Friday tickets ready, clothes bag and map: check. Water and munchies all present and correct, car cleaned, serviced and ready to go! Goodwood here we come!

It was bloody hot when I pointed the nose of the Trophy towards Carlisle, part of the reason I had decided on an overnight run to Goodwood was because of the heat; the idea of getting stuck in a traffic jam during the day did not appeal and with the roads absolutely empty at night (at least until Birmingham) it was a simple choice to make. The only worry was ending up too tired to enjoy the FOS, but previous experience had taught me that the excitement of such an event always overrides any tired eyes.

I had also planned to head up to Carlisle on some fun roads before heading down the M6 and M5 before turning off towards Swindon and then onto Salisbury for more play on some roads I used to love when I lived down there - not the most economic or direct route, but a lot more fun than M1, M25, M3 which leaves me totally bored; this was my driving holiday after "crunch" so it was easy to justify the extra mileage!

The drive up to Carlisle was very foggy but still fun on the main road that leads up from Hexham, its wide, clearly sighted and has a few great hills - a good warm up for both myself and the car as the next four and a bit hours were spent on the M6 and M5 in almost total isolation apart from the occasional pack of trucks. The M6 has a fantastic section of road in the Lake District where you cut through the dramatic countryside on either side, hills rising up out of the darkness and the road twists and turns its way like a massive race track; it's like a videogame and is my favourite bit of motorway in the country and I had to chuckle when I started to shout "Riddddge Racceerrr!" as the Clio flung itself across all three lanes looking for the apex of the giant sized bends.

The rest of the motorway stretch was uneventful but far from boring with the lack of traffic on the road. The car was fine apart from a scare when the fuel warning light came on and told me I had 30 miles to find fuel, not a problem apart from seconds later the 30 miles became a small red dash to indicate that the tank was empty and I spent the next few miles in a panic as the last services sign had read 20 miles - we made it no problem in the end but it would seem the Clio has odd ideas about what constitutes empty.

Heading to Salisbury via Marlborough on a few of my old favourite roads was a good test of the Clio. Compared to the last time I drove them in my Impreza, the Trophy carries a lot more speed into the tighter corners and overall proving to be a lot of fun on the way to Southampton and then on to Goodwood. Bumping into a fellow Trophy owner in the traffic was great fun, the two of us next to each other with thumbs up and big grins. Even being stuck in traffic with other petrol heads on the way into Goodwood is fun, and I got respect from a GT3 RS owner who gave me a big thumbs up after spying the Auto-Journals sticker on my car! Just over six hours from front door to Goodwood car park and I still felt fresh and relaxed, the Clio had done me proud - now onto the festival!

Meeting up with A-J Editor David Yu, Phil James and A-J contributor Rich Weaver at the Caterham stand saw the day really get into full swing. I always find that in a group of car nuts one of you always knows something interesting about what has just gone up the hill or the mega rarity that you otherwise would have walked past.
Rich is an old friend of mine from down south and so we had plenty to catch up on, while Phil was absolutely the petrol head that his reports suggest; knowledgeable, funny and a bit of a nutter - he's a true gent as well. David Yu is an all round top guy, and didn't mind the rest of us tagging along as we went about the Festival.

Leaving the Caterham stand, Yu, Weaver and I made our way to the Supercar paddock where we set about putting the supercar world to rights. Highlights were poking around the Corvette Z06; "Track monster", gasping at the utterly stunning Zonda F and Lambo Gallardo Spider and then finding ways of almost breaking bits off some utterly disgusting plastic thing that I forget the name of. [I believe it was the Connaught! - ed]

On to the hillclimb runs to see the DBR9 burn out in front of us and then up to the rally stages where Gronholm really did look like he was on maximum attack and you could get closer to the cars than any rally I have ever been to.

All too soon the day came to end and farewells were said before the annual mad rush to get out of the car park and head to Southampton to meet up with old friends for a few drinks. Unfortunately I got stuck in the worst of it after been "withheld" by one of the lovely ladies at the Renault Stand…

Over the next few days the Trophy was driven all over the South Coast to catch up with old friends and making a few new ones. Driving wise the New Forest has still got some good roads, but due to the heavy amounts of holiday traffic and crazy slow speed limits put in place, there was little fun to be had. Still, my Audi A4 owning friend Dave and I went out for a blast over Black Gutter and I remembered to take some photos at last!

The trip back was uneventful apart from a very nice chap in a new M5 who gave me the thumbs up and then we took turns chasing each over up the M6 (I did most of the chasing) - the sound those BMWs make is amazing and I was quite jealous of the power and comfort until I was back onto the Hexham road and the fun began again.

Goodwood FOS really is a special event that is always worth the effort to get to, I've been going for over ten years now and have enjoyed every single trip to the place for both the FOS and Revival, it's a special place and it should finish high in a list of "Car events to go to before I die" for all petrol heads.

The Trophy behaved itself for the whole trip as well, recording an average mpg of 34.2 over the four days. Motorway sections were fine if a little bumpy in places, with the standard CD player doing a good job of drowning out the road noise, although I really should sort out an ipod as the glove box was a mess of CDs by the time I got home. The Recaros were very comfortable after a small adjustment to lower the back a little so a more laid back position could be achieved for the long stretches, however, falling asleep in them is not recommended! I had a catnap on the Saturday and my neck was in agony for the next few hours after I woke up. The front tyres are still wearing evenly and are down to three mm on each side so I'll be putting an order in for a new pair soon, otherwise it's business as usual for the little Trophy.