cars and bikes that have appeared at Goodwood since 1948. The Goodwood referred to in that instance isn’t the house that hosts the Festival, but the companion race circuit, which began as a disused WWII airfield in 1948, and currently hosts the Goodwood Revival in September, plus other racing events throughout the year.