- The Goodwood Festival of Speed is a hill climb, but far more
- Goodwood Festival of Speed gets a theme annually
- The weather on the Goodwood Festival of Speed can change on a dime
Auto enthusiasm spreads far beyond our borders. It’s a worldwide phenomenon, with automotive shows, races for old cars and recent, gatherings, and clubs anywhere you go.
The U.K., nonetheless, has two of the very best automotive events on the automotive calendar. Each are held in southeast England on the Goodwood Estate of the Duke of Richmond. I’ve experienced the Goodwood Revival on several occasions, but this yr marked my first taste of the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Below, I break down what this event is, how it really works, and the way you’ll be able to enjoy it.
2024 Goodwood Festival of Speed
What’s the Goodwood Festival of Speed?
It’s a hillclimb racing event, however it’s greater than just that. Unlike Revival, which is just for race cars from the Thirties to the Sixties, Festival is for street and race cars from the current day to the beginnings of the auto industry. It has also develop into a gathering of auto enthusiasts and a de facto U.K. automotive show with loads of automotive reveals. This yr’s Festival included several world debuts, including the Polestar Concept BST, Genesis GV60 Magma, Red Bull RB17 track-only hypercar, and limited-edition Ineos Grenadier Detour.
The event also has a rally stage, an off-road area, a supercar corral, a concours, an auction, and an exhibition for vendors. Just like the Goodwood Revival, the enthusiasts who attend the event of their wide selection of classic cars, sports cars, and supercars make the car parking zone probably the greatest automotive shows you’ll ever see. Each Festival also has an art installation called the centerpiece. This yr’s was an homage to 100 years of MG, and featured an MG B on one side seemingly balanced by a brand new MG Cyberster on the opposite.
2024 Goodwood Festival of Speed
How does the racing work?
The theme of this yr’s event was Horseless to Hybrid: Innovation Unleashed. It provided a convenient means to categorize cars by era, starting within the early 1900s with wonders just like the Beast of Turin, a monstrous 1911 Fiat S76 that employed a 28.4-liter 4-cylinder to chug up the hill, and the 16-cylinder Auto Union Type 52 that Audi recently accomplished from a design from 1934.
Other classes featured race cars from the early post WWII era to the Nineteen Seventies, turbocharged race cars from the Eighties, race cars of all stripes from the Nineteen Nineties, hybrids and electric cars of the present era, 10 Niki Lauda F1 cars, Mercedes-Benz race cars from throughout the brand’s history, Shadow and Joest racers, drift cars, F1 cars from the Nineteen Seventies to 2017, 20 years of Red Bull race cars, grand prix motorcycles, and dirt bikes, and more.
The assorted categories gave spectators the prospect to rise up close and private with iconic race cars from Le Mans, F1, rallycross, NASCAR, and more.
2024 Goodwood Festival of Speed
The major attraction is the hillclimb, which is by our estimation, the one no-rules racing on the earth. Well, there appears to be one rule: Don’t go too fast with too crazy of a setup. Just ask the team that fields the McMurtry Speirling, which put up the fastest time ever on the event in 2022 with a time of 39.08. That automotive, nonetheless, is a 1,000-hp electric with 4,400 kilos of vacuum-generated downforce and a weight below 2,200 kilos. It was not allowed to compete this yr.
A number of the hillclimb is real racing and a few of it isn’t. The annual Shootout is the competition. About half the cars that run the 1.16-mile hill compete for the fastest time and so they come from most of the classes. The event runs 4 days, and the competitors put up times each afternoon. Class winners are crowned throughout the Saturday session, and the Sunday session determines the general winner. The cars run in Sunday in reverse order of their Saturday finish, so the fastest automotive from Saturday runs last on Sunday.
2024 Goodwood Festival of Speed – Photo via Goodwood Festival of Speed Facebook page
2024 Goodwood Festival of Speed
2024 Goodwood Festival of Speed
Who won the 2024 Goodwood Festival of Speed Shootout?
Going into Sunday’s motion, three vehicles gave the impression to be poised to take the crown: the Subaru Family Huckster driven by Travis Pastrana, the 2024 Subaru WRX Project Midnight driven by Scott Speed, and the Ford Supervan 4.2 with Romain Duman because the wheel. The Family Huckster is a built-to-the-hilt 1983 Subaru GL wagon with the craziest energetic aero you’ve ever seen. Project Midnight puts a downforce-focused carbon-fiber body on a rallycross race automotive with a suspension tuned for the tarmac. The electrical Supervan put near 2,000 hp to the pavement through all wheels with 6,000 kilos of downforce to maintain it glued to the pavement.
Within the competition on Sunday, the Supervan took the crown with a time of 43.987, about 1.1 seconds quicker than on Saturday, while Project Midnight finished second with a time of 46.075, a couple of second slower than on Saturday. Pastrana erred on the side of aggressive and put the Huckster right into a haybale wall, failing to complete.
2024 Goodwood Festival of Speed
The right way to best benefit from the Goodwood Festival of Speed
Held in England in July, the weather might be great. It may possibly also turn sour quickly. Expect temperatures within the 70s or 80s, but it could possibly also rain and temps can drop quickly. Bring layers, a hat, and rain poncho or other sort of water-resistant jacket (ask me how I do know).
You should definitely walk the paddock, take a look at the car parking zone, find a very good vantage point for the racing, and have a look at this system for other displays that interest you. You’re going to get to see your favorite historic cars up close, perhaps get a fast likelihood to speak with certainly one of your racing heroes, and see the good cars of yesterday and today in motion. What more could an enthusiast ask for?
Subaru provided travel and lodging for Motor Authority to bring you this firsthand report.
This Article First Appeared At www.motorauthority.com
