The Cars Are The Stars: Goodwood Festival Of Speed 2024

The Duke of Richmond, the current owner and custodian of Goodwood Estate, has the automotive equivalent of the Midas Touch.

Having established and curated the Goodwood Festival of Speed since its inaugural event in 1993, no other automotive event has come close to the variety, intensity, and sheer scale.

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The event formula is straightforward: Line the driveway with hay bales, send out the invites to car owners and drivers of significance, and let the rest take care of itself. I’m massively downplaying the effort put into the Festival of Speed, but without vehicular diversity, there would be no event.

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This year was no different, with the theme of ‘Horseless to Hybrid’ showcasing the technological advancements in the motorsport arena, from the first officially organised event 130 years ago until now.

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Having been fortunate to attend the Festival of Speed for several years, you’d think I’d have a solid game plan ahead of the event. But irrespective of how much planning I do, the first day of the four-day event is always overwhelming. There is so much to see, that if you stopped every time something caught your eye, you’d risk not even making it out of the carpark.

For fellow Speedhunter Stefan, who was attending for the first time, it was even more of an assault to the senses. But with his camera in hand and a couple of pointers, he was straight into it.

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Since the demise of many international auto shows, the Goodwood Festival of Speed has become a hot event for manufacturers to launch new cars. The huge number of people in attendance and live coverage online means more visibility than any other type of event. This year was no different, with a few notable cars and concepts being revealed.

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If you prefer modified and competition cars, those were equally well catered for.

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Mad Mike Whiddett debuted his latest creation – a McLaren 650S GT3 chassis with P1-style bodywork provided by Lanzante named MadMac. In true Mad Mike fashion, a custom Mazda 20B turbo rotary engine has replaced the car’s original twin-turbo V8. Furthermore, its wide-body exterior has been enhanced by an even wider Rocket Bunny kit.

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It was a whirlwind 100-day build, coming right down to the wire before being air-freighted from New Zealand. A few minor issues presented themselves at the event, but the team fixed them quickly. Stefan shot MadMac, so look out for a full feature soon.

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The Shadow Can-Am cars  – some of which we featured here – made their final UK appearance at the 2024 Festival of Speed before returning to the USA, with many drivers taking turns piloting them up the driveway. Jake Hill on maximum attack in the Mk1 showed just how ferociously quick they can be.

Red Bull Racing chose the festival to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their Formula One efforts, taking over the entire Cathedral Paddock. While I’m not an avid F1 fan, it’s impossible to dismiss the effort that goes into the car design, production and running.

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The paddock also provided the stage for Adrian Newey to reveal the RB17. This track-only hypercar draws on Newey and Red Bull Racing’s two decades of experience. Under 900kg and over 1,200hp means the RB17 will match F1 car lap times in the hands of a capable driver.

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The Central Feature sculpture outside Goodwood House was slightly different to previous years. MG was the focus, and although now Chinese-owned and predominantly producing affordable everyday cars, the sculpture had a classic MG B Roadster at one end of the red spar and a new MG Cyberster at the other, with no rigid attachments keeping them in position.

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Every year, the Goodwood Festival of Speed weekend culminates with a timed shootout between the fastest cars across various classes. For 2024, Ford returned with a revised Supervan 4.2, flying the flag for the EV contingent with Pikes Peak International Hill Climb stalwart Romain Dumas at the wheel.

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The combustion counterargument to this was a car developed specifically for events like this. Project Midnight, a collaborative build between Vermont Sports Car and Subaru Motorsport USA, is about as contrasting as it gets but is built for the same purpose. The all-black WRX was brought out alongside the crowd-favourite GL Huckster driven by Travis Pastrana.

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Ultimately the Supervan 4.2 with 1,400hp, a 150mph (241km/h) trap speed, and two tonnes of downforce were hard to argue with, despite the best efforts of Scott Speed in Project Midnight. Dumas set a blistering time of 43.9 seconds up the hill for the 2024 bragging rights.

