10 of the Coolest (Non-Race) Cars at Goodwood Festival of Speed

At least 17 different carmakers and a few motorcycle makers had a major marketing presence at the Goodwood Festival of Speed this past weekend, and it appears shows like that have more or less replaced the traditional auto show, at least for the makers of cool cars.

Since COVID and the internet wiped out traditional auto shows, carmakers have poured big bucks into what used to be called enthusiast events, establishing a corporate presence to tap into the car lovers who show up at places like The Quail and Goodwood. Last weekend there were 200,000 car lovers at the Goodwood Festival of Speed ogling new cars from manufacturers ranging from BYD to BMW, with showcars aimed at gathering eyeballs. Even motorcycle makers came.

“A brand like Norton has a very strong English heritage, and we would like to definitely build on those values, but in a very modern way going ahead,” said Sudarshan Venu, managing director of TVS Motor Company, parent company of Norton Motorcycles. “And that’s the reason we decided to get involved here at Goodwood, because Goodwood represents the glory and spirit of the British motor industry.”

Most exhibitors were carmakers.

“It’s all about passion, community, and great cars,” said BMW M meister Frank van Meel as he introduced the M5 to the world.

Said Thomas Ingenlath, Polestar CEO: “Now we are a brand with three models in production. It’s great to see them here together for the first time at a global event. Goodwood Festival of Speed is full of the most exciting cars and the most enthusiastic crowds, so it’s the perfect place for us to tease our Polestar Concept BST.”

With track-related vehicles the order of the day, performance manufacturers were out in abundance, too.

“Goodwood Festival of Speed provides an exceptional opportunity to welcome customers and fans of McLaren to celebrate our shared passion for high-performance cars and motorsport,” said Piers Scott, executive director of public relations at McLaren. “The fact that our supercars, hypercars and racing cars can be seen and heard in motion makes the Goodwood experience even more unique.”

And those companies trying to establish themselves in new markets like Europe also benefited from a presence at the FOS.

“It doesn’t only mean we want to sell the car to them. It means we are coming, we are here in the UK now, with a good product and good brand,” Chery Automobile Company’s UK head Victor Zhang told Bloomberg.

Here are our favorite production and concept car reveals from those manufacturers that showed something cool at Goodwood this year.

Red Bull RB17

Designed by departing F1 legend Adrian Newey, Red Bull says the RB17 has over 1000 hp coming from a 15,000-rpm V10 engine and another 200 hp from an electric motor. It seats two and has a top speed of 217 mph. Only 50 will be built.

Ground-mounted aerodynamics look like they’ll pop right off the first bump it hits, so don’t plan on commuting, unless your commute runs up the Duke’s driveway. Newey has stated that even world champ Max Verstappen will have trouble extracting the car’s limits. No official word on pricing but published reports have it at $7.8 million. There have been hints it could run at Le Mans next year.

Ford Mustang GTD

The carbon-fiber-bodied Mustang GTD (Grand Touring Daytona, not, “Git Ter Dun”) is a car of targets: Targeted horsepower: 800; Targeted top speed: 190+ mph; Targeted Nurburgring lap time: Sub-7 minutes. Those are hard targets. Street-legal cars that have lapped the Nordschleife in six-something are among the best ever built: Mercedes-AMG One, Porsche 918 Spyder, Porsche 911 GT2 RS, Mercedes-AMG GT Black Series, Lamborghini Aventador LP770-4 SVJ, Lamborghini Huracan Performante, and Ferrari 296 GTB.

Like all of those, the GTD is street legal (“But just barely,” Ford says. Hahaha). Like Mustangs since time immemorial, this one’s powered by a V8, a 5.2-liter supercharged V8. Unlike any Mustang ever, this one sends power to a rear transaxle with an eight-speed dual-clutch transmission. The result is what Ford is saying is perfect 50/50 weight balance.

The GTD made four runs up the hill—two on Saturday and two on Sunday.

“Mustang GTD takes racing technology from our Mustang GT3 race car, wraps it in a carbon-fiber Mustang body and unleashes it for the street,” said Ford CEO Jim Farley.

Look for a sticker price around $325,000.

And a race car for the street? The Mustang GT3s finished 3oth and 31st at Le Mans this year—31 and 32 laps down from the winning Ferrari 499P.

McLaren P1 Drift Car

While most of the cars in Formula Drift have swapped LS3 V8s for power and torque, Kiwi driver Mad Mike Whiddett has gone with rotary power. He has stacked his own rotary ensembles into Mazdas RX-7, RX-8, the diminutive MX-5 Miata, a Mazda3 and even a REPU, the local take on the B-Series pickup truck. So when the time came for his latest outrageous build, a McLaren P1 GTR drift car, he stacked three rotors into it and built it up to 1000 hp.

It didn’t have the same parts as most P1 GTRs.

“The P1 GTR has got a lot of componentry that wouldn’t benefit itself for a drift car: hybrid systems, active suspension, active aero,” build partner Dean Lanzante told Top Gear. “There is some economics of this, the