The annual Goodwood Festival of Speed is to motor racing what Ascot is to horse racing or Wimbledon to tennis. It’s the spiritual home of every petrolhead, his mecca, spooling images of hand beaten aluminium and sending virtual plumes of Castrol R through the nostrils. To me, an invite to this year’s Festival was a dream nurtured from early school days.

This year there were over 350 cars and motorcycles to confirm it as the world’s biggest, most diverse celebration of motorsport history. And most of these icons could be seen in action on ‘The Hill’, a 1.87km track lined five-deep with spectators even before the Festival actually kicks off each morning. The patience thing kicks in here too. As we all know, the mud islanders are generally a polite bunch, but sometimes you have to beg, plead and finally elbow your way to the front of the crowd to snap a pic or two of the cars and bikes.

A comfy seat in the Gurney Pavilion was mine for the taking, courtesy of Festival sponsors Toyota, so I had every chance to escape the muddy slush that lines the steep estate road which meanders up Lord March’s narrow driveway past flint walls and dense woodland groves. But nothing was going to stop me forging up to the finish line on top of ‘The Hill’ to get a glimpse of the new 2.5km rally stage.

Here I was treated to the sights of Colin McRae and Peter Solberg drifting current Ford, Subaru and Mitsubishi World Rally Championship (WRC) machines through the forest. Carlos Sainz also settled in behind the wheel of a Group A rally car, while Bjorn Waldegard was piloting the Celica GT-Four (ST165) with which he dominated the Safari Rally.

Hannu Mikola, Stig Blomqvist and Michele Mouton were also there, blatting their Audi quattro A2 and S1 Evos through the trees, while Paddy Hopkirk – winner of the 1964 Monte Carlo rally, with team mate Timo Makinen second in a Mini – drove the Mini Cooper S of Rauno Aaltonen. While Hannu Mikola’s Ford Escort Mk1 twin cam was also being thrown sideways through every turn, spectators could salivate over a pair of Lancia Stratos’, a Fiat 124 Abarth, MG Metro 6R4 and one of only 200 Ford S200s ever built.

Others belting out their noisy art on the Goodwood Hill, in a variety of racing machinery, included F1 stars from Sir Stirling Moss through to Sir Jackie Stewart, Emerson Fittipaldi, Jenson Button and David Coulthard. Stewart was reunited with the Lola he drove at the Indy 500 forty years ago, while Coulthard’s ride was an ex-Ecurie Ecosse Jaguar D-Type. Anthony Davidson took a break from his duties with the Super Aguri F1 team to drive the ex-Nigel Mansell/Nelson Piquet 1987 championship-winning Williams-Honda FW11B.

Marc Gené was in dazzling form in the Ferrari F2006 F1 car, while Ralph Schumacher drove the Toyota TF106 GP F1 car up the hill about as fast as he usually does – so now we know he is consistently slow.

Ferrari was of course there in full force, and treated fans to track displays of the glorious 375MM of the 1950s, the Testa Rossa and the beautiful 250 GTO.

British wonderboy Lewis Hamilton arrived to drive last year’s (legal) McLaren Mercedes, this just a week before the British GP, while his stalker, ITV commentator James Allen, was nowhere to be seen.