Organizers call it a "step back in time." We're calling it a great excuse to spend more time in the driver's seat of the 2013 Subaru BRZ. Whatever the case, we're on the ground this week in England and Wales, making a loop of the lower United Kingdom on our way to the 2012 edition of the Goodwood Revival.

You might be familiar with the Goodwood Festival of Speed, a raucous annual event that celebrates motorsports in a posh mashup of hillclimb and concours. The Revival? It's more a time capsule, where no car outside of the postwar era beyond 1966 is allowed on the field--and where everyone, entrants and onlookers alike, honor and amplify the nostalgia by dressing in vintage outfits. It's a weekend Woodstock of cars, a synthetic fabric of time and place and as real a recreation as possible, down to the imagineered 1966 motor show and garage that pop up on the Goodwood grounds.

Each year, the Revival draws thousands of onlookers to take in the timeless machinery amassed for display--and to watch timeless racing heroes at work behind the wheel. This year promises to be no different, with drivers from Sir Stirling Moss, to Dan Gurney, to Derek Bell, Bob Bondurant, and Danny Sullivan scheduled to run in its classes. So too is Rowan Atkinson--Mr. Bean, fresh off his star turn at the London Olympics opening ceremonies.

Goodwood Revival Via Subaru BRZ

Goodwood Revival Via Subaru BRZ

But before we take part in the Goodwood vibrations, sampling its "vintage hair lounge" and the Earl Grey Tea Shop, we'll be needling through the English and Welsh countryside in a trio of BRZs. You'll remember the BRZ from our first drives and road tests, where we pointed out how it "shows that simplicity and leanness can provide more driving thrills than complex, high-horsepower sports cars costing several times as much." Or, from our explosive story here on Motor Authority, where Nelson Ireson earned the wrath of an entire island when he cast light on the Manx Tourist Trophy race's darker side.

We'll bring you the highlights of our drive this week, while we loop through the Lake District and the Yorkshire Dales, westward into Wales, before we bullet toward Brighton and the weekend of Revival festivities. We'll show you some of the most valuable cars in the world on display at Goodwood, including a collection of Silver Arrow racers said to be the largest ever assembled at one time, and an entire grid of AC Cobras. In all, the Goodwood organizers say the collection of cars on display will be worth almost $1 billion.

Stay with Motor Authority this week and through the weekend, while we bring it all to you. Follow our Goodwood Revival page, and follow us on Facebook and Twitter, and on Instagram at "MotorAuthority."
 

 

Glamour on the grid (photo by Paul Melbert)

Glamour on the grid (photo by Paul Melbert)