2016 Goodwood Festival of Speed

It might be a sad day for Great Britain as well as the European Union, but a large portion of motoring enthusiasts in the UK isn’t lurching on the consequences of the EU referendum. Instead, they all are revelling in the glorious sight of priceless classic cars and jaw-dropping modern age speed machines at the ongoing 2016 Goodwood Festival of Speed. The annual hill climb event, which for years has brought together an impossibly heady mix of road-going as well as race-ready classic and modern cars, is at its usual best for 2016.

Here’s a lowdown on the best of both historic and modern motoring at this year’s Festival of Speed.

Given that the theme for the 2016 FoS is ‘Full Throttle – the Endless Pursuit of Power’, it only makes sense to host it with the world’s most powerful and expensive hyper car – the 1479bhp Bugatti Chiron. The long overdue successor to the now iconic Veyron first made its debut at the Geneva Motor Show; however, at Goodwood it can be seen tackling the 1.86km hill climb until tomorrow.

Rather more low-key but just as intriguing for the locals was the reappearance of the Bristol sports car brand. The less known British marquee appeared on the hill with their new camouflaged concept car, ahead of its big reveal later in the year. The lightweight concept, which uses a naturally aspirated 4.8-litre BMW V8 engine, is Bristol’s first creation since they sold the Fighter sports car between 2004 and 2011.

Aston Martin, meanwhile, has turned up with its most extreme roadster ever in the form of the one-off Vantage GT12 Roadster. A tailor made customer commission undertaken by the brand, this new creation takes the Vantage GT12 Coupe’s hardcore ethos and adds the wind-in-the-hair thrill of open-top driving. Conceived and delivered within a nine-month period, the GT12 Roadster draws its origins from the GT12 Coupe, with a 600bhp version of Aston’s 6-litre naturally aspirated V12 engine.

It’s not an all-British affair as Lamborghini, too, is treating the Goodwood audience with a rather special supercar. The Italian marquee, in fact, is honouring the 50th anniversary of the Miura with a specially made Aventador finished in the original paint scheme of the former. The homage model gets a contrasting paint over the lower section and on the wheels. Tempted? You better be quick at writing that cheque as Lamborghini is making only 50 examples of this particular special edition Aventador.

Another Italian beauty to grace the venue is the little pocket rocket – the Abarth 124 Spider. Introduced as a hot version of the Fiat 124 Spider, this high-performance roadster makes 170bhp from its 1.4-litre turbocharged engine and hits 100kmph from standstill in well under 7 seconds.

As ever, this year’s FoS has brought together several motorsport heroes from both the yesteryears and the current generation.

Group B – Rallying’s most extreme era has arrived with a full force. The short-lived Group B category was axed in 1986, but not before it left an unforgettable imprint on the memories of anyone who witnessed these incredible 800-plus bhp all-wheel drive machines in their solemnity. This year’s celebration of all-things Group B included a range of cars from the tiny Citroen Visa Chrono to Martini-liveried Lancia Delta S4.

In the Turbo Era class, here’s the ex-Ayrton Senna Lotus-Renault 97T. It was in this car that the future three-time World Championship winner claimed his first victory in Formula One at Estoril in 1985. These 1.5-litre Turbo-era machines have given us some of the most spectacular racing in F1 history, with BMW engines in particular producing up to 1500bhp in qualifying trim.

Rounding up the Goodwood highlights so far is the McLaren P1 LM – a road-going version of the P1 GTR which is a hard core track-only model based on the regular P1 road car. As strange as it may sound, get this: racing specialist Lanzante, which prepared the McLaren F1, a car that won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1995, is to build just six examples of the P1 LM. The latter retains the 986bhp hybrid powertrain but weighs a lot less than the already hard-core P1 GTR, thanks to the exclusion of on-board air-jacking system and some weight saving measures. Also, like in the original F1, the P1 LM’s engine bay gets gold plated heat shields. How about that for a fitting homage?