Last weekend’s Goodwood Festival of Speed proved to be a crowd pleaser with some of the world’s top drivers and cars putting in some great performances. The 23rd Goodwood event saw a surprise appearance from motorcycle world champion Valentino Rossi – he came straight from a win at the latest round of the MotoGP in Holland – and took to the stage following a performance from Kaiser Chiefs.
He hung around to showcase his riding skills the next day by driving through the doorway of the famous Goodwood House. Rossi also demonstrated his abilities on four wheels, with a drive in the Le-Mans 787B Mazda and a Lancia Delta S4 Group B Rally car.
There were plenty of supercars on display including the latest Mazda MX-5, Porsche 918 Spyder and the McLaren P1 – all proving to be big favourites with the petrol heads in attendance.
Of course it wouldn’t be Goodwood without a few crashes along the way, with a Mazda colliding dramatically with hay bales and the world’s fastest man, Andy Green, also managing to go significantly off-track in a £300,000 Bloodhound Jaguar rally car – fitting in nicely with this year’s theme of Flat-Out and Fearless: Racing on the Edge.
Car fans were delighted by the chance to get up close to some amazing cars, including the Maserati 250F – only 26 have ever been made and the last one sold for around £3 million.
Goodwood also sees manufacturers reveal their latest models – often with debut track performances. One of the highlights of this year was Aston Martin’s Vulcan. Only 24 will be build and is capable of doing more than 200 mph – although it will set you back around £1.8 million.
Lotus unveiled its new 3-Eleven, which will be priced from £82,000 and produce 444 bhp – despite weighing less than 900 kg.
There was plenty of record-breaking driving, with car stunt driver Terry Grant setting a new time for the hill climb whilst driving on two wheels in a car for a mile. He completed the distance in a Nissan Juke in two minutes and ten seconds – smashing the previous best of two minutes and 45 seconds.
A Subaru Impreza named Gobstopper II took this year’s prestigious top spot in the 1.16-mile hillclimb event with a time of 44.91 seconds, but that still wasn’t quick enough to beat the course record of 41.6 seconds set by F1 driver Nick Heidfeld.
Bike fans also enjoyed one of the most spectacular, but terrifying, freestyle motocross shows, while the crowds enjoyed a great display from the Red Arrows.
All in all, the 2015 Goodwood Festival of Speed was once again a world-class event attracting the very best in motorsport.
Show Gallery:
Images courtesy of: The Telegraph
For more articles like this, receive our weekly e-newsletter, including partner deals and all things motoring, register your email below.
Please note: You cannot subscribe to Smart-Motoring unless you put a tick in the checkbox below to indicate have read and agreed to our privacy policy.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.