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It’s common to come away from the Festival of Speed needing a few days to process everything you’ve seen. And that’s before the flood of social media posts showcasing cars you completely missed starts.

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That sounds like a perfect excuse to come back next year. Stay tuned for lots more from the 2024 Goodwood Festival of Speed.

Chaydon Ford
Instagram: chaycore

Photography by Stefan Kotzé
Instagram: stefankotzemedia
info@stefankotze.com
www.stefankotzemedia.com

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1

Such a good event. Thanks for all the photos and coverage. Looks like you spent a LOT of time shooting. I’ve always enjoyed watching this event but I don’t think the times are necessarily a reflection of which car is actually the fastest due to the nature of a short hill climb
event like this with tire temperatures. I also thought it was funny that Travis Patrana crashed. That guy and most action sports guys are terrible drivers.

What was funny about it was that he got understeer and made a day 1 mistake of adding more steering once he lost the front end. Pretty knuckle head move which was great to have on camera.

As usual the top three spots were occupied by successful career racing drivers. Not very surprising but the ford ev being the fastest was. Not a fan of the lack of sound but their speed in short formats like this is impressive.

2

Glad you like the coverage. First time for me shooting this event and it was absolutely mind-blowing

3

He's been close to the top of the leaderboard at Goodwood multiple times now. Not sure you can really criticise him too much for this one rare mistake.

4

Pastrana won a rally and a rallyx championship in the same year, far from a terrible driver lol

5

Ahhh the typical enthusiast reply who thinks rally cross is actually a competitive field. Remember what happened when Loeb showed up? Durrrrr

6

I remember when I watched him beat a former f1 driver, and multiple world rallyx winners and champions…

7

By that logic the 13 year old should beat all F1 drivers and Sebastian Loeb should be a world champion open wheel driver. Super stupid line of thought there.

You brain is a very special place.

8

Yes. And a 13 year old beat Travis pastrana which he admitted on his social media. A karting driver by the way. LOL

9

Chaydon,

You're NOT fan of Formula 1?!!!!!! OMG! I WAS a fan for 20 years. Not any more. Lewis is my guy! When he was denied his 8th championship on the last lap of the race and Max crashed into him, I WAS DONE! Max is an overly aggressive, ahole. And F1 hasn't been the same since that race. And Redbull winning every race is BORING like when Michael won 18 races with Ferrari and they made Ruebens pull over to let him win. Vile and disgusting. I will never watch/be a fan of F1 again.

That being daid, there are some cars at Goodwood that will make me faint! Especially the Porsches and the Merdedes GTR-1. The pictures are FANTASTIC!!! Best I've seen on SHs!! Up close and clear. You're hired! And you deserve a huge raise!!! Just amazing the cars at this event!

10

Glad you like the photos. It was so great but overwhelming to shoot at the same time. Way too many things to point my camera at

11

lol, because watching Mercedes win for 6 years straight wasnt boring.. goodluck supporting your 6 time world champion Lewis

12

None of these guys know racing. What do you expect? Great point about LH 8th title and max driving. He is very sloppy. Data shows after about 5 consecutive championships most people get bored. The sport is very stale and no where near where it should be. As long as it is a fuel saving GP governed by green energy Nazi policies this won’t change. I haven’t been a fan in over 10 years. Much prefer to watch national level karting or WRC. Sucks they robbed LH of that 8th title. And it was a robbery.

13

Gertuud:

So there's two smart people on here!...You and me!(lol)

14

Hey David you’ll love this:

This Nate guy thinks Travis Pastrana is better than F1 drivers! You really can’t make up how stupid these guys are!

15

Guess so. The guy who mentored me had 7 titles in open wheel and I got a chance to develop a car with Sennas former engineer as well as a guy who won Prost his title at Ferrari. About 1% of people into the sport actually get what’s going on. Liberty media was behind that scandal (any many other media scandals) and has tried to open the sport to more casual fans. This is diluting down the understanding and comments like the ones you replied to are evidence of it. Glad to hear you pay attention and are informed.

