BMW Motorrad invites all enthusiasts of motorsport to join them at Goodwood House on 01-03 July for the prestigious Festival of Speed. Some of BMW’s most iconic motorcycles, cars and racers, both past and present, will help ensure that the150,000 visitors to the 2011 Festival of Speed experience one of the most enjoyable events on the British motorsports calendar.

The highlight of this unique event is the hillclimb runs, during which legendary vehicles and stars, including five BMW motorcycles and five cars, enter a time trialled hillclimb along Lord March’s world-famous 1.16 mile drive through the Goodwood House estate in Chichester.

BMW Motorrad Motorsports’ World Superbike racer Leon Haslam will be tackling the hillclimb on his 200+bhp BMW S 1000 RR race bike and will also be around to sign autographs and meet fans during the weekend.

John Surtees OBE, the only man ever to be crowned world champion on both two and four wheels, will be making the run on a supercharged 1939 Type 255 Kompressor race bike. Making 60bhp and weighing just 138kg, the 482cc supercharged Boxer took Georg Meier to victory in the 1939 Senior TT race on the Isle of Man.


Surtees bought the bike in bits in the 1980s and painstakingly restored it to pristine condition. He has kindly loaned the only remaining example of this three-time world championship winning bike to the BMW Classic museum in Germany.

BMW stunt star Mattie Griffin, one of the best freestyle stunt riders in the world, will be at the event for the second year in a row, treating visitors to a dazzling display of motorcycle handling, performing stoppies and burnouts as he wheelies up the Goodwood hill.

Mattie will be performing two shows a day on his specially-prepared F 800 R, which will also be on display in the paddock, where he will be meeting and chatting to fans and visitors. Motorcycle News’ senior road tester Michael Neeves will be participating in the hillclimb event on his S 1000 RR MRO Superstock racer, prepared by BMW Park Lane.

Away from the hillclimb route, visitors to Goodwood can experience the BMW Pavillion, a huge building which showcases a range of BMW motorcycles and cars, as well as the advanced technology and rich heritage of the brand. This year it will include the award and championship winning S 1000 RR supersports bike, as well as the stunning HP2 Sport in Motorsports colours, featuring the most powerful boxer engine ever built.

The two sportiest motorcycles in the BMW Motorrad range will line up alongside the ground-breaking new K 1600 GT and K 1600 GTL six-cylinder grand tourers. The K 1600 models represent the pinnacle of luxury touring and advanced motorcycle technology.

And for four-wheeled enthusiasts, the BMW Pavillion will also host nine of the finest cars in the range, including a number of high performance M-series machines. Five BMW cars will make the hillclimb, as well as the MINI John Cooper Works rally car, driven by MINI’s World Rally Championship driver Kris Meeke.

Tony Jakeman, BMW Motorrad UK Marketing Manager, said: “The Goodwood Festival of Speed is an event unlike any other in motorsport. Not only do the bikes, cars, riders and drivers span every series and era, but the 150,000 visitors are able to walk among the paddock, experiencing the sights and smells of the machines.

“We’re very excited to be bringing a range of stunning motorcycles to join the BMW cars, and especially to have two of our most iconic bikes, the BMW S 1000 RR World Superbike and the Type 255 Kompressor, ridden up the hill by two of the most recognisable faces in British motorsport: John Surtees and Leon Haslam.”

For more information or to purchase tickets visit www.goodwood.co.uk For information on the 2011 BMW Motorrad range visit www.bmw-motorrad.co.uk


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Niece piece of misleading BMW advertisement here, hopefully it's not for free...
The supercharged RS 255 won three worldchampionships in a period when there were no worldchampionships ?? Georg Meier won the European championship in '38 on this bike and a couple of post war titles in Germany as long as supercharged bikes (till '51) were eligible here. And certainly more than one RS 255 has survived, only the old dispute who owns the 'real' Senior TT winning bike of '39 seems to ge going on. By the way, BMW had a very ambivalent approach when the BMW RS 54 Rennsport engine dominated the sidecar worldchampionship in the sixties and early seventies with hardly any support for the ones who ran the show.

I have just been sent an "invitation"..

Lobster, Champagne and a good seat =====£175 !!

NAW !

Magnificent Motorcycles at the Festival of Speed
In just two weeks the tough 1.16-mile Goodwood hillclimb will roar to the sounds of a huge variety of competition motorcycles at the 2011 Festival of Speed (30 June-03 July) as many of the world’s finest competition bikes and most talented riders take to the Hill.

