RWR RACERS ON PARADE

One of Britain’s greatest privateer team owners, Rob Walker, was honoured in style at the Revival with an impressive set of racers in his signature colours of dark blue with a white noseband. Walker’s son Robbie led the parade in his father’s Delahaye 135S, in which Walker senior famously switched suits during his stints at Le Mans in 1939 (see Full throttle, p53).

The glorious parade included both Tt-winning Ferrari 250GT SWBS, which Stirling Moss drove to victory at Goodwood in 1960 and ’61. Sir Jackie Stewart stepped in for the ailing Moss to drive the 1958 Argentinian Gp-winning Cooper T43, which kicked off the rear-engined revolution. Walker’s road cars included the Facel II now owned by motorsport commentator Bob Constanduros, and the only key machines missing were his treasured ex-richard Seaman GP Delage and Jo Siffert’s 1968 British Gp-winning Lotus 49B R7.

Few automotive aural treats match the majestic sound of an Eagle-weslake V12, and in honour of the much-missed Goodwood hero Dan Gurney, the Revs Institute sent over his 1967 Belgian Grand Prix-winning Eagle for Derek Bell and Stewart to demonstrate. To mark the occasion, marshals painted ‘VIVA Gurney’ on the Goodwood grid. As an aspiring racer, Bell had watched Gurney test the Eagle at Goodwood, and was overjoyed to be asked to drive the historic single-seater. “An incredible car,” was the five-time Le Mans winner’s verdict.

Other parades included a celebration of British Transport – joined by a full-size steam train beside the track – and a set of 50 Revival winners headed by Ludovic Lindsay in ERA R5B ‘Remus,’ in which he won the first race in 1998.