HIS MOST famous character drove a battered old Mini – badly. However, in real life the star of Mr Bean, Rowan Atkinson, has owned some of the most desirable cars in the world and is an experienced amateur racing driver.
The last time People caught up with him was at 2014’s Goodwood Revival vintage car meeting, when he was about to race a powder-blue Ford Falcon. Unfortunately, the race ended badly, with him being hit by another competitor and being forced to retire after just 20 minutes.
The experience clearly hasn’t put Atkinson off cars. He was back at Goodwood yesterday, for the 73rd Members’ Meeting, which recreates the famous Goodwood Members’ Meetings of the past, and comprises races and demonstrations of everything from 1920s Grand Prix cars to saloon racers of the early 1980s.
Atkinson took part in a pitstop challenge, teaming up with Pink Floyd drummer and fellow car enthusiast Nick Mason, to compete against another celebrity team to see who could change the tyres of a Mercedes F1 car fastest. Surprisingly, though, this was the only sort of race Atkinson was there to take part in.
“I am as much as a car fan as ever,” he said. “But motor racing is a faff. Getting a car to the event, getting dressed up, signing on, the racing itself. It’s all a lot of effort. This time I’m just going to look at the cars and enjoy the Goodwood atmosphere.”
Explaining just what makes that atmosphere so special, he said: “It’s like a period painting or a blackand-white photograph come to life. But you’ve also got some very quick drivers driving some very quick cars. It’s a yin and yang.”
Highlights at the meeting, which continues today, include the incredible ‘‘highairbox’’ Formula One cars of the mid-1970s and a celebration of the McLaren F1 GTR, which won the Le Mans 24 Hours race 20 years ago.
Indeed, Atkinson’s partner for the day, Mason, brought his own GTR to the event. “It was the mule, the car [McLaren] used for practice and testing for the race programme,” Mason explained, before suggesting he was now too old to race it himself. “I was thinking of taking up music instead,” he joked.
Just because neither Atkinson or Mason were getting behind the wheel, though, it doesn’t mean they’ve lost their competitive spirit; they won the pit-stop challenge. Is James Bond a dead man? Mexico’s Day of the Dead celebrations are recreated for the new 007 film, Spectre