Goodwood is Back!
The Goodwood Festival of Speed is a week that I look forward to every year. It is a show that celebrates why we love what we do, featuring one-of-a-kind classics to the latest in high-performance engineering. This year the week will kick off on Thursday, the 13th of July. The festival will cover the entire weekend and end on Sunday the 16th.
If you’re unfamiliar with the Goodwood Festival of Speed, it’s an event that features a wide variety of racing and motoring exhibits, both old and new. During the weekend, you can see displays of the latest engineering breakthroughs from around the globe, as well as many rare classic cars and even famous racing cars.
The main event is the Goodwood Hillclimb, a 1.8-kilometre stretch of road that works its way through the grounds of the gorgeous Goodwood House. Although this hill ascent isn’t nearly as intense as other famous climbs like Pikes Peak, its heritage holds such value that the record here is the one to break for international attention.
Other events are also held on the grounds, like racing challenges and rally stages, while the odds of bumping into famous personalities are definitely in your favour.
This year there has been a lot of excitement around the debut of a selection of vehicles which include;
Lamborghini LMDh race car and Diablo Restomod
McLaren Solus GT and 750S
Bentley Batur
Ferrari KC23
Porsche Mission X Concept and Stinger DLS Turbo Study
Mustang Mach-E off-roader
Aston Martin Valour
MG EX4 Concept, Cyberster and EV XPower
Caterham Project V
Aim EV Sport 01 Concept
Hyundai Ioniq 5 N
BMW 5 Series
Maserati Ghibli 334 Ultima
Ineos Grenadier Quartermaster
Lotus Emira 2.0-litre AMG
McMurtry Spéirling Pure
Pininfarina Battista
A diverse selection of exciting cars will be on display, many of which will attempt to break the current record held by the McMurtry Spéirling from last year. This year’s festival will be one for the history books.
Motorcycles will also partake in this year’s festival, with Brad Binder’s KTM being part of the lineup. So if two-wheelers are more your thing, there is no excuse to miss them.
Given the magnitude of this motoring event and that F1 cars are no strangers to the Hillclimb, it’s no surprise that a selection of F1 drivers will be racing classic and current cars up the hill. McLaren, Ferrari, Mercedes-AMG and Williams will be attending, and I look forward to seeing the pros at work in new and old.
I know that for South Africa, we are rather far from Kennel Hill in the UK, but fear not, as this event can be watched on YouTube, where all of the weekend’s runs and excitement will be streamed.
