With Goodwood Festival of Speed 2022 coming to a close, we caught up with Australian Jordan Roddy who was right there amongst it all for a first-hand perspective.
The annual Goodwood Festival of Speed is one of the most revered events on the international calendar, showcasing significant cars throughout history in a hillclimb event, rally stage, and in static displays – as well as increasingly being a place for car companies to reveal future models.
Jordan Roddy, the founder of Bespoke Motor Cars – a Melbourne business specialising in the preparation and sale of fine British road and racing cars – was invited to Goodwood to participate in this year’s events, documenting his experience on Instagram.
We chatted with Roddy about Bespoke Motors, Jaguar XJR-15s, and his passenger ride in one of the rarest and most expensive cars in the world – the McLaren F1 GTR Longtail.
Drive: Firstly, can you tell us about Bespoke Motor Cars?
JR: I was born into a car family, so automotive has always been a strong thread in my life. However, I tried a number of different career paths before I was inevitably drawn back to cars. My father has been a Jaguar mechanic for 52 years and his passion is infectious – it’s inescapable.
Bespoke Motor Cars was basically a fun weekend project that quickly got out of control and became a full time business in its own right.
I was working as a project engineer in the aerospace industry during the week and spent my weekends rebuilding and restoring classic and racing cars that were interesting to me. I wasn’t doing this for very long before I realised it was what I would prefer to be doing all day, every day.
I was very fortunate that it quickly grew into a business that was sustaining itself and keeping my family fed. Some of the cars are commissioned by clients and some are for me to enjoy in my own collection before I eventually market them for sale.
Since its inception in 2014, Bespoke Motor Cars has built cars that have been accepted into prestigious events like ‘The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering’ during Monterey Car Week, and even now we run a GT3 team that is campaigning in the GT World Challenge Australia.
Currently we oversee the maintenance and campaigns of three Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3s and two Bentley Continental GT3s, so you could probably say we have somehow become the Southern Hemisphere’s home of British GT racing cars.
I’m genuinely pleased with how the company has developed and continues to grow every day.
Drive: You were invited to drive a Ford Escort RS Group A rally car – formerly piloted by Ari Vatanen – up the hill at Goodwood, but I understand it didn’t go quite to plan. What happened?
JR: Earlier this year my dear friends, the KMB Collection, asked me to join them for the Festival of Speed. At first I thought they were maybe joking, but quickly I realised they were serious.
Not only would I be joining them, but I was also given the privilege of running on both the ‘hill’ and also on the forest rally stage in one of their prized historic rally cars: the ex-Ari Vatanen ‘Red Bull’ Group A Ford Escort RS.
This car would be forming a part of the three-car KMB team at the event, which also included an ex-works, ex-Blomqvist Ford RS200 Group B Tarmac car and an ex-works, ex-Sainz Ford Escort RS WRC ‘Repsol’ which actually competed at Rally Australia in period.
One of the amazing things I’ve noticed since starting the company eight years ago is that the car community has its fair share of wonderful patrons like the KMB guys, and I’m incredibly lucky that these business relationships that become close friendships give rise to special opportunities like this.
The KMB guys were so committed to the event that even after we experienced a gearbox issue late on day one, rather than retire the car, the gearbox was removed and sent to a specialist for an emergency overnight rebuild. It’s wonderful to work with people like this that share the same commitment to motorsport that I do.
Drive: Is there one particular highlight from Goodwood you’ll take away with you?
JR: The event itself is four days of concentrated, pure car sensory overload. The best of the best are all there and are being driven hard mostly by legends of motoring history.
There are so many highlights from the four days that I can recall, but without doubt one of the most significant memories is the opportunity to ride shotgun in what is probably the greatest racing car on earth: the McLaren F1 GTR Longtail (chassis 28R to be precise).
The chance to come down the hill in this car and experience all its visceral delights from the left seat (just slightly behind the driver in that iconic centre driving seat) was something that will be etched in my brain for life.
The sound of that iconic BMW M V12 with its 12 individual throttle bodies bellowing and 48 valves chattering less than a foot behind my right ear is something that can only be described as biblical.
I’m not sure how I’ll ever top that, it was car-guy nirvana.
Drive: Along with Aston Martin and Bentley racing cars, you are arguably one of the world’s experts on the Jaguar XJR-15. How did you come to that position?
JR: Like most of the really special opportunities that this business has afforded me, my association with the XJR-15 is something that happened without the intention for it to.
It was just something small that started out of an interest and a passion and before I knew it, I had three of the 28 road cars in the world sitting in front of me in the workshop.
I owned my first XJR-15 in 2014 and in the eight years since I have worked on and/or sold 10 of them – that’s something I’m so proud of.
To be regarded as a specialist in a car so rare and esteemed as this you normally have to be Europe or England based with decades of prior credentials in the field, so to have achieved that in a matter of years is something I feel quite good about.
They are an incredible car and very much in the same genre and theme as the revered McLaren F1, but their profile was always somewhat obscured.
In the last few years myself and the worldwide XJR-15 community of enthusiasts have managed to achieve some great strides in raising its profile to the point where they have gone from being a relatively unknown, esoteric footnote in supercar history to being back at the forefront of the collector car narrative.
As the ‘15’ has given me so much, it’s very cool to give back to the marque in this way.
Drive: Do you have any tips on anyone planning to visit Goodwood in the future?
JR: The most important piece of advice I could give to anyone heading to FoS is to allow more than one day. Even with two days at the event you will probably only be scratching the surface.
I heard people calling it a ‘next level’ event, but I disagree. I would argue that it’s a few levels above “next level” – it’s overwhelming.
The post Interview: Bespoke Motor’s Jordan Roddy on his McLaren F1 ride at Goodwood appeared first on Drive.
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