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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.