The Goodwood Festival of Speed - or simply Festival of Speed - is held every year in the grounds of Goodwood House, West Sussex, England during the summer. It is an annual hill climb featuring historic motor racing vehicles.
The Goodwood Festival of Speed brings together a number of supercars ever year, and this year, we’ve already collected a number of vehicles that are tackling the hill, including the Pagani Zonda R EVO and the Alpine A110-50 Concept. McLaren is now joining the bunch with a unique MP4-12C GT3.
This special MP4-12C GT3 will be adorned with a unique livery, which highlights McLaren Group’s support of the "GREAT" campaign launched this year by the Prime Minister’s Office and Department for Culture, Media, and Sport. It is because of this that the GT3 has been named the "Great" Briton and was designed by McLaren Racing’s own graphic design team.
The Great Briton MP4-12C GT3 will be running in Batch 3 of the Hill program on June 29th, June 30th, and July 1st, 2012. Next to this unique GT3, McLaren has also promised to unveil an exciting new version of the recently updated MP4-12C supercar. More details on these two new supercars will be unveiled in the next couple of days, so stay tuned!
Mazda will be attending the Goodwood Festival of Speed with a very cool Mazda MX-5 GT Concept which may head to production depending on customers’ reactions at the festival. The concept was developed by Jota Sport and looks a lot like the MX-5 Super20 unveiled last year at the SEMA Auto Show.
The GT Concept is powered by a normally aspirated 2.0-litre Mazda petrol engine that delivers a total of 205 HP and is mated to a standard manual gearbox. Mazda is also offering an updated suspension, as well as an impressive aerodynamic package that includes a carbon front splitter, a rear diffuser, and a boot spoiler. The final piece of the exterior is a sports exhaust system with a central tailpipe.
For the interior, the concept gets Recaro seats and plenty of carbon fiber to suits any sports car enthusiast. Road slicks and body-colored roll hoops behind the seats were also added for customers who want to run the car on the race track.
"This year at the Goodwood Festival of Speed we have a number of significant cars on the stand and contesting the hillclimb," said Jeremy Thomson, Managing Director, Mazda UK. "The MX-5 has been our best known car for 22 years and with the GT4 and GT Concept on show, we are demonstrating that this car can compete with the more expensive race and performance cars but still remain true to its roots of affordable motoring with a strong focus on the driving experience."
It looks like the 2012 Goodwood Festival of Speed will bring a number of supercars out onto the market. We just reported that the Bentley Continental GT Speed will be unveiled at the show, and now we have even more amazing news. It looks like Pagani will be coming to Goodwood with the successor of the Zonda R.
Called the Zonda R Evo, the new supercar will be powered by the same V12 AMG engine, but with an increase in output to more than 760 HP. Pagani will also be working on improving its weight distribution and will offer some aerodynamic enhancements to the bodywork. These improvements will increase the supercar’s top speed to more than the current 217 mph, while the 0 to 60 mph sprint will be made in less than 2.7 seconds.
No other details have been provided just yet, but we will pass along the official details on June 29, 2012 when the supercar makes its world debut at Goodwood FOS.
We have already heard from Renault about its intentions of having a “big surprise” in store for the Goodwood Festival of Speed, which we all anticipate being as exciting as the final production model of the Alpine or as boring as the redesigned Clio. Now Bentley is getting in on this surprise-car theme by bringing its own new unnamed model to Goodwood.
There is very little information on this upcoming model, Actually it is a lot closer to no information than little, as the only word that we have is the luxury coach builder stating that the new model combines “stunning performance with exquisite luxury in the Bentley tradition.” By the description, it sounds almost like the Continental GT Speed that is already set to run at the Goodwood FOS, but it would seem odd to outright compete with its own sport coupe.
This could point to an even sportier car than the Continental GT gracing the "Flying B." Would we even dare to mention the term "sports car" in the same sentence as "Bentley?" If the description that Bentley gave of this car is true, then we very well may see a sleeker and sportier car bowing in at Goodwood.
We know that Bentley has broken its own mold in producing the EXP 9 F SUV concept, which will also be shown at Goodwood. This points toward Bentley’s openness to change, but is it open enough to bang out a super luxurious sports car? We’ll just have to see.
We will keep a close eye on what’s going on with Bentley and we will update you if anything else pops up. Given how tight-lipped Bentley has been so far, we will likely not know anything until the Goodwood FOS opens up on June 28th.
Click past the jump to read Bentley’s press release.
The Goodwood Festival of Speed is the ultimate expression of speed, power, and noise when sports cars, supercars, hypercars, luxury cars, and hot hatches tackle the legendary 1.16-mile hill climb. Additionally, the Festival of Speed also gathers a huge collection of current racing cars and their drivers and past racing cars and their drivers together.
Despite Renault’s recently launched Alpine A110-50 concept being one-of-one, Renault recently announced that it’ll be tackling the legendary hill climb in the car.
This announcement comes in line with Renault’s recent announcement that it’s planning a ‘big surprise’ for the Festival, but we can confirm that that big surprise is not in fact that the Alpine will be competing.
Nevertheless, the French brand also confirmed that an extensive list of other racers will compete at the hill climb, including the R5 Maxi Turbo, Megane trophy racer, Alpine A443 and two of the brand’s most historic Formula One cars, being the RE40 and RS01.
We can confirm that Renault obviously won’t be attempting to break the current hill climb record as the A110-50 ‘only’ pumps out 400 horsepower whereas other racers competing will produce in excess of double that.
Either way, it’s certainly going to be a very special sight to see and will hopefully be the first of many racing events the Alpine A110-50 Concept will take place in the coming months.
