Some earls do and some earls don’t. Luckily for all of us, Lord March is an earl who does. Have fun, that is. He has fun every summer by turning the family seat - Goodwood House in West Sussex – into a cross between the Monaco Grand Prix and Royal Ascot.

The mix of anoraks and aristocrats is what makes the Festival of Speed “the ultimate motoring and social event of the English summer season”, according to Arnaud Bamberger, the managing director of Cartier. This perfect blend of English eccentricity and formality is why the Goodwood Festival of Speed attracts the biggest names from motor sport, show business and high society, and this month’s event will be the starriest yet.

The hottest name in British Formula One, Lewis Hamilton, will be taking an F1 McLaren up Goodwood Hill, along with fellow Brits Jenson Button, David Coulthard and Anthony Davidson.

Other stars competing to record the fastest time on the hillclimb will be Formula One giants Mark Webber, Ralf Schumacher and Damon Hill, Le Mans winner Allan McNish, former World Rally champion Colin McRae, double World Touring Car champion Andy Priaulx, and four-times World Superbike champion Carl Fogarty.

Joining them on the 1.16mile course that cuts through the Goodwood estate will be the national treasure Sir Stirling Moss, rally driver Michèle Mouton, the only female to win a World Rally event, Pink Floyd’s Ferrari-loving Nick Mason, Richard Hammond (aka the Hamster from Top Gear) and Johnnie Walker, the Radio 2 broadcaster.

Cheering pro and amateur alike from the Dunhill Drivers’ Club - while feasting on gossip washed down with Veuve Clicquot - will be the former Bond girl Rosamund Pike, architect Lord (Norman) Foster, chisel-jawed party-goer Tim Jeffries and furniture maker Viscount (David) Linley.

Professional drivers love the challenge of the course. Juan Pablo Montoya, a Goodwood regular and former Williams F1 driver who now races Nascar in the US, says: “The hillclimb is the narrowest, bumpiest, least grippy course I’ve ever driven, and I absolutely love it.”

The theme of this year’s festival is Spark of Genius - Breaking Records, Pushing Boundaries. “It’s all about courage, resilience and brilliance,” says March. He will take on the mantle of resilience himself by driving the 1932 MG C Type Montlhéry past the crowds. The car is the sister of the one his grandfather Freddie drove to victory at Brooklands 80 years ago.

To celebrate the theme of record breaking, Bonneville racers that have set land-speed records on the salt flats of Utah will be displayed on the not-quite-as-flat Goodwood cricket pitch. The 1960 Challenger 1, a 400mph-plus quad-engined rocket, and the bullet-shaped Blue Flame that reached 630mph in 1970 will be joined by the JCB Dieselmax that broke records last summer.

Brilliance will be represented by the first appearance together of five of the six Bugatti Royales built by Ettore Bugatti exclusively for royalty and heads of state. The cars - one of which remains the most expensive ever sold at auction, fetching almost £5.5m in 1987 - will be “centre paddock” in the Cartier Style et Luxe display, Goodwood’s concours d’elégance.

The Sunday Times unveils key models for the first time in its InGear Supercar paddock. The cartoonish Mercedes-Benz McLaren SLR Roadster makes its global public debut alongside the Pininfarina-designed P4/5 Ferrari Enzo.

Rally driving is also on the agenda this year, with drivers competing to set the fastest time on the remodelled 1.8mile Forest Rally race. For the first time the course will include a “yump” - that’s a jump designed to enable cars and their drivers to quite literally “get some air”.

For the “two wheels good, four wheels bad” types, Goodwood celebrates the centenary of the Isle of Man TT motorbike races and 20 years of the World Superbike championship.

Everywhere visitors turn they are up close and brushing shoulders with international stars of motor sport, and amateur racers enjoy the chance to admire the real stars of the show – the cars. “Unlike a car museum, you can hear, smell and touch the cars, not just watch them,” says supermodel and motoring fanatic Jodie Kidd.

“And you always get to meet the drivers who raced them. Looking at one of the Mercedes Silver Arrows and having Stirling Moss come up to you and say, ‘You are really brave, young lady, and you have done so much for women and motor sport,’ is not something that happens every day.”

Whether you have Pimm’s or petrol in your veins, the English picnic with a V12 soundtrack is the fastest, most enjoyable celebration of unbridled horsepower and hedonism. And it starts in just 12 days’ time.

“Nice weather, nice champagne and nice women - what more could you ask for?” grins Colin McRae in describing the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Gentlemen, girls and go-faster earls, start your engines.

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