From early racing titans to 1980s classics, Charles Goddard has drawn and painted pictures of all things automotive since he was a child.
“I’m happy doing anything before they started putting stickers on,” says Goddard, “but it’s the pre-war subjects that really push my buttons.
“As a kid I was taken to VSCC Donington and that started it all, but my artistic streak goes back to my grandmother, who was a talented old-school painter.”
A Land Speed Record match race between aero-engined greats, Mephistopheles and Babs
Goddard’s creative ambitions weren’t encouraged at school, but following a foundation course at Warwick he studied graphic design at Ravensbourne College.
In his spare time painting cars remained a passion, and he eventually held his first exhibition at Loton Park hillclimb.
Since then the commissions, many from racing families, have kept him busy in addition to his day job.
Subjects have ranged from the Brooklands giant Mephistopheles, for former owner Ernest Eldridge’s grandson, to a portrait of Reg Parnell for a family Christmas card.
Clockwise from top: a digital sketch of Duncan Pittaway’s Curtiss-engined Monarch; pencil drawing of the Mercedes-Benz W25 team; Reg Parnell sketch