16

TeamLH delusions. Cope and seethe.

17

Are people in the U.K. richer than other folks? These cars are expensive as hell!!!

18

I'll let my partner-in-crime PREECE answer that one... :twisted: :evilgrin:

19
Bonin_Geriatric

Frank is a very very sad man and a good example of why having kids is important. It is absolutely pathetic when a persons identity is tied to material possessions and they do nothing greater with their lives than building a car. What a sad sad human being.

20

Who made the first move? You or Preece. Tells us EVERYTHING

21

Great, this clown has latched onto a new unsuspecting individual

22

Ahhh. Now you guys are learning how mentally stable Frank is. This is the only place he hasn’t been banned. Think about that for a minute. I wonder why?

23

It's like each year Goodwood only gets better and better
The star of the show is definitely the Mad Mac P1 Drift build (could care less about what car it is I just appreciate the build)
That is probably the biggest build in the world yet especially rotary swapped

24

Dear God. This is real.

25

Stefan,

My mistake! You took the pictures. Best I've EVER seen on here! Close up shots. I can't stand pictures and the thing is so far away in the photo I have to zoom in to see it. You are HIRED!!!!(LOL) Incredible photos in this piece!!!

26

Alright Alexa, play "gran turismo soundtrack super mix" and take me back to the top!

I could scroll through these pics all day. And I always get a little teary eyed seeing Earnhardt's car getting some love.

27

There is no car, supercar, hypercar whatever that would match the lap times of an F1 car.

28
takumifujiwara13954

What about the McMurtry Speirling then? That thing has insane amount of downforce, watching it corner is like the video has been fast-forwarded 1.5x.

29

Terrible example Takumi. Would never hold a candle to even F1 cars of 40 years ago for one simple reason that you have missed: weight.

30

lol, takumi is showing his lack of understanding of Motorsport here. No disrespect. You are asking what a higher regulated machine that has to conform to rules would do compared to a car that has no regulations. F1 cars will still be faster than the McMurtry as you are forgetting one of the basics of physics with car design: weight. Downforce to weight ratio is a real thing. Now that you know this go look up some F1 cars and chat back.

31

The Speirling has active aero and generates downforce with a fan, though, which renders the usual downforce to weight ratio calculations less relevant. Also, the Speirling went up the Goodwood hill faster than any F1 car before or after it. Whether that carries over to a full track lap we don't know, because nobody's done it yet. But, on the information we have, the Speirling is faster. Sure, it doesn't have to conform to any regulations, but that wasn't the premise of the original comment.

32

Funny the most inaccurate statement is the most upvoted. Very telling of how uneducated people are.

33

True, I’d like to know how it compares to the vw IDR on some different tracks. The IDR smoked the f1 records as well but the McMurtry could very well be faster over all.

34

No Lachlan. No no no. Absolutely false what you just said. It makes downforce with a fan. The downforce to weight ratio is still relevant it just happens now at 0mph as it is not a function of air flow. I have spend about 30 hours with an F1 engineer having this conversation—a designer of the most successful car in the history of the sport by the way. My mentor races a car with full curved wing underbody on both sides.

Downforce to weight and where the downforce is produced (at what speed and with how much drag) is massively important. You guys are also forgetting the frontal area of a formula one car.

There is so much more to this than what you guys realize and these times are not a reflection of what would happen on a circuit. Not sure how else to explain it to you but these are the facts. F1 cars are faster than all modern super cars no matter what they are for very very basic reasons that pertain to basic physics. This is entry level stuff in college. I am not trying to be rude but no Lachlan that isn’t correct at all what you said.

35

I'm happy to be corrected, and certainly I don't have any tertiary qualifications in the automotive space. Can you share some of those insights? You're spending a lot of time telling us how basic it is, how uneducated we are, and how much pedigree and experience you have, but beyond a few snippets about "frontal area" and the importance of the weight to downforce ratio, there's not a lot of concrete information here. Not trying to be rude, just want to be direct and ask - can you explain why an F1 car would be faster than any other, rulebook or not, powered aero or not, covered wheels or not?

