Goodwood sculpture celebrates racing heroes of the past

Lotus cars took sculptor Gerry Judah on a 'spiritual journey in design'

This is the central sculpture for this year's Goodwood Festival of Speed. The sculpture weighs more than 60,000kg and features six historic Lotus Formula One cars driving on a winding 150m road tied into the shape of a warped trefoil knot.

The road is three-sided and was produced by taking flat sheet-metal shapes that were then rolled up and joined into three-dimensional objects. The result is a lightweight, extremely strong and rigid thin-shell structure, with no internal framework or core. The sculpture is in fact 98% empty space and would float in a swimming pool.

Renowned sculptor Gerry Judah worked on the project with Littlehampton Welding and Capita Symonds' structure team.

Judah said: “This year's sculpture is a lightweight steel monocoque construction. I think its form shows the Lotus psychology and culture.

“I've always admired Lotus since I was a boy. They're such British cars, with that ideology of clever, forward-thinking science and engineering.”

He went on: “I don't do brands. None of the sculptures I've done for Goodwood have spoken about the brand – you can get an advertising agency to do that. I do something more intuitive. It is, dare I say it, a spiritual journey in design.”

The vehicles are genuine Lotus cars that have previously been raced and are attached by the wheels using specially designed cups. They include:

• The green-and-yellow Type 32B car in which Jim Clark won the 1965 Tasman Series in Australia and New Zealand.
• The red-and-white Type 49 car in which Graham Hill raced to the F1 crown in 1968.
• The JPS-liveried Type 72 car in which Emerson Fittipaldi became F1’s youngest champion in 1972.

The Goodwood Festival of Speed runs until 1 July. See www.goodwood.co.uk

• What do you think of this year's central sculpture? Does it beat last year's Jaguar E-type steel tube piece? Have your say by commenting below.