Mark Bursa, editor of sister title Business Van Manager, driving us to Goodwood in a Renault Master van
Business Car Manager: Editor’s Blog
THE annual Goodwood Festival of Speed is a wonderful celebration of automotive history – with a good nod to the present, too.
It’s essentially a four-day motoring garden party on the front lawn of the Earl of March’s house in Goodwood, Sussex.
The theme of this year’s Festival is ‘Viva Veloce! – The Passion for Speed’ celebrating the all-consuming fascination with motor racing, and Italy’s global influence on the sport. Alfa Romeo is also celebrating its centenary with a striking automotive cloverleaf style sculpture in front of Goodwood House. There over 50 important Alfa Romeos at the event, including some gorgeous sixties sports such as the 33 pictured left, as well as the company’s UK debut of the new Giulietta model.
I went down on the Thursday with Mark Bursa, the editor of our sister magazine Business Van Manager. We were planning to join the mood and go down in Mark’s new purchase – a Mk2 Jaguar. Unfortunately, it had lunched part of its steering column, and while we could have gone down in my Audi A6, we decided on something a little controversial for Goodwood: a Renault Master van!
The Renault has a nicely designed interior, with a clipboard that extends out of the dashboard, and a middle seat that folds down to form a laptop table. I made use of the latter to make some stories live on both BCM and BVM.
Down at Goodwood, where we met sales manager Paul Webb for something of a team BCM outing, there’s a central area where several motor manufacturers have their stands. None more so than Audi, with a presentation that was surely the envy of some Audi Centres.
It was a good call to go there. I bumped into Roger Grainger, national fleet sales manager, whom I’d never had the chance to meet before since he took over the role. Roger was saying that the new Audi A1 supermini was going down well with his major clients: a third of them had taken the car onto their fleets.
“I think once they’ve understood the concept of the A1 better, then it will become more popular – rather like the MINI did,” said Roger.
I see his point. There is something of a perception problem for Audi – the company has never really had anything in the sector before – well, there was the forward-thinking A2, granted. But when the MINI arrived we all knew what to expect from our past experience of the original. Ditto the Fiat 500. The A1 doesn’t have such an iconic history to draw upon.
Nevertheless, it already seems to be drawing plenty of interest. There was a separate section given over to the A1, where Nathan Dennis, the fleet and aftersales marketing manager at Audi, was helping customers understand more about the newcomer.
“It’s generating lots of interest,” Nathan told me. “We’ve had 14,000 people register interest in the car – and we only get 2000 cars this year!”
I had a look inside the A1. It really does feel like a grown up Audi inside. Infact some of the controls – for the vents and so on – are beautifully engineered. Once customers see the car on the road, I think this is one car that’s going to fly. You can read our road test of the Audi A1 here – Audi A1: small car with a big feel.
Elsewhere, Peugeot had its new RCZ coupe on display, as well as a hybrid version, and Jaguar the fabulous long wheelbase XJ saloon. I also met John Cleland, former BTCC champion. John was a champion when I was reporting on the series for Autosport. He’s always good fun, with a quick wit. I particlularly liked the way he managed to out-psyche most of his opposition on the grid – a master at wrecking people’s confidence.
John has always run a Volvo dealership as long as I have known him. But has expanded to also included Jaguar. “It’s doing very well,” said John. “Particularly the XF. Last year was frantic for sales – this year even better.”
It was good to see John. And the rest of the cars, both modern and classic. For those going down to Goodwood on Sunday, you’re in for a treat.