36

Lachlan --- absolutely.

Weight is the most important thing about a racing car. Bar none. Weight > everything. "Big downforce" numbers can be thought of as a 1:1 ratio where the weight of the downforce equals the weight of the car. Obviously less weight means we have to make less downforce to achieve the 1:1 ratio which typically means less drag.

Fan cars throw a loop into this equation by mitigating the airflow required to go over the car, but we still have to account for the weight of the vehicle. Making 3000lbs of downforce sounds really impressive until you realize the curb weight is 4000lbs for example.

Weight is the most important factor. Then there comes the power part of the equation. Power to WEIGHT RATIO. The Formula 1 car has 2.7:1 where the Mcmurty has about a 3.7:1 iirc. THis is a massive difference in power to weight ratio.

Now we arrive at downforce. It is very difficult to find exact numbers for an F1 car, but we typically see downforce levels about 2-3x the weight of an F1 car (I'm being conservative according to my friend who designed for Mclaren).

So the F1 car has less weight, a higher power to weight ratio, custom gearing for each track it visits, and more mechanical grip. It also has a higher downforce to weight ratio. Lower center of gravity (BY A LOT). All of these things contribute to it being faster as they pertain to basic physics. Geometry is absolutely dialed on an F1 car as well.

And remember you can make a Formula Atlantic faster than a MODERN F1 car if you know what you're doing with closing off the underbody via skirts etc. FAs weigh about 600lbs LESS than modern F1 cars and produce roughly the same downforce.

The tighter a track the more the weight will make a larger difference. I literally have a 5 hour recording of the F1 guy explaining all this to me. About 200 hours in total discussing differentials, Power to weight ratios, drag, etc etc. I'm very well read about this stuff and have spent over 20 years obsessed with it. Hope that helps!

37

^ this is a very entry level way to explain it by the way. Pull up a Williams FW08B and the specs of the McMurty and start doing some calculations on power to weight ratios, quarter miles, and other parameters.

And also factor in running a 20 lap race. The McMurty will simply run out of juice and stop on the track. It is only useful for a few minutes of performance at best. There is zero comparison between Formula cars and road cars / super cars / even unlimited time attack cars.

And modern F1 is no where near as fast as the cars could be going. We could easily see 5-10 seconds per lap faster around every circuit currently on the calendar.

38

Entry level or otherwise, that's the juice I was looking for. Appreciate you spending the time!

39

Thanks Lachlan, glad you enjoy learning. There is a lot more to this stuff than meets the eye and a lot of really nuanced rabbit holes you can go down. Try to remember the format of racing you are watching and take into the context the cars competing in it. A trophy truck would be absolute dog crap here, but take it out to the baja and it will slaughter the likes of the Singer off road 911s etc. Always remember the environment is extremely important. Weather conditions, track conditions, rubber building up on the road all play roles in what you surmise about lap time. It takes decades of studying to really master this stuff. Glad you enjoyed the insight. Keep learning!

40
takumifujiwara13954

Yes, I'd like to learn more too. If it's too much info to write here alone, why don't give us a link to something like a forum?

41

Lol...why would I give knowledge to dorks who want to undermine me?

42

Takumi I have thought about it for a long time but my anonymity is very important to me given my connections in the industry. Trust me, I would love to spew out everything I know and help others but it has proved more detrimental to my finances and my family's safety in some cases.

These days I prefer to work privately with individuals who have financial backing to make things worth my time. I am currently flying across country to test for a team that might be paying me a f---ing massive check to coach a driver for a year. Jealous people with prying eyes can make one phone call and take this all away from me.

Believe me...it was my dream a few years ago to spread everything I've learned because it would help thousands and change the entire industry. Save people a LOT of people...but unfortunately I have come to learn a lot about the world and how people behave in it. It is a cruel place. A cut throat place. Look at Larry Chen extorting people at Hagerty with claims of racism to secure his current position. These people are wolves. I learned that a long time ago.

