Glorious Goodwood

Counting down the days until the Goodwood Festival of Speed, which starts at the end of next week. As usual, I'm looking forward to it enormously but this year I'm also feeling slightly nervous about the whole thing as I've invited one of my car-mad German friends to come along too; I've been telling him for years what a fantastic event this is and he's finally decided to take the plunge, so I'm really hoping it doesn't rain like last year, which could turn the whole thing into an enormous disappointment.

Just about everyone I've spoken to about the Festival of Speed has the same favourite memory as I do, which isn't strictly car-related at all; back in 2004, I think it was, the organisers lined up a South African Airways Boeing 747 to do an aerobatic display.

Exactly. That's what I'd have thought if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, but it is possible for a jumbo to put on a spectacular show, as the very capable crew of that SAA plane showed. I don't think they quite got it to loop the loop but more than once I was convinced the thing was going to fall out of the sky. I suspect that there may have been some complaints from the Earl of March's neighbours as I don't think the 747 has appeared at Goodwood since. I suppose it's too much to hope for a repeat performance this year!