Aston Martin Goodwood Contest Winner’s Trip Report & Photo Gallery

This is a special post written by Adam Suswillo, GTPlanet member and 2013 GT Academy European Racecamp runner-up. We invited Adam to put together a brief recount of his trip to this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed as his prize for winning the Aston Martin online time trial in GT6.

Upon arriving I was taken to the super car paddock to be greeted with the car I would be taken up the hill in – a baby blue Aston Martin V12 Vantage S. Whilst waiting around for our run (and there was plenty of that), I had a chat with one of the designers of the Aston Martin Vision GT car. He explained to me it took a team of six, six months to create – and out of working hours.

No matter how new the V8 Vantage N430 beside it was from being released to the public around a week before the Festival of Speed, the Vision GT car gained all the attention. I think it goes to show how successful an impact the Vision GT project has had even at this early stage, not only in the world of Gran Turismo but in the Automotive Industry as a whole.

Driving to the various different holding bays before the run up the hill meant more waiting, but sitting inside the cockpit of a brand new Aston with tens of thousands of people staring at the exotica present in the super and hyper car batch, meant I was in no position to complain! Especially when acclaimed stars such as Nismo Athlete Chris Hoy is driving one of the cars (I went on Saturday, before he binned the £125,000 GT-R Nismo into the hay bales at Mulcombe).

The passenger ride was breath taking. Not only due to the sound of the V12 and the speed we were going at, but the atmosphere. The guy from Aston Martin who was driving certainly wasn’t holding back and managed a few sideways moments along the way. Needless to say the ride up the hill was similar to going for a run up the hill in GT6 – the surroundings mostly. The only things different between it and my run on GT6 in the online time trial were some of the bumps in the tarmac, the slick tyres and the fact that it was wet at the top of the hill – which was quite interesting going round the final bend!

After the run, whilst waiting for the other cars to come up the hill, I had the chance to talk to some of the drivers such as Jenson Button (to whom I had the pleasure of having my photo taken with). A few fly-bys by the Red Arrows and a few squirts of the throttle later going back down the hill, our supercar group was broken up by a few modern V8 F1 cars heading down the hill to start their runs. It’s not every day you look in your mirror and see a Mercedes F1 car!

Towards the end of the day I was meant to have a meet and greet with Kazunori Yamauchi and although I did not get to meet him properly because his schedule was so tight, I did have a few photos with him and the chance to witness the creator of Gran Turismo himself having a go at the Goodwood Hillclimb in GT6.

An incredible experience to say the least. I’d like to thank Aston Martin, Polyphony Digital, and every one involved in putting together such an amazing prize package. Enjoy the rest of the photos I took during my day in the gallery.

See more articles on Aston Martin, Goodwood Hill Climb, and Vision Gran Turismo.