The practice day on the Saturday of Easter weekend was blessed with mixed weather, so that times and starting-grid positions did not give a true indication of the possible outcome of the racing. The Formula One cars had two periods of practice, the first one dry and the second one wet, so that some drivers got caught out by reserving their big effort for the afternoon session. Main interest lay in Clark having the long-awaited four valves per cylinder Coventry-Climax V8 engine in his Lotus 33, and the introduction of the new R7 tyre by Dunlop, a 13-in. Formula One version of the tyres seen at Le Mans the previous weekend. Most of the top drivers had these tyres, except Brabham and Gurney, who had the latest Goodyear tyres. Time-keeping at Goodwood is only to the nearest fifth of a second, which is hopelessly inadequate for a lap time of 1 min. 20 sec., so the results of practice showed some dead-heats, and Stewart was given fastest time with 1 min. 19.8 sec. followed by Graham Hill and Clark with 1 min. 20.6 sec. and Spence and Anderson with 1 min. 20.8 sec., all these getting below the existing lap record of 1 min. 21.0 sec., held by Graham Hill.
In the big sports-car practice there was an indication of things to come for McLaren recorded 1 min. 19.4 sec. in his McLaren-Oldsmobile V8 with 4.4-litre engine, and that was on a crowded track. Clark was in trouble with a slipping clutch on the works Lotus 30 with 4.7-litre Ford V8 engine running on Tecalemit-Jackson fuel-injection, but even so he clocked 1 min. 21.2 sec. Much was expected from Surtees with his Lola 70 powered by a 5.3-litre Chevrolet engine, but it broke a connecting-rod on its first lap.
On race day, as a large crowd were streaming into the Sussex airfield circuit for a happy holiday meeting, there was a freak hailstorm that left everything inches deep in hailstones, and another abandoned meeting was visualised, but then there was brilliant sunshine and blue skies, and everything dried, but the icy wind never ceased.
