Goodwood Festival of Speed 2019: oddities and unexpected gems

There was no shortage of exciting new metal at this year’s Festival of Speed.

Goodwood is the UK’s premier motor show, and manufacturers are always keen to use the event to show off upcoming models - either as static displays or in action on the famous hillclimb course.

But Goodwood isn’t just about new cars. There were all manner of historic models, race cars, rally specials and drift spec machines putting on a show for the crowds - and a few other machines you perhaps wouldn’t expect to see on the drive of a Sussex stately home.

Here are just a few of the highlights.

Roborace returns with an LMP1-inspired alpha car

Fledgling self-driving motorsport outfit Roborace made a big splash at last year’s Festival of Speed when it sent the fully autonomous devbot up the hill. The company is back in 2019 with its Season Alpha car, which will soon be supporting some Formula E events.

The LMP1-influenced, rear-driven racer has a cockpit for a human driver, who will pilot the car for one part of each race and then hand over to artificial intelligence for the rest of it. This is still very much a prototype, with the final version expected to produce more than 1300bhp from four electric motors.

Kamaz 43509 K Dakar truck gets sideways

The 12.5-litre straight-six in Kamaz’s rally raid truck pumps out almost 1000bhp and will push the bus-sized behemoth to a top speed of 100mph, no matter how ‘finished’ its path may be.

Kamaz 43509 K Dakar truck

Its 1000-litre fuel tank is roughly 20 times the size of that in your daily driver, but it will exhaust its diesel supplies in just 180 miles.

Formula Drift slides in

The Dodge Viper is somewhat infamous for its ability to light up its rear tyres and get sideways. Bridges Racing is putting that trait to good use in Formula Drift, with this 1200bhp+ Viper.

Driver Dean Kearney has been drifting for 14 years, having won the European Prodrift Super series in 2009 before heading to the US to compete in Formula Drift, where he has five podiums to date.

Truck racing is big, brutal

Race series come in all shapes and sizes, as this Taylors Transport racing truck proves. This five-tonne goliath puts out around 1000bhp, and it was not hanging about on its ascent of the Goodwood hill climb.

The somewhat unique British Truck Racing Association features the same kind of wheel-to-wheel racing seen in touring car championships - only the dimensions are significantly larger here.

Siemens e-Chopper gets electric

Technology giant Siemens created the e-Chopper in collaboration with renowned motorcycle fabricators Orange County Choppers. In place of a throaty Harley-derived V-twin motor, however, the e-Chopper packs a 27bhp brushless electric motor good for 100mph. Range is a Pacific Coast Highway-friendly 60 miles.

Aerobatics displays turn heads skyward

Not all of Goodwood’s action was on the ground. Aerobatic pilots were in action across the weekend, along with a display by the Red Arrows. The close-call acrobatics are always thrilling to watch, especially since the warm weather meant clear skies for perfect viewing.

Supercars can be drift-spec too

Meet the Nimbul, a Lamborghini Huracan LP580-2 overhauled for maximum sideways action. Creator Mad Mike Whiddett insisted the car stay naturally aspirated, so there’s still a 5.2-litre V10 engine underneath the widened bodykit - but one that has been upgraded with a new ECU, K&N filters and Nitrous injection.

Lamborghini Huracan #Nimbul

The NA engine puts over 800bhp through the rear wheels. The whole project took just four weeks to build, and the Festival marks its UK public debut.

TVR Speed 12 makes a rare appearance

Based on the already-intimidating Cerbera sports car, the Speed 12 was originally intended to provide Blackpool-based TVR with a viable GT1 competition car. Powered by a near-1000bhp 7.7-litre V12, the concept was said to be able to beat the McLaren F1’s 240mph top speed.

Production plans were sadly abandoned when company boss Peter Wheeler borrowed the car for his commute home, and deemed it unsafe for use on road or track.

Toyota body, Ferrari engine

Swapping the engines of cars destined for drifting is a fairly common practice, but taking a Ferrari F458 motor and mating it to a Toyota GT86. The engine puts around 550 bhp to the wheels, and revs all the way to 9000rpm in its top state of tune.

The V8 creation was a mammoth undertaking, not least because of the Toyota’s compact dimensions, but the result is a tyre-chewing drift monster.

Formula E heads for the rough stuff

A new racing series was announced at Goodwood, and we also got a look at the car that will participate.

Extreme E, an all-electric rally-raid style competition for hardcore 4x4s, will get underway in 2021. The E-SUV racer has been built to withstand extremely hostile environments, and will sprint from 0-62mph in 4.5sec, even “at gradients of up to 130%”.

Jaguar goes racing - in an EV

Jaguar's I-Pace electric SUV will go down in history as one of the company's most transformative models, making the switch from combustion before any of its major European rivals could do the same. It is also the first to recieve its very own race series.

The I-Pace Trophy is a lightened, strengthened and race-prepped version of the road car that supports Formula E races around the globe.

Vintage monster never gets old

It’s not the first time we’ve seen Duncan Pittaway’s 28.5-litre Fiat S76 take to the hill, but the deafening racer, originally built in Italy in 1910, is always good company.

Dwarfing most other participants, the so-called ‘Beast of Turin’ roared all the way up the climb, seemingly with more combustions taking place on the outside of its engine than within. You don’t need to be anywhere near the 1.16-mile course to know how it’s getting on.

France’s Ferrari takes the stage

French company Prato’s 888bhp V8-powered Orage supercar was all but an unknown before this weekend. 

At its launch in 2017, it was claimed to have the most powerful naturally aspirated V8 in the world, which is quite a feat. With this stat weighing heavy on its angular buttresses, it was chosen to lead this year’s Michelin Supercar Paddock up the hill.

The King returns in style

Richard Petty is one of the best-known race drivers of all time, so it’s only fitting that his 1981 Buick Regal Nascar racer is being booted up the climb by his grandson Thad Moffitt.

Packing a 5.7-litre V8, this car took Petty to his final Daytona 500 victory in 1981, and made a fair amount of noise in the process, too.