The Goodwood Festival of Speed returned to southern England last weekend for another gathering of the world’s greatest cars from every era of motorsport. Despite scalding weather that bordered on torturously hot, the scene and setting on the property of the 11th Duke of Richmond still drew dense crowds eager to take in an unbelievable show featuring everything from the earliest horseless carriages to 1960s racing legends, Group B rally cars, Group C sports cars (below), modern EVs, and even motorcycles from every era.
Without a doubt, Goodwood FOS has transformed into one of – if not the – best motoring events in the world, highlighted by a hillclimb held right on site that keeps the paddock abuzz all weekend long. A timed shootout dictates that so much rolling automotive art needs to actually run well enough to race, all surrounded by centuries-old castle grounds dotted by displays and hospitality stands chock full of familiar and novel makes and models, many of which will never even reach the United States.
ICYMI, you can read Part I of our story here. But let’s continue with…
HWA EVO.R
While historic race cars made for most of the interesting cars at Goodwood, the HWA Evo.R combined the retro-styled theme with true racing success in the modern era. What originally started as a ground-up tube frame homage to the sensational Mercedes 190E Cosworth eventually led to a true track star that arrived to Goodwood fresh off combat at this year’s Nurburgring 24 Hours race.
For those in the know, the fact that the “A” in HWA stands for Aufrecht means a lot, as in Hans Werner Aufrecht whose surname provided the first letter in AMG. While developing the road-going Evo as a road car, HWA realized that the manual transmission wouldn’t work for N24 competition. Then, safety considerations like a roll cage and fire suppression system, as well as race tires and aerodynamics, led down a slippery slope toward building a closed-deck V6 engine and a sequential shift mechanism to replace the H-pattern and manually actuated clutch.
Despite the similarities, HWA built the R not as a road car being used to race, and built the road car not as a race car for the road. Both occupy unique positions internally, but the similarities nonetheless made this project unique at Goodwood, too.
Kimera K39 Pikes Peak
The Italian restomod firm Kimera, which specializes in wild Lancia 037-based creations, also brought a vision for serious competition to Goodwood in the form of the 039 Pikes Peak. As the name suggests, Kimera plans to race up a hillclimb that absolutely dwarfs anything in the entire United Kingdom.
Alongside a couple of other cars, the 039 appeared far larger and more focused, even if a closer look revealed just how much of a concept car it remains – with a faux steering wheel and no powerplant on the pedestal. Still, the idea of a hybrid all-wheel-drive restomod conquering Pikes Peak with a Koenigsegg engine proved quite intriguing for fans.
And, in fairness, it’s a bit hard to fathom the idea of a Kimera beating Romain Dumas in the Ford Super Mustang Mach-E, which once again set the fastest time for a third consecutive year this time around at the Goodwood hillclimb timed shoot-out. But the fire of competition only breeds better and better cars, so hopefully rising to the challenge inspires Kimera to continue work on the company’s awesome offerings.
Ending With an Epic Ride Up the Hill
Kimera’s Lancia-inspired rally car also served as a reminder of a trio of legit Lancia rally cars on site, and checking out the vintage scene required almost the full three days at Goodwood. But almost the best possible capstone for a perfect visit to the event came courtesy of Gordon Murray Automotive and Dario Franchitti, who offered duPont REGISTRY a ride in the passenger seat of the new Le Mans GTR prototype for a lap up the hill.
“This is the Ferrari F40 if the T.50 is the 288 GTO,” Franchitti explained while strapping into the Le Mans GTR’s central seat. “It’s Gordon’s sort of love letter to Longtails. It's got bits of T.50, it's the SV [Special Vehicles] tub, so it's a hybrid of T.50 and T.50s. It's just a wonderful thing to drive. The old race cars are really the bedrock of Goodwood and everything's sort of tied round that, but we also love the supercars and demonstrations and being able to show off what we do.”
As Franchitti revved up the screaming V12 engine and launched off the line in the shade beneath a row of tree canopies, seemingly accelerating straight at a perpendicular hay bale a few hundred yards ahead, the concept of showing off all of a sudden became very real. That old rollercoaster stomach sensation gripped hard, until Franchitti whipped right into the sunshine with a quick hit of countersteering playing up for the cheering crowds.
A series of high-speed left-right-left transitions past grandstands and the main Goodwood House followed, before the bales tightened up quickly. Precision became more important here, especially once back under tree cover where a tall and very sturdy rock wall impinged on the course from the lefthand side. Try not to target fixate, then hammer full throttle as the road flattens out toward the finish line, and finally round about again amid quite possibly the greatest parking lot car show in the world up top, before a parade down at lower speeds once more.
Though GMA declined to enter the Le Mans GTR prototype in the timed shoot-out, hillclimb events like this are traditional fare across England typically held on sprawling estates – even if Goodwood itself has become something of an institution by now.
“The company, Gordon, myself separately, we all have a very close connection with Goodwood,” Franchitti said back in the paddock. “It’s such a dynamic motorshow. It's one thing to look at a car, but then here you see it, you hear it, you watch it, you listen to it. All the senses are there and so it's really important for all the manufacturers to be here.”
Drawing everything from vintage Bentley Blowers to modern EVs from China, Korea, and the UK to racing legends Mario Andretti, Damon Hill, both Dario and Marino Franchitti, Jenson Button, Valentino Rossi, current F1 stars Lando Norris, Kimi Antonelli, Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon, Goodwood has simply become the automotive world’s primary focus in mid-July.
And amazingly, concurrent with this year’s Festival of Speed, Singer and Goodwood announced plans to bring the event to the United States with a similar program set for the revamped track at Willow Springs upon completion of planned improvements by fall 2028.
Images by Michael Van Runkle, RUF Automobile