What do you think some of these people in the comments would do if they knew my name and address? Life is not a game. And unfortunately a**holes ruin it for everyone.

43
takumifujiwara13954

Exactly. Especially when the original comment says "no car, supercar, hypercar whatever", without any mention of "race cars", so I take it as free real estate and we are going to compare an F1 car with any other things.

44

The original comment was a reply to the writer stating that RB17 could match F1 times. Keep in mind that any F1 cars going up the Goodwood are probably detuned and without any adjustments made to the setup of the car. It's a show, not an actual race. If you setup an F1 car for any track, don't care about the reliability of parts (you can't change them whenever you want in F1) nothing with wheels stands a chance.

45

It is definitely an interesting comparison to make Takumi. I actually reached out to my mentor for a super detailed explanation about this exact car and I'd love to share his insight with you guys if you'd like. Keep in mind the Acura ARX-01b and the Porsche RS Spyder EVO (LMP category) both run in the 1:10 second range around Laguna Seca. These cars are both 100% guaranteed faster around a lap than the McMurty. No question about that at all.

The lap record (albeit not in a race) by Marc Gene in a 2003 Ferrari is a 1:05.78. -- an absolutely bonkers time compared to the Porsche EVO Spyder.

GFOS is a terrible place to compare cars because the speeds are very low (no significant corners that utilize air flow / downforce) and the cars are not up to the same temperature as they would be after 3-5 laps on a circuit.

Therefor you are not really seeing an equal comparison in cars. It is diluted.

46
takumifujiwara13954

That is very good to know! I do agree that an actual race circuit would be a better comparison for the actual performance between an F1 car and other tin tops, but given this topic is on Goodwood's hill climb, I would just look at this event's timing. Also remembering the fact that this hill climb road surface is pretty much regular tarmac and not the stickier asphalt used for race circuits.

47

Takumi I actually enjoy talking to you. You are one of the voices of logic and reason in the comment section with an actual desire to learn. Very rare these days! I have to admit I didn't even think about the road surface which is a great point as well. When I was endurace racing we went to great lengths to test tires and often found the tire that simply lasted 12 hours was better than something that would be faster in an outright lap but degrade within 2 hours. Tire pyrometers are used for this kind of thing and it would be really interesting to see what the readings are on slicks vs road cars and the McMurty vs the FW08B -- but this is information we will never get. We can only make educated guesses based on other tracks and relevant data.

One thing I would do immediately if I was competing in the hill climb here and driving an F1 car is switch to a hoosier A7 or autocross focused slick that is designed to heat up over a short amount of time and not last more than about 2-3 minutes at speed. What would take a lot of time, but provide a lot of insight would be to look at every tire that every car was running and deep dive into the tire ratings and all that fun stuff.

What I think should happen is a standard tire should be selected so we at least have uniformity on the only thing actually touching the ground. Another thing to remember in all of this is that cars being compared on different tires is useless as well. You always need complete uniformity to test anything about cars if the goal is to find out what actually contributes to lap times improving or suffering.

48
takumifujiwara13954

Another thing to note too: F1 teams tend to fit the treaded intermediate tyres for these exhibition and demo runs instead of full slicks, even when it's dry. I wonder why.

49

That’s correct and also common sense to anyone with road racing experience—which you will not find many of here. This was once common knowledge to almost everyone in motorsport but not anymore. The guys here will bitch a fit because “it’s not a woad cawww.” They really really love their road cars here. Neanderthals.

50

Over the years this has become as boring as it gets - selling cars the only purpose of this show...

51

Very accurate. It is entertainment. Not racing. Yet look at how little the average man understands about the sport now. It makes no difference to most of the people in these comments. It makes no difference to the authors. Most of these people have day jobs. They are not die hard competitors of historians, and have certainly not dedicated most of their lives to the sport. Their fame to claim is watching some hill climb when they were kids of being loosely affiliated with the sport at best. They have not built their own equipment. They have not been forged in the fires of competitions. Amateurs at best, dorks and hopefuls who only have association to people with credentials -- and these credentials are minimal at best: professional entertainers.