In Britain, a sports car isn’t officially launched until it takes a few runs up the Goodwood Hill Climb, so Lotus had to send out their Exige S that was launched last year at the 2011 Frankfurt Motor Show to put it through its final test at Goodwood. This hill climb may not be anywhere near the status of the Nurburgring, but for Brits, it’s a huge deal. The video includes a few rapid launches from the start line on the legendary course as well as flybys and accelerations on track.
As a reminder, the new Exige S is powered by a 3.5 liter DOHC V6 VVI-i engine that delivers a total of 345 HP. It sprints the car from 0 to 60 mph in just 3.8 seconds and up to a top speed of 170 mph.
Olav Glasius will be auctioning off his impressive Lotus collection on Friday, June 29, 2012 at the Bonhams Goodwood Festival of Speed. His collection includes 24 vehicles starting from 1953 to the present day and he hopes to raise an impressive £1.5million by selling them all.
His collection includes racing cars ranging from Mark VI through Marks VIII and IX, Team Lotus Le Mans Type 11s, Formula Junior Lotus 27, and ex-Formula 1/InterContinental Lotus Type 18. Next to these impressive racing cars, the collection includes road-going supercars from the Lotus Elite Series II to a Lotus Esprit Turbo, and a trio of prototype and one-off concept cars.
Doug Nye, Bonhams Motoring Historian and author of some 70 books including several on the Lotus marque, said, "There are few teams that encapsulate the romance of the ‘little guys beating the big guys’ better than Team Lotus and Olav Glasius’s remarkable collection, which he has assembled with such love and painstaking care over so many years, truly embodies the essence of what Colin and his successors have been all about."
People usually associate the name Skoda with a family sedan that focuses more on fuel economy and not so much on performance. Those people are going to get the shock of their lives as Skoda is preparing a special Octavia vRS sedan for the world famous Bonneville Speed Week on August 13-20, 2011.
The Octavia vRS was built to celebrate the 10th anniversary of its iconic vRS performance flagship badge and to achieve breaking the 200 mph barrier. Skoda has done this with the Octavia’s standard 2.0-liter four-cylinder TSI petrol engine by swapping the standard turbo with a specially designed turbocharger from respected component firm Garret. Adding this turbocharger has dramatically altered the vehicle’s output by adding a tremendous 380bhp and 170 lb-ft of torque for a total of 600 HP and 26-28 PSI of boost pressure.
As if the engine updates weren’t enough, Skoda has also spiffed up the exterior of the Octavia with some aerodynamic updates. The vehicle has received a new sub-frame which houses a race prepared intercooler, a reinforced roll cage, a parachute, fire extinguishers, and a window cage. It was then lowered almost 80mm closer to the ground.
Robert Hazelwood, Director for Škoda UK, said: "The 10-year relationship between the UK and the vRS badge has been extremely successful. This is a landmark anniversary and going to Bonneville is a fitting tribute." He adds, "It’s an ambitious project which might surprise a few people, but Škoda is all about engineering excellence and this car is pushing that to new limits."
UPDATE 08/16/11: We already said that Skoda is the one of the last brands that you’ll associate with breaking 200 mph, but this Octavia vRS proved us wrong in a hurry when it recently hit a top speed of 202.15 mph at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. The event corresponded with the brand’s UK branch celebrating the 10th anniversary of the vRS performance badge. Kudos to Skoda for the remarkable achievement; maybe next time they’ll start producing supercars that can routinely eclipse 200 mph on any given day. Just a thought.
The 2011 Goodwood Festival of Speed took place this past weekend and featured a steady stream of car shows, birthday celebrations, a Bonhams auction, and of course, the annual Goodwood Hill Climb.
Eventful as it always is, this year’s installment of the Goodwood Festival of Speed saw a number of world debuts, including that of the McLaren MP4-12C and the Skoda Octavia vRS. On top of that, a couple of automakers also celebrated milestones of their own with one celebrating the 50th anniversary of its most iconic model with a sculpture in front of the Goodwood House, while the other celebrated their 100th anniversary in what can be considered as an invasion of all their UK models.
Not to be outdone, Bonhams also auctioned off some of the world’s rarest and most exclusive models over the weekend, raking in millions and millions of dollars in the process.
Then there’s the annual Goodwood Hill Climb, which features 50 of the fastest cars on the planet taking turns running up the 1.6-mile Goodwood driveway that leads to the front of the estate. The car that took that title? You’ll never guess if you don’t read past that jump.
On that note, head over after the jump to get your 2011 Goodwood Festival of Speed recap!
During this week-end the automotive world turned its attention to the Goodwood Festival of Speed and now is time to see which cars were the best in the show. One of them - the fastest car overall at Goodwood was a 800 HP Toyota Celica - who needed only 48.07 seconds to blast up the 1.6 mile driveway of Goodwood House. This result placed it in front of many famous racing cars, including recent Formula 1 cars.
The car was built and driven by the former British Rally Champion, Jonny Milner. The car is based on the sixth generation Celica and weights only 2314 lbs. In order to obtain a better weight distribution, the driver’s position has moved back 12 inches, and the car’s center of gravity has been lowered by raising the wheel arches and upper suspension mounts. Under the hood there is an engine borrowed from a World Rally Championship winning Corolla fitted with a Rotrex supercharger that ensured an output of 800 HP. The car was also equipped with a nitrous oxide injection system and super soft rallycross specification Michelin slick tires.
UPDATE 07/07/11: We’ve unearthed a video of the Toyota Celica’s dominant run at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Check it out after the jump!