The array of famous motorcycles and world-class riders at the Festival of Speed has become an integral part of the event for all motor sport enthusiasts. This year Goodwood will celebrate the first 100 years of the Mountain Course on the Isle Of Man TT by gathering an extensive collection of significant motorcycles and riders that have triumphed on this gruelling event over the last century. A host of TT riders will be at the Festival, including two-time winner Cameron Donald, Isle of Man legend John McGuiness, plus Stuart Graham, Guy Martin, John Kidson, Keith Amor, and 14-time sidecar winner Dave Molyneux.

The first 50 years of Honda success in Grand Prix motorcycle racing will also be celebrated, with the Japanese giant having won their first world championship in 1961, ridden by the incomparable Mike Hailwood. Along with iconic championship-winning Honda bikes, Works World Supersport rider Sam Lowes will also be in action at Goodwood.

The Festival’s contemporary focus falls on the ultra-competitive World Superbike Championship. Home-grown riders have always had a strong affinity with this road-based formula, and this continues today, with five leading Britons fighting for the championship. Many of the leading teams and riders will be at the Festival of Speed, including BMW Motorrad’s 2010 runner up Leon Haslam, plus Tom Sykes and Jonathan Rea. Other stars in action on two wheels at Goodwood will include multiple trials champions Sammy Miller and Dougie Lampkin, plus two- and four-wheeled legend John Surtees.



Motocross Champions
This year’s Revival will celebrate a branch of two-wheeled sport at which Britons were once dominant. Motocross was a hugely popular sport on British television in the 1960s, and Revival will evoke memories of that era with a parade, featuring seven past champions: Dave Bickers, Dave Curtis, Derek Rickman, Dennis Rickman, Jeff Smith, Arthur Lampkin and Les Archer.

There will be more than 50 bikes on track from such great names as BSA, Tribsa, Husqvarna, DOT and a huge number of makes and models in between. Also be sure to visit the period dressed paddock for the motocross bikes behind Lavant corner Grandstand, where the bikes will be riding off-road demonstrations throughout the day.

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Surtees and Haslam together at Goodwood

Legend John Surtees and works rider Leon Haslam will entertain the crowds at the 2011 Goodwood Festival of Speed on old and new BMW motorcycles.

Again next week 150,000 visitors will make the pilgrimage to Goodwood House near Chichester in West Sussex (GBR). They are lured there by the Goodwood Festival of Speed from 1st to 3rd July, which has been held every year since 1993. Today’s stars and heroes from the past from car and motorcycle racing will meet up at this legendary event. This year the highlight will again be the hillclimb runs, during which the stars will race up the world-famous 1.16-mile road through the Goodwood House estate. Among the vehicles will be a selection of the most prestigious BMW motorcycles and racing cars.

One of the motorcycles will be the supercharged BMW Type 255 Kompressor racing bike that took Georg Meier (GER) to victory in the 1939 “Tourist Trophy” on the Isle of Man. This made him the first non-British rider to win at that notorious race. At the 2011 Goodwood Festival of Speed none other than John Surtees OBE (GBR) is riding this historic bike – the only man ever to be crowned world champion on both two and four wheels. Surtees bought the motorcycle, which was in bits, in the 1980s and painstakingly restored it to its pristine condition. Later, Surtees sold the bike – the only remaining example of the BMW Type 255 Kompressor – back to BMW, and it found a new home at the BMW Group Classic in Munich (GER).

“Since I first saw those fantastic pictures of Georg Meier flying down Paddock Hill on the way to his 1939 TT victory in the Isle of Man it has always had a special place in my heart,” said Surtees. “I subsequently located that machine and restored it with the help of ex BMW team personnel. I rode it in demonstrations around the world before it returned to its home in Munich. I will be pleased to be back together with an old friend.”

It will be a meeting of the generations: while Surtees will ride the historic BMW bike of the 1930s, BMW Motorrad Motorsport works rider, Leon Haslam (GBR), will tackle the “2011 Hillclimb” at Goodwood on the machinery he is currently riding in the FIM Superbike World Championship, the BMW S 1000 RR. He is also looking forward to the festival: “Goodwood is a fantastic event that offers great entertainment from machinery with both two and four wheels. Everybody is there, Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button and the old stars like Stirling Moss. I always have a great time when I am there.”

“I am very much looking forward to riding the BMW S 1000 RR up the hill. All those people like John Surtees are now legends, and it will be great to be sitting alongside them and to get to ride the bike up the hill with them. On top of that you have all the entertainment and the evening black-tie event. It is always great and an event everybody is looking forward to during the year.”