Porsche Cayman GT4 racer and heir to the Goodwood empire Charlie March takes us on a short, sharp blast through his own backyard in the latest part of the Porsche Newsroom’s Sunday Drives series.
The approach to the private side of Goodwood House is a little like finding Harry Potter’s Platform 9¾ at King’s Cross Station. All around are sights familiar to anyone who has ever been to the Goodwood Festival of Speed, or even watched it on the television. There’s the long sweeping drive. There’s the vast and immaculate lawn where the supercars sit during the week of the event. There’s the mansion with its balcony and copper-roofed towers. But, tucked out of sight and round the corner is a discreet pair of unmarked electric gates, which you suspect will disappear behind you as soon as you’ve passed through.
In the time it takes to park up, a butler in half morning dress has glided into view behind the Duke of Richmond’s Rolls-Royce. Introducing himself as Monty, he ushers you through the exquisitely decorated and surprisingly un-stately part of what is, after all, a family home. Albeit a home with old masters fit for a national museum hanging on the wall. Monty offers a cup of tea (“Builder’s or Earl Grey?”) and shows you into the garden where a table has been laid in anticipation of your arrival. With the sort of raised eyebrow only possessed by the very finest of his profession, Monty encourages the gardener who is noisily mowing the lawn to find somewhere else to be, then disappears. A few minutes later he is replaced by Charlie March, heir to the Goodwood Estate and recent convert to Porsche Motorsport.
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