Goodwood Festival of Speed Preview
The Goodwood Festival of Speed takes place this weekend (June 24th-26th) and this year’s theme is Full Throttle – The Endless Pursuit of Power. Sounds exciting, doesn’t it?
BMW will be the manufacturer in the spotlight at this year’s Festival of Speed as it celebrates its 100th anniversary. That famous central feature will be hosting the likes of the 328 MM Roadster, the Brabham-BMW BT52 and the Le Mans winning V12 LMR. There’s even an ‘M Avenue’ celebrating M Division’s greatest hits, of which there are a lot. These include the M4 GTS, the new M2. and the iconic M1.
There will be lots of exciting non-BMW stuff at this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed, too, such as the hotly anticipated Mercedes AMG GT ‘R’ and appearances from Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg amongst others.
The line-up looks absolutely fantastic and I thought I’d show you the five cars I’m most looking forward to seeing…
5 – McLaren P1 GTR ‘James Hunt’
This is one of two P1 GTRs on display at the Festival of Speed and it looks incredible. This one-off livery is designed to celebrate the 40th anniversary of James Hunt’s F1 Championship win in 1976 – The year he famously snatched the title from close rival Niki Lauda in the last grand prix of the season.
The base black colour contains red, yellow and blue stripes, mimicking the helmet James Hunt wore during his racing days. It’ll be ex-F1 driver Bruno Senna behind the wheel for the hill climb.
4 – BMW 2002 Hommage Concept
As I mentioned previously, BMW will be in the spotlight at the Goodwood Festival of Speed this year and this is the car I’ll be looking out for. The BMW 2002 Turbo has always been, and always will be, one of my favourite cars. It’s a classic. 43 years on from the Turbo’s unveiling at the Frankfurt Motor Show, we have the 2002 Hommage Concept and it looks truly brilliant.
Very few cars have been able to match the 2002 for looks since its release, but this new 2002 Hommage Concept is definitely up there. It’s a very, very modern looking car – it almost looks futuristic – but after one quick glance at it, you know it’s a 2002. BMW have really nailed the design side of things so let’s hope it performs as well as the original, too!
3 – Jaguar F-Type SVR
I don’t think I actually need to write anything about the F-Type SVR. It really does speak for itself and when it does, you don’t hear anything else. It’s extremely fast, extraordinarily loud and bloody gorgeous!
Its 5.0-litre supercharged V8 kicks out a monstrous 567bhp and will take it to a top speed of 200mph. That makes it the fastest production Jag ever, even with that huge wing they’ve stuck on the back. It’ll certainly be very popular with the Goodwood crowd!
2 – Volkswagen Golf GTE Sport Concept
The Golf GTE Sport Concept was one of the first cars I ever wrote about for ResCars and my opinion of it has not changed since. The 395bhp hybrid uses the same 1.6-litre turbocharged engine as the WRC-conquering Polo R WRC, which produces 295bhp.
Two electric motors make up the last 100bhp. One motor sits inside the housing of the 6-speed dual-clutch gearbox whilst the other sits on the rear axle. Yes, it’s all-wheel-drive! It’ll reach 62mph in 4.3 seconds and top out at an impressive 174mph.
It has the looks to match the performance, too – It has gullwing doors! If this is the way the Golf is heading, I think it’ll be just as popular, if not more, than it is now for many years to come. The legacy continues!
1 – Bugatti Chiron
For obvious reasons, pretty much everyone is extremely excited to see the brand new Bugatti Chiron in action at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Successor to the widely loved Veyron, the Chiron stole the show when it was unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show and it will surely do the same at the Festival of Speed.
The Chiron’s 8.0-litre quad-turbo W16 engine churns out a mind boggling 1,479bhp and 1,180lb ft of torque. It’ll get from 0-62mph in less than 2.5 seconds, 0-124mph in less than 6.5 and 0-186mph in under 13.6. Top speed is limited to 261mph. If it were to drive at its top speed of 261mph constantly, it’d get through it’s 100-litre fuel tank in just 9 minutes. Truly staggering figures!
I think there will be big smiles on a lot of faces when this machine is brought out.
Which of the cars due to appear at the Goodwood Festival of Speed are you most looking forward to seeing? Do you agree with my top five? Let us know either in the comments section below, on our Facebook page or on Twitter!