The Goodwood Revival is one of the coolest automotive events of the year. It features some of the best classic car racing you’ll ever see and, being in England, a lot of classic Mini Coopers. This new video shows off both of those things, as two classic Minis do battle at Goodwood and it’s a delight to watch.
With Le Mans-winning driver Andre Lottere in one car and LMP2 racer Alex Brundle in another, you get to watch a great on-track face-off, in the midst of a larger race. Classic Minis look like so much fun to race but they also look sort of scary. They can carry so much speed into corners, due to their absurdly square wheelbase and wheeltrack, incredibly low curb-weight, and clever suspension. If you upgrade a classic Mini, and give it modern tires, it will out-grip almost anything else on the rod. Which is why you can watch Minis take corners at frightening speeds and know they’ll hang on. However, you also know that there’s about two centimeters of sheetmetal in between your body and any other objects you might hit. So it’s as scary as it is exciting.
However, when you’re just watching, and not actually inside the thing, it’s incredibly entertainment. Watching Minis battle it out on track, while being driven by pros, is a thrill and I’m watching it on my laptop, while sitting on my couch. I can only imagine how thrilling it must have been to see in person.
Even more interesting than the Minis battling each other is watching how much faster they corner than other cars on track. There’s a vintage Jag behind them for most of the video and you can see the Jag catch up in the straights but they both leave it for dead in the corners.
There were obviously some sensational cars at the Goodwood revival, from classic Jags, to Aston Martins, and McLarens. Obviously, being in Goodwood, British cars were the primary concern but you won’t heat me complaining. However, among all of those high-priced, ultra-rare, breathtaking sports cars, the humble Mini is still one that excites the fanbase more than most. There’s something impossibly, undeniably cool about classic Minis that everyone seems to get. So as cool as the other cars were at Goodwood, it’s a classic Mini shootout that I want to see.