You are very astute. A lot of this business is about the money. Not the sport or the cars. Scroll down and look at their sponsors then look at features they have promoting air ride of NFS franchise. It's all a joke.

52
takumifujiwara13954

You are absolutely correct that most readers here have day jobs which does not involve motorsports. I don't think said people even claim to be involved in motorsports either. If you are, kudos to you. You are doing something that most guys can only dream about.

We are here for one common reason: the love of cars. So I don't get all the hostility. I'm sure most people are more than happy to learn if you're willing to share your knowledge.

53

Right, and a**hats like Dave Thomas have said he would make it his "personal mission" to ban every comment I make from here on out. I hate this in writing in DM. These are weak weak beta men who are very scared of someone who knows what they are talking about and should be ostricized from the discussion. Why does someone like that have a job?

54

Well that was silly. I was giving you a hall pass.

55

Oh, you've gone and ruined it, right after you stopped throwing your weight around and actually shared some valuable info. Here I was thinking a full half of this comment thread sounds like one person talking to themselves, with similar cadence, tone and vocab... and you've just outed this account as the same as "Araxona" with that little anecdote. I suppose Gertuud and E. Kotkin below are also you? Come on.

56

Lachlan: I was speaking to takumi with that reply not you. I was just clarifying.



Remember all of this stemmed from me saying a formula car would dominated Tsukuba lap times over road based time attack cars. I provided examples and data and everyone lost their minds and proceeded to personally insult me. I won’t apologizing for having balls between my legs and not backing down from people who personally and professionally insult me. Not you (I feel like I have to clarify that) but people who have now been called out for money and repeatedly back down. These are weak men and will be called as such.

57

We never directly dm'd. Unless you're Will?



How many personas do you have to hide behind to feel better about yourself?



Edit: I will allow you to converse on aerodynamics and race theory. Keep myself and my child out of your mouth.

58

Fair point on the surface Phil. I see things a little different as a person who is paid to develop driver talent. It's when you start digging a little deeper into the format of racing and the results where things get interesting. Travis' best result in the Huckster was a 46.37 in 2023. Jonathan Palmer ran a 46.06 in a Williams FW08B. The Williams makes 490bhp and weighs 1268lbs.

Given time to warm up there is no way the Huckster outruns an FW08B around any circuit in the world. Regardless of conditions. There is no way Travis Pastrana out drives Formula 1 drivers in any car at any circuit in any condition. He is on camera admitting to getting smoked by a 13 year old who challenged him to karting. Travis' time at Goodwood are not an accurate assessment of his talent the same way these lap times are not an assessment of the machine's true ability.

You have to understand formats of racing to get this as well as the machines themselves. It's basic physics. The F1 car is 1500lbs lighter than the Huckster, yet we see a marginal difference in their times at Goodwood. Events like this are not reflections of vehicles capabilities. It is more akin to an autocross than any legitimate format of racing. Moving to that category we see very dismal results from Pastrana given the budget he is bringing to the table.

Sebastian Loeb absolutely obliterated the likes of Tanner Foust, Ken Block, Travis Pastrana, Brian Deegan, and many other people who are not real racing drivers. They are entertainers and performers. They do their job very very well and confuse many people about what they really are. They even flagged the race at X Games to "take care of an accident" that was no where on the racing line and after regridding he still lead by the same gap on the same lap. It was incredible to watch.

Here's the question to ask yourself: if these guys are so good why aren't they in legitimate racing series and having good results? That's my logic.

59

No reply to the final question. No one ever has a response to that one lol.

60

This was awesome to read and the photos just. Kept. Coming!
One of the reasons I <3 SH!

61

Those Central Feature sculptures freak me out every year.

62

They get more impressive every time!

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