In 1993, the Duke of Richmond, Charles Henry Gordon-Lennox, spearheaded a Sunday-only “car meet” and “mini track day” at his Goodwood Estate, located at West Sussex, southern England. Thirty-two years in, and this event is still being considered as one of Britain’s most sought-after festivals for car enthusiasts and motorsport fans. Yes, we’re talking about the now-cultural automotive gathering called the Goodwood Festival Of Speed or FOS, which will happen on July 10-13, or July 11-14 if you’re tuning in from the Philippines.
In brief, the Goodwood FOS is a long weekend event which gathers the general public, car enthusiasts, racing aficionados, celebrities, and high-profile people to mingle with car brands, racing teams, racing privateers, car collectors who are proud to show-off their rides, and many more attendees, looking for some automotive and motorsport fun.
It’s where classic and modern road and racing machines get to be taken for a spin around the Estate’s 1.16-mile (1.86 km) hillclimb track which features 9 turns and a special corner in front of the Goodwood House. Each year, attendees get to be wowed by roaring machines from such examples as F1, rally cars, Super Touring cars, Le Mans racing machines, race bikes, classic and modern cars, old and new bikes, trucks, electric and hybrid vehicles, and more. Additionally, the Goodwood FOS is also an avenue for car brands to showcase their latest models, as well as incoming models ready for official launch anytime soon.
For this year’s FOS, French carmaker, Alpine, is one of the exhibitors. Making their Goodwood FOS appearance as their 70th founding anniversary celebration, they’ll be debuting the Alpine A290 Rallye. Aside from this, Alpine will also be bringing in their road-going A290 and A110, while their BWT Alpine Formula One team will deliver a daily high-octane display of the brand’s racing heritage.
British brand, Lotus, is also in, and will lead the way with their well-anticipated Theory 1 Concept. In addition, them being a huge part of Formula 1’s rich history is enough of a reason for the Goodwood FOS showing of the brand’s tribute car display to the racing legends Ayrton Senna and Jim Clark.
All the way from Italy, Maserati’s rolling in to Goodwood in style. Leading the pack is the Maserati GT2 Stradale, a road-legal versions of the GT2 racecar. Alongside it, there’s the sleek new 490-hp GranCabrio and the wild-looking MCXtrema dressed in Blue Xtrema paint job, just to name a few.
Another brand to look out for is Subaru. For this year, the Subaru Motorsports USA will make a much-awaited return, featuring their rally racing team and track stars. Going Goodwood again will be the team’s WRX: Project Midnight car with racing driver Scott Speed behind the wheel. The WRX: Project Midnight saw its Goodwood FOS debut last year with the title as the fastest internal combustion engine vehicle on the Goodwood Hillclimb. Also gracing the event is rally driver Travis Pastrana with his Subaru WRX ARA25 rally machine.
These are some of the highlights to look out for at this year’s Goodwood Festival Of Speed. More action to come during the entire 4-day event, so be sure to tune in to the official Goodwood Festival Of Speed Facebook page and YouTube Channel where the event will be livestreamed.
