Of the many pinch-yourself moments routinely served up to crowds and competitors at the Goodwood Revival, the Kinrara Trophy has quickly established itself as an absolute belter. Conceived to evoke the long-distance day-into-night races held at the Sussex circuit throughout its first life, the Kinrara has become the traditional curtain-raiser for the Revival weekend and this year’s event was the third of its kind. Given the meeting’s significance as the Revival’s 20th anniversary, Goodwood pulled out all the stops to assemble what many believe to be the most valuable grid of cars ever seen. It’s perhaps vulgar to define this glorious race in such terms, for there’s far more to it than money, but still there’s no denying the spectacle of 30 pre-1963 GT cars, estimated by Goodwood to be worth a combined £200m, gathered to race – and race hard – around one of UK’s fastest and most unforgiving circuits.

I’ve been extremely lucky with Revival drives over the years, with invitations to race a Frazer Nash Le Mans Rep in 2015 (in the Freddie March Memorial Trophy, which also held the Friday evening slot), a Cobra in the TT in 2016 and an Alfa Giulietta in last year’s St Mary’s Trophy. But the Kinrara was one I suspected might prove elusive. So imagine my delight when Goodwood regular Adam Lindemann invited me to share his E-type. Not just any E-type either, but one of the earliest competition cars.

Goodwood Revival is a Mecca for classic cars, and the Jaguar E-type was typically well represented.