An unchanged circuit, period dress throughout, and no modern car allowed inside the fence
The Goodwood Revival is a three-day festival held each September at the Goodwood Circuit, and it has run since 1998. It is restricted entirely to the types of racing cars and motorcycles that would have competed during the circuit’s original active period, between 1948 and 1966. Most people who attend dress in period clothes, and the effect of several tens of thousands doing so at once is the reason the event is unlike anything else in motorsport.
The first Revival was staged fifty years after the 9th Duke of Richmond and Gordon opened the motor racing track in 1948, driving around the circuit in a Bristol 400 — then the state of the art in British sporting saloons. It is now one of the most popular motor race meetings in the world and the only event in the United Kingdom that recreates the 1950s and 1960s era of the sport rather than merely displaying it.
The circuit is unchanged from its heyday, remaining in the 1952 configuration it took when the chicane was added. That single fact is what separates the Revival from a historic race meeting held on a modernised track: the corners are the corners, and the cars are being driven at the speeds and on the lines they were designed for.
The rule that completes it is that no modern vehicle is allowed within the circuit perimeter across the whole weekend, apart from fire and rescue vehicles. Theatrical sets, period shopfronts, and historic aircraft fill the rest. Between 1948 and 1966 Goodwood hosted contemporary racing of every kind, including Formula One, the Goodwood Nine Hours, and the Tourist Trophy sports car race — so the programme is a reconstruction of the circuit’s own history rather than an invention.
The programme is built from named trophies, each for a defined class and period. The Stirling Moss Memorial Trophy is an hour-long race for GT cars that competed up to 1963. The Richmond and Gordon Trophies cover 2.5-litre Grand Prix cars from 1954 to 1960, while the Glover Trophy takes the 1.5-litre Grand Prix cars of 1961 to 1965. The Goodwood Trophy reaches furthest back, to Grand Prix and voiturette machinery from 1930 to 1951.
Alongside them sit the Whitsun Trophy for prototypes up to 1966, the St Mary’s Trophy as a two-part pro-am decided on aggregate, and the Royal Automobile Club Tourist Trophy Celebration for cars that raced in the TT when it was held at Goodwood. Many of these cars are driven by well-known names from the sport’s past and present. There is also the Settrington Cup, a pedal car race for children in Austin J40s, and it is reliably the most closely watched race of the weekend.
Tell us which September and we will arrange the circuit, the county, and the clothes
Goodwood runs four distinct events on one estate and our clients rarely stop at one. We arrange the Festival of Speed in July, Glorious Goodwood at the end of that month and the Members’ Meeting in spring. For those following historic motorsport more widely, the Revival pairs with Le Mans Classic and Monterey Car Week. Corporate hosting runs through our Business Concierge team.
This is the question we are asked most, and the answer is simpler than people fear. The period is 1948 to 1966, which is wide enough to cover everything from a demob suit to a mid-sixties shift dress, and nobody is checking authenticity at the gate. What matters is committing to one decade rather than assembling a costume from three.
For men, a well-cut suit in a period weight, a proper shirt, and the right shoes will do more than any accessory. For women, the silhouette reads at a distance — the cut of the skirt and the shape of the shoulder, not the pattern. One practical note: period shoes were not made for a day on grass, and the paddock is at the far end of a large circuit.
Each September, across three days at the Goodwood Circuit in West Sussex
1948 to 1966, the circuit’s original active period. Only cars and motorcycles from that era compete
No, but almost everyone does it, and the weekend is a great deal better if you join in
No. The Festival of Speed is held in July on the hill at Goodwood House. The Revival is racing on the circuit
Not inside the circuit perimeter, apart from fire and rescue vehicles. That rule is what makes the event work
Four to six months for hospitality and a house in Sussex. An entry needs considerably longer
The Goodwood Revival dates are set for a September weekend, with the exact days confirmed on the circuit’s official calendar some months in advance.
Goodwood Revival tickets can be bought per day or for the full three days, and paddock and grandstand allocations are limited each year.
The Goodwood Revival dress code calls for period attire up to 1966, with most visitors choosing 1940s-1960s style for the day.
If a complete outfit feels daunting, Goodwood Revival what to wear is often simplified to a tweed jacket for men or a tea dress with gloves for women, which still meets the dress code.
Goodwood circuit racing at the Revival features pre-1966 cars competing wheel to wheel on the same layout used by Formula 1 in the 1950s and 1960s.
