Miguel Sánchez
PHOTOS SF EDGE TROPHY: GOODWOOD ROAD & RACING
Closing your eyes while watching the video of the SF Edge Trophy at Goodwood Members Meeting, it's easy to think of it as an airplane race. They are sports and record cars, Some of up to almost 30 liters and 300CV! But the truth is that we are not facing engines that give off the typical sound of the great sixties GT or the Le Mans prototype sports. This time it's about something different, maybe more special.
And it is that this open category in Goodwood racing brings together vehicles with more than a century of history. Hence the sound. Huge engines on flimsy chassis, including leading vehicles, mostly from before 1914. Honestly, it is the closest thing we can think of to a museum of historical jewels on wheels, with a chronology that goes from 1885 to 1919.
As you can see there is only one fundamental requirement to participate in the SF Edge Trophy: that your car is at least a century old. Of course, it is a somewhat uneven competition. Why? Well, because just at that time there was a transition from the primitive stage of the engine to a ... Let's say semi-modern.
A fundamental race to see cars in some cases as legendary as those that raced the tragic Paris-Madrid of 1903.
THE RACE OF THE EDUARDIAN MONSTERS
The Goodwoods they are unique to the setting. Beyond bringing together the best classics you can imagine at the Duke of Richmond's estate, the races here always have a series of extra attractions. Among them are the special care that they put at the time of relive the age of participating cars. For this reason, it is not uncommon to see people in period costumes, as well as a multitude of markets full of old objects.
La SF Edge edition It was not going to be less, so it was set in the aesthetics of the Edwardian Era. This is how it is known in the United Kingdom in the early years of the XNUMXth century. A time when the social imbalances of industrialization tore apart a society governed by an aristocracy that knew little about what was happening in the less well-off class neighborhoods.
Precisely these social imbalances are what explain the motorsport of the time. Touching the limit of misery, the popular classes could not access the automobile. Unlike in the United States - where the Fordist production model was beginning to popularize private transport - in Europe only the wealthy had access to cars.
Outcome? A proliferation of exclusive brands such as Rolls-Royce or Hispano-Suiza together with artisan workshops for the manufacture of racing cars. Luxurious and sporty cars for the “gentleman drivers ”of course. That kind of people -which ranges from the Bentley Boys to Alfonso de Portago- given to risk her life in chivalric events related to speed.
FIRE-SPITTING BEASTS WITH AVIATION ENGINES
The list of vehicles in the SF Edge It is one of those that removes the hiccups. The first we recognized was the Indianapolis 1916 pointed-tailed Sunbeam. This 4-liter six-cylinder suffered an incendiary scare prior to qualification at the 2016 Goodwood Members Meeting.
However, he later took pole, proving that these cars are tough as flints. Of course, they also require pilots just as tough, since another participant was The Beast of Turin.
Product of a time when competing by adding more cubic capacity, this FIAT S76 from 1911 It has four cylinders, yes, 7 liters each. The result is a 28'5 liter 300CV engine. A dragon that spits fire from the sides of one of the cars that seems to have the worst center of gravity in history. Of course, it is exciting.
Absolutely wonderful the Isotta Frascini from 1905 powered by FIAT. One of those cars with which you cannot believe what you are seeing. The tremendous length of the chassis is marked by the fact that it was intended to install two engines. One after another. However, the changes in the regulations made it appear that the project was abandoned.
Abandoned for decades, the frame was salvaged by an enthusiast in the UK, who fitted the car with a high-speed engine. Isotta-Frascini 16-liter inline six-cylinder military aircraft. It generates about 250CV but be careful because it has a torque of 1.150. An enormous force that you have to control with the weak help of only rear brakes and inaccurate steering.
POWER WITHOUT CONTROL IS USELESS
The truth is that the slogan of that Pirelli campaign with Carl Lewis in heels is already widely used. However, this does not mean it stops making sense. In this race of the SF Edge with sports cars from more than a century there was power and displacement everywhere. The beasts that we have mentioned before ... A 1913 Vauxhall Viper Special… A Lorraine DeDietrich 1909 16'5 liters ... And who won?
Well, neither more nor less than a car that is actually more of a cyclecar than anything else. A little guy based on the GN brand, which manufactured cycle cars between 1910 and 1925 outside London. By the way, one of its two founders was Archibald Frazer Nash. Surely here he harvested well to later found his own sports car company.
Although it is true that it is not a series vehicle but a a highly personalized reconstruction joining components of the brand and the era… This sports car has all the flavor of the competition NG powered by a V-engine from the aviation company JAP.
A true artisanal madness that thanks to its low weight and good grip it was able to defeat the high tonnage and enormous displacement beasts. In short, a guaranteed show at the SF Edge in Goodwood. A trophy that we will follow the track next year in search of more legends from the arcane times of motorsports.
