I always try in the days leading up to the Goodwood Festival of Speed to avoid social media for fear of seeing pictures of the show piece sculpture that takes pride of place in front of the main house which forms the centrepiece of the event. 

This year I was even more cautious knowing that the celebrated marque would be MG, a manufacturer I have always had a fondness for. Press releases from Goodwood had quoted the Duke of Richmond as saying “Following the world debut of the striking Cyberster at the 2023 Festival of Speed, we are delighted that MG are returning to Goodwood this year to celebrate their centenary in style with their first Central Feature. It is set to be a fitting tribute to the first 100 years of one of Britain’s oldest and most popular manufacturers, which has enjoyed a long association with Goodwood.”

My trip to Goodwood was booked for the Friday, originally the first day of the main event, although since the cessation of the moving motor show that had in previous years been run on the Thursday the Festival of Speed has now become a four day event. The main track action doesn’t really begin until Friday with much of the time on the hillclimb being given over to manufacturers on Thursday for them to show off their latest offerings. 

Previous years have seen superb sculptures grace the front lawn of the house from manufacturers like Porsche, BMW, and Audi, although my favourite is easily the 91ft tubular Jaguar E-Type which featured in 2011; what many visitors to the event don’t realise is that one man has been responsible for the creation of these structures since the first one in 1997. As I excitedly walked through the gates a little after 7am on Friday, one of the first places for me to head to was the front of the house to see what Gerry Judah had created for this year's celebration of MG. 

On first impressions it's certainly not one of my favourites - it's perhaps a little underwhelming compared to some of Judah’s previous efforts. The centre spar appears to float with no big metal supports, instead being held in place by a series of wires giving the structure a sort of wire wheel vibe. The Red metal spar features two cars with the latest MG Cyberster at one end with a classic MGB Roadster on the other, and that’s it. Maybe this was an early sign that the 100 year anniversary would maybe not be the huge celebration I had hoped for. 

Walking around the event it was obvious that many manufacturers and organisations had gone all out to celebrate their anniversaries. Mercedes-Benz had more or less emptied their museum as many of the exhibits were at Goodwood to celebrate the brand’s 130 year involvement in motorsport. The Cathedral paddock was given over in its entirety to Red Bull Racing as the brand celebrated its 20th anniversary; this was easily one of the best displays I had ever seen and I am not really a Formula 1 fan. 

So what would MG do to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the company that had originally been created by Cecil Kimber in the 1920s as the sports car division of the Oxford based business Morris Garages? Would visitors be treated to a parade of cars from the first car rather aptly called Old Number One through cars like the MG TA, Magnette, Midget, B and then maybe including Le Mans racers like the EX257 and into the Group B monster 6R4. Alas no……the presence of classic MGs was at most poor. 

Now I know that MG is no longer a British owned company and that for many years the marque didn’t even exist, but I had expected much more. On the timetable for each of the four days was an ‘MG Celebration moment’ - perhaps this would quench my thirst for this iconic British brand. Previous years have seen cars from the celebrated manufacturers gather on gravel path that edges the lawn around the sculpture while live music is performed, and fireworks are let off from the roof of the main house, I fondly remember the Aston Martin moment from 2019 which saw everything from a DBR/1 to the newest Vanquish Zagato on display. 

Stood trackside as the MG cars made their way to the lawn for the celebration, I counted them and disappointingly still had fingers left on both hands. There was a 1931 C-Type which rather interestingly belonged to the Grandfather of the current Duke of Richmond (owner of Goodwood), a Magnette K3 from 1933, a 1955 MGA, 1968 MGC GT Sebring, a Metro 6R4 from 1986, and bringing things up to date the 2023 MG EX4 and finally one of the new Cyberster all electric roadsters. Seven cars, from a manufacturer that has existed for 100 years. The firework display was similar to previous years and the Chinese themed drumming troupe was a nod to the manufacturer’s current owners. 

Checking the festival entry list (some 27 pages of A4) for more MGs that had perhaps just not made it to the celebration I had attended, I did find another three 6R4s at the event albeit at the top of the hill in the Forest Rally Stages which unfortunately given my limited time at the festival I would not be able to make the trip up to. 

So it seems that maybe the 2024 Festival of Speed was not the celebration of MG I had hoped for. Not really a celebration befitting the brand, Cecil and MG deserved more.

Heading to the opposite side of the track and to the rather large and impressive MG stand did bring a few highlights. The new Cyber GTS Concept making its global debut at Goodwood looked great, and the EXE181 Concept car was superb and clearly harks back to the EX181 of 1957 in which Stirling Moss and Phil Hill achieved 245.64mph on the Bonneville Salt Flats. 

The imagery and videos surrounding this concept were great and did give visitors an indication of the inspiration for this new concept. However, the rest of the stand was populated by the latest offerings from the new owners without any nods to the history of this great brand especially in its 100th year.

All someone had to do was pop a call into the Heritage Motor Centre at Gaydon - their collection of historic MGs is impressive - and I am sure they would have happily sent a couple of transporters down to create a fantastic display of cars wearing the octagonal badge. 

So I left Goodwood a little disappointed and felt the need to make the trip to Gaydon, just off junction 12 of the M40 to undertake my own celebration of Cecil Kimber and MG.