SPEED. LOTS OF IT! AND A BIT OF DRIFTING...
It was great to return to the Festival of Speed once more but, there seems to have been a drifters' invasion since I last attended...
First off, I want to apologise for the lateness of this post. A new job and being abroad meant I was limited in being able to write a thorough post. However, if you bear with me, you will not be disappointed.
Ever since I had gotten a free ticket to the Festival of Speed in 2012 for a competition, I have been ever single year since apart from 2016. The reason? I had just graduated and I was very broke. However, every year that I have attended, it has not failed to deliver.
Let's talk about supercars (and hypercars)
The past couple of years have delivered some astonishingly beautiful cars. An example of this? The Lamborghini Centenario. Only 50 of these in total are made; 25 hardtops, 25 roadsters. I had the pleasure of seeing one of the hardtops take on the hill and it was absolutely amazing. It's a shame it didn't go full on out on the hill, but it's better than seeing it parked somewhere out in London just to be admired. I would much rather be able to use all of that horsepower available than just letting it go to waste on a drive or a parking bay somewhere.
It's a shame a random bald guy's head was in the way...
Another example of a supercar to talk about is the Aston Martin Valkyrie. Okay, it's a hybrid monster so we will label it as a hypercar from here on. This is also an exception to what I was saying about unleashing it on the road. This car isn't quite finished yet. Seeing it in the flesh makes you appreciate the engineering process that has gone behind designing this car. Realistically I don't think I could ever fit in it. I can't wait to see the day this gets unleashed onto our roads. I still believe to this day that that Aston Martin do not make ugly cars. Despite the rush for performance and aerodynamics, this thing just looks mean!
Aerodynamics at their finest
However, we shouldn't forget about the replacement to the Bugatti Veyron. You would think that it just couldn't get any better than that. Well, I advise you to take a look at the Chiron. The styling is on point Secondly, the fact that the car is limited because they are scared of how fast it may be able to go is just breath-taking. This monster has two keys. One limiting it to 230mph and the other is for its actual top speed. How insane is that?! It shows that this car still has a lot more potential under the hood; in this case, exposed engine bay - you need to be able to cool the W16 somehow...
Gotta keep it clean. It may be a Bug but you certainly don't want any bugs on it.
Onto the main event
Two words: race cars. Every year, the affair here remains relatively the same. You have your F1 cars, Le Mans Prototypes, purpose-built hillclimbers, rally cars, NASCAR, touring cars and the list goes on. You even have a drifting Dakar rally truck. How is that even remotely possible? However, there were two themes going on this year. One was to celebrate 70 years of Ferrari. The other was to celebrate Bernie Ecclestone's influences in motorsport.
Let's focus on the Ferrari piece for the moment. I find this very interesting because of the origins on how Ferrari came to existence in the first place. Thank Alfa Romeo for that! In the past 70 years they have created an amazing array of cars. They have contributed from legendaries such as the 250 GTO all the way to the Holy Trinity extreme version of the LaFerrari; the FXXK. But there was nothing in comparison to hearing the last of the V10 F1 cars going down the hill; the F2007. You could hear it from a mile away. Literally. Ferrari, just keep doing what you're doing. Please.
Astonishing
Get 3 for the price of 1!
Onto Bernie Ecclestone. I grew up as a kid watching a lot of F1. This was during the Schumacher glory days. F1 was more exciting for me then in comparison to how they look like now. But it's good to see that they are taking the right steps into making it a lot more exciting and accessible to fans. That's not to say Bernie hasn't had a huge influence on the sport. He was the owner of F1 for almost 40 years. There is a lot to attribute to the guy.
F1 cars through the ages
What's that smell? Is that burning rubber?
This is the part which I am actually quite glad about. While it is exciting to see different types of cars going up for a straight speed run up the hill, it does get a bit stale over the years. So what could possibly be done to spice things up on the Goodwood Hillclimb? This where the likes of Mad Mike come in. He has been bringing his different iterations of Mazda drift cars to the Festival for several years now. This then provided a window of opportunity to bring some of the world's best drifters to show off on the hillclimb. And what a sight it was!
Easily my favourite picture of the outing
I mean look at Mad Mike smoking up Goodwood Estate to show that there's more to a hillclimb than just being the fastest. I just hope in the year's to come there is more of this. What worries me slightly is with these new regulations about hybrids and electrics, we may not have the noise that we can currently hear with these. It's odd hearing tyres squeal without the engine and exhaust sounds.
Honorable mentions
Goodwood wouldn't be Goodwood without its share of silly but great moments. So I will leave you guys with a few picture below of some key highlights that may not have fitted the above ranging from Terry Crews doing his usual stunts, a lego McLaren 720S to a body panel being ripped off an RS200. I hope you guys enjoyed this article and I will catch you guys on the next one!
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