Porsche pulls out all the stops for Goodwood celebration

A veritable smorgasbord of classic Porsches will be on display as the German carmaker marks the 50th anniversary of its iconic Porsche 911 at this weekend's Goodwood Festival of Speed.

For many motoring enthusiasts, the Porsche 911 is the best sportscar ever created, and over the past 50 years the car has continued to build a dedicated following of fans and evangelists.

In order to say thank you to its British fanbase for its ongoing support, and as part of the company's ongoing half-century celebrations, visitors to the Goodwood Festival of Speed will be able to get up close and personal with an original model 901 from 1963.

To show how much -- or how little, if you prefer Ferrari to Porsche -- the car has changed since its debut at the Frankfurt motorshow of September 1963, pristine examples of all seven generations of the 911 will be on display, as will a number of Porsche's most successful 911-derived competition cars, including, from rallying, an SC Safari and Paris Dakar Carrera 4x4 and two race cars, a Type 964 911 RS from the 1993 Porsche Supercup Championship and Type 996 911 GT3 RSR from the 2003 American Le Mans Series.

Best of all, the display will be anything but static: a number of legendary Porsche drivers, including two-time winner of the Le Mans 24 Hours Hans-Joachim Stuck, will be putting some of the cars through their paces around the Goodwood circuit.

As well as a moving museum dedicated to the 911, visitors will also get the chance to see some of the carmaker's most successful and revered track cars including the Le Mans winning Porsche 917 KH, the 935/78 'Moby Dick' and a 936 Spyder.

Over 180,000 visitors are expected at this year's Goodwood Festival of Speed and tickets are already almost sold out. But don't worry, if you can't make it to the event to see the cars in person, Porsche will be streaming videos of the event at http://goodwood.porsche.com/ throughout the weekend starting on July 11.

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