Gallery: 7 Wild Rides at the Goodwood Festival of Speed

The Goodwood Festival of Speed is exactly what it sounds like: a celebration of anything with wheels that can go fast. As such, the event, held every summer since 1993, has gained quite a following with car nuts from around the world. You never know what will come out of the woodwork to run up the 11th Duke of Richmond’s driveway for the Shootout. And that’s part of the fun. Here were some of our favorite racers in attendance this year.

Fiat S76
Known as the “Beast of Turin”, this big Fiat was built in 1911 to break land-speed records. Its engine is a massive 28.4-liter four-cylinder, which was good for a recorded top speed of 132 miles per hour. The S76 is a perennial fan favorite at Goodwood, probably because it spits fireballs out of its open exhaust ports.

Plymouth Superbird
In 1969, Dodge brought its big-winged Daytona to NASCAR super speedways to trounce the Fords in stock car racing. 1969 was also the season Richard Petty, a long-time Plymouth driver, made the switch to Fords. In order to win Petty back, the following year Plymouth affixed a big schnoz and an even bigger wing to its Road Runner. The ploy worked, and Petty was back in a Plymouth for 1970. Even though the King finished 4th in the points that year with the Superbird, his blue Plymouth remains a racing icon. At the festival, I overheard one British teenager say, “That’s the NASCAR from the Cars movie.”

Lotus-Pratt & Whitney 56B
In 1971, Lotus took its Indianapolis 500 turbine car and adapted it for Grand Prix racing. The four-wheel-drive 56B was powered by a Pratt & Whitney STN76 gas turbine that made around 600 horsepower. The 56B was not up to the task of racing Europe’s circuits, with 8th place being its highest finish. It was too thirsty and unreliable, plus drivers had the fun task of adapting to the turbine’s input lag, often having to go full throttle well before the corner exit. In person, it was remarkable how much quieter the 56B was than its piston-powered contemporaries.

Toyota Stout
Professional drifter Ryan Tuerck’s 1966 Toyota Stout didn’t have much Stout left in it. Toyota Racing Development helped put together the demo drifter, which is equipped with TRD’s custom suspension, wide bodywork, and a sequential transmission. The engine is a heavily-modified transplant from a 1990s MR-2 Turbo. With 600 horses, it had no problem smoking the tires all the way up the hill.

Shadow-Chevrolet MKI “Mosport”
Shadow should be better remembered in the canon of American race teams. Its founder may or may not have been a CIA agent, and it fielded successful entries in Can-Am, Formula 1, and Formula 5000. Shadow’s first entry into motorsports was the radically low MKI “Mosport” in 1970. Powered by a big-block Chevy breathing through twin intake trumpets, the MKI sounded as crazy as it looked.

Ford SuperVan 4.2
Less a van and more of a bespoke racer, the SuperVan 4.2 made its return to the Festival of Speed this year after taking a class win at the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb in 2023. The trio of electric motors (one at the front and two at the rear) outputting 1400 horsepower, and some serious aerodynamics, made for a formidable Shootout challenger. By the end of Sunday, the SuperVan had made it up the hill in 43.98 seconds, the fastest time anyone had run by two full seconds. The electric drivetrain was nearly silent, but the audible gasps from the crowd when the van flew by were not.

MG Metro 6R4
MG took a slightly different approach to the Group B rally formula. Instead of a small-displacement engine ingesting copious amounts of boost, the 6R4 utilized a 3.0-liter, dual-overhead-cam V-6 that was penned by ex-Cosworth designer David Wood. Alas, MG didn’t have much of a chance to prove the machine in the World Rally Championship, as 1986, the car’s first full season, was also Group B’s last year due to multiple fatal incidents.