By Zach Doell


For 361 days a year, the quaint Goodwood Estate serves as the home of the Duke of Richmond and a popular backdrop for special occasions and weddings. But for four days out of the year, the quiet grounds come alive to the tune of brutish engines, cheering fans, and the smell of high-octane race fuel. This year was certainly no different.
The 2014 Goodwood Festival of Speed – held annually since ’93 – brought motoring fans as close as possible to their icons (both man and machine), and although a lot happened over the course of the event, we’ll try to bring you bring you up to speed on the important stuff.

The Hill Climb

Dozens of celebrity drivers took to Goodwood’s 1.16-mile road course this year; once again flinging priceless cars perilously close to hay bales and stonewalls. Yet again, nobody was able to top Nick Heidfeld’s record time of 41.6 seconds, set in 1999 in a McLaren MP4-13, but Sebastien Loeb got closest.
Loeb heaved his Peugeot 208 T16 ‘Pikes Peak’ car to the line in 44.6 seconds, followed further down the lineup by Felipe Massa in a Williams FW18, Dario Franchitti in a Mercedes DTM car, Jackie Stewart in his Tyrrell-Cosworth 001, and Emerson Fittipaldi in his 1974 championship-winning McLaren M23.


The Bonhams Festival of Speed Sale

If watching some of the world’s greatest cars race up a hill isn’t your type of thing, perhaps buying them might be. The 2014 Bonhams Festival of Speed Sale certainly didn’t disappoint – racking in an astonishing £22.6 million ($38.5 million) in heritage vehicle sales, highlighted by this 1954 Ferrari 375-Plus that sold for an astounding $18.3 million.
The distinguished 375-Plus competed in the 1954 Mille Miglia as well as that year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans. Following it across the block were a few other rare motors, such as a Lamborghini Countach LP400 ‘Periscopio’ Coupe ($1.6 million), a 1902 De Dietrich ($1.7 million), and even a 1968 Lotus-Cosworth F1 car ($1.1 million). The iconic Aston Martin Atom prototype – the one we covered a few weeks back – failed to sell.


The Cars on Display

Not everything was for sale at Goodwood though. Visitors this weekend got an up-close look at two of the newest concept cars – the Aston Martin DP-100 and Nissan Concept 2020 – both featured in the Vision Gran Turismo series.
A number of championship-winning F1 showed up as well, including Alain Prost’s 1989 McLaren MP4/5, Michael Schumacher’s 1994 Benetton B194, and Damon Hill’s 1996 Williams FW18. Ari Vatanen’s 1981 Ford Escort Mk2 championship-winning rally car decided to get dirty out on the rally circuit, kicking up gravel alongside a Lancia 037, Audi Quattro S1, and a Celica GT-Four rally car, among others.



Like newer cars? You’re in luck. Goodwood debuted a pair of new cars from the Jaguar Land Rover camp: the Project 7 Jaguar F-Type (the hardest of hardcore F-Types) and the Range Rover SVR. But for addicts who require even more speed, the featherweight Elemental RP-1 (weighs just 992 pounds), one-off Ferrari F12 TRS, and the McLaren 650S MSO were on hand as well.