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The facts
Title: Goodwood Festival of
Speed 2011
Client: Goodwood
Estate
Location: Chichester,
West Sussex
Services: Structures
Sector: Sport and
Leisure
Start: 2011
Completion: 2011
The project
Sponsored by Jaguar to celebrate 50
years of the timeless E-Type, the 2011 central sculpture at the
Goodwood Festival of Speed was 28m (90ft) high and was been carved
into the form of an E-Type from over 175 tonnes of steel
(equivalent to 135 Jaguar E-Types).
The sculpture comprised half a kilometre of
1220mm (4ft) diameter steel tubes, while the surface was covered
with six tonnes of paint. Its wheels were themselves the size of an
ordinary car while 98 tonnes of concrete provided support for the
structure under the ground.
Capita Symonds’ structures team once again
worked with renowned sculptor Gerry Judah and Littlehampton Welding
on the project.
Art, of course, is ephemeral, the statue was
torn down after just four days of glory in front of the public,
while the steel tubes that formed the grain of the sculpture were
ground down to be made into everyday objects, leaving a pristine
lawn ready and waiting for next year.
Gerry Judah said: “Very few cars in history
have matched the allure of the Jaguar E-Type. The sensational
Malcolm Sayer design, 150 mph performance and race-winning heritage
gave it a unique combination of beauty, speed and credibility. The
E-Type was an overnight sensation when it was unveiled at the
Geneva Motor Show in 1961. Despite changing fashions and the
passage of time, our fascination with the E-Type is as strong today
as it was 50 years ago, and those swooping curves are still as
breathtaking as they were when Enzo Ferrari described it as ‘the
most beautiful car ever made.’”
Bruno Postle, Capita Symonds, said: “We
started playing around with concepts in September after we finished
another sculpture with Gerry in China. This idea emerged in January
and the final approval was in March.
The statue itself is made from half a
kilometre of 1.2m (4ft) diameter pipeline, but to cut it into this
shape we needed paper templates to wrap around the tube. We had to
write some custom software to unroll the 3D computer model for
these templates.
The logistics were a challenge, some of these
sections are 26m long, that's more than twice the length of a
normal load. Everything needed to arrive on site on time and in the
correct order, without damaging the lawn!”
Find out more about Capita Symonds' Goodwood scupltures
in 2010 and previous years.