The Goodwood Festival of Speed is without a doubt the best motor show event in the world. Where else would you get the same varied mix of the world’s greatest racing cars, concourse classics, and the latest cars all at the same place? What’s even better is unlike most motor shows where the cars are only static displays, at Goodwood spectators can see and hear the cars driving around.
In its 25th year, the Festival of Speed is a weekend petrol heads around the world look forward to each year. Car manufactures know this very well with some choosing the Festival as the venue to launch their newest cars. This year big names such as Porsche, Jaguar, and McLaren chose Goodwood to show off their latest creations.
This year’s Festival of Speed saw the premiere of the new Porsche 911 GT2 RS, the latest in a long line of crazy fast Porsches. This new generation has 700hp from a 3.8 twin-turbo flat six and
promises one of the fastest Nuerburgring lap times of any current production car.
Jaguar had the biggest surprise with the SVO Project 8, a 600hp four-door sedan that can be had with either four normal seats or two seats and a roll cage in the back. Only 300 of these will be made and all will be left hand drive.
McLaren chose the Festival to debut their latest Sports Series model, the 570S Spider. Basically, a 570S with a folding metal roof, it’s rather fitting to unveil this supercar at a festival celebrating speed.
Goodwood was all about celebrations this year. Each year the central sculpture has a different theme with this years was celebrating Bernie Ecclestone’s career in Formula 1. Alongside the Ecclestone celebrations there were also other milestones such as Ferrari’s 70th anniversary and Mercedes-AMG’s 50th.
With all of these celebrations, the spirit at this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed were high. This was my first time at this event but I can say with all certainty it was the best motor show event I’ve been to. The cars and atmosphere created by people with the same passion were on a whole other level.
The Festival of Speed is spread out over four days. The first day was the quietest as it consisted mainly of a couple of practice runs up the hill and the Moving Motor Show. The MMS was where manufactures offered customers a chance to drive or ride in cars up the famous Hill Climb.
There’s not much point going on the first day as there’s little action happening. Two full days at Goodwood is probably the perfect amount of time to spend at the Festival. Friday was significantly more lively than Thursday.
As well as the Supercar Hill Climb where today’s fastest and most desirable supercars took to the Hill Climb, there were also a lineup of around 50 of the most special Ferraris in the world going up the Hill as part of the company’s 70th anniversary celebrations.
By Ken Saito