Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason paid $34 million for this Ferrari 250 GTO and took it to Goodwood in 2012. Photo: Newspress
Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason paid $34 million for this Ferrari 250 GTO and took it to Goodwood in 2012.
Photo: Newspress
The Festival of Speed attracts a lot of very cool vehicles, including the Porsche 917 racecar. Photo: Newspress
The Festival of Speed attracts a lot of very cool vehicles, including the Porsche 917 racecar.
Photo: Newspress
Some drivers have a bit of fun as they start the uphill race. Photo: Newspress
Some drivers have a bit of fun as they start the uphill race.
Photo: Newspress
Same goes for motorcycle riders. Here's a Ducati 1199 Panigale at Goodwood in 2012. Photo: Newspress
Same goes for motorcycle riders. Here's a Ducati 1199 Panigale at Goodwood in 2012.
Photo: Newspress
This Ferrari F60 focused on speed. Photo: Newspress
This Ferrari F60 focused on speed.
Photo: Newspress
A Maserati burns some rubber at Goodwood in 2011. Photo: Newspress
A Maserati burns some rubber at Goodwood in 2011.
Photo: Newspress
The event has a historic focus, which explains why a 1927 Bentley 4.5 Liter Blower was on the track. Photo: Newspress
The event has a historic focus, which explains why a 1927 Bentley 4.5 Liter Blower was on the track.
Photo: Newspress
A 1803 London Steam Carriage made an appearance in 2013. Goodwood
A 1803 London Steam Carriage made an appearance in 2013.
Goodwood
Oh, and there's an air show. The Avro Vulcan, a Cold War era British nuclear bomber, flew over Goodwood in 2013 and will appear again this year. Photo: Jeff Bloxham
Oh, and there's an air show. The Avro Vulcan, a Cold War era British nuclear bomber, flew over Goodwood in 2013 and will appear again this year.
Photo: Jeff Bloxham
But really, it's about the cars. Photo: Newspress
But really, it's about the cars.
Photo: Newspress
Ferrari always has a strong presence. This F10-1 showed up in 2011. Photo: Newspress
Ferrari always has a strong presence. This F10-1 showed up in 2011.
Photo: Newspress
A Ferrari 250 MM takes the first corner of the climb. Photo: Newspress
A Ferrari 250 MM takes the first corner of the climb.
Photo: Newspress
Photo: Newspress
Photo: Newspress
Here's a 1952 Jaguar XK120 Montlhery. Photo: Newspress
Here's a 1952 Jaguar XK120 Montlhery.
Photo: Newspress
And a 1954 Mercedes-Benz W196. Goodwood
And a 1954 Mercedes-Benz W196.
Goodwood
A 1970 Shadow AVS Chevrolet MKI took on the hill climb last year. Goodwood
A 1970 Shadow AVS Chevrolet MKI took on the hill climb last year.
Goodwood
The 250 GTO may not have the record time, but it's hard to find anything that looks better at Goodwood. Photo: Newspress
The 250 GTO may not have the record time, but it's hard to find anything that looks better at Goodwood.
Photo: Newspress
The Goodwood Festival of Speed sounds like something a delinquent teenage aristocrat might do when his parents leave town: Invite 100,000 or so people to his 17th-century mansion and turn the winding driveway into a race track.
The Festival of Speed, which runs through Sunday, is among the coolest events on the automotive calendar. Historic and brand new vehicles have since 1993 made an annual pilgrimage to the Goodwood estate in West Sussex, England, to race or just show off. The event includes an air show, vehicle debuts, and parties, but the highlight is the hill climb: One at a time, cars sprint up a 1.16-mile course that any sane person would call a driveway.
Goodwood is a gorgeous setting for dangerous activity that makes other car shows look uptight. The winding one-lane road is lined with trees, stone walls and foliage that makes seeing anything tricky. Each year, top automotive minds design limited edition cars and turn them over to drivers who attack the track’s nine turns and 300-plus feet of elevation change. There’s nothing easy about this. Take, for example, the turn called Molecomb: After a blind ascent, drivers must cope with shadows cast by trees, making it hard to see—and avoid—the flint wall just ahead.
The difficulty of the course is one reason the track record hasn’t been topped in 15 years. In 1999, German racer Nick Heidfeld drove a McLaren MP4-13 F1 car to the finish line in 41.6 seconds (video below). Recalling the run in 2011, Martin Whitmarsh, at the time the McLaren team boss, told the The Telegraph he’d instructed Heidfeld make the run at top speed. “The moment he attacked that first corner,” Whitmarsh said, “I began to hope he’d make it to the top. What I’d said to him at the start was totally unreasonable.”
Driving a Formula One car all-out on a course where runoff areas are dotted with tree trunks and cushioning material consists of hay bales could make for catastrophic accidents. So Whitmarsh spoke with festival founder and organizer Lord Charles March, and they agreed that modern Formula 1 cars would no longer be officially timed for competition along the course.
The lack of official recognition hasn’t stopped drivers from taking F1 cars to the course, but without the chance to break a record as incentive to push the limits of traction and helmet protection, the chances of a serious accident are diminished. They still happen, however; we saw a Lamborghini concept buy it last year. Lots of cars still take the course, but they can’t match the power and speed of the McLaren. So don’t expect Heidfield’s record to be broken anytime soon.
That doesn’t mean the festival is now a bore. Goodwood and its bonkers course remain a stage on which major manufacturers can show off ludicrous hyper-tuned creations.
Here’s what to look for this year.
The British (Indian, really) marques will be making home-turf debuts. Land Rover will show a Ranger Rover SVR that will make 542 horsepower and be controlled with an eight-speed automatic gearbox, while Jaguar will bring its most powerful car ever: a carbon fiber-clad F-Type called the Project 7. It’ll have a specially-tuned 5.0-liter V-8 that will make 575 horsepower, 25 more than the F-Type R. Jag is planning to produce 250 examples of the Project 7 for consumers enticed by its hill climb performance. We’ll take one in British racing green.
Bentley will be arriving with a special Continental called the GT3-R which will have a production run of 300, Spartan-style. Its 4.0-litre twin-turbo V-8 will put out 572 brake horsepower, which will send the two-door from zero to 60 mph in a manufacturer-claimed 3.6 seconds. Fellow VW Group brand Audi will be bringing out their limited-run R8 LMX with its 5,500 Kelvin laser high-beams. Ninety-nine of these will be made and will sell for just over $270,000.
McLaren, the marque that set the aforementioned course record, is bringing a special edition of their “budget” model called the 650S MSO (McLaren Special Operations). They’ll be making 25 coupes and 25 convertibles, selling for $430,000 and $465,00. We’re more anxious to see their unveiling of a yet-to-be-named track-only vehicle. We’re hoping for the rumored P1 GTR, but expect a more subdued race-only 650S.
For the less aristocratic crowd, there will be hatchbacks. Awesome hatchbacks. Ford is revealing the updated version of the much-loved Focus ST, and Fiat will be sending a mental 187 bhp Abarth.
If you can’t make it to England by the end of the weekend, enjoy the photos above and this video of Heidfield’s record run.
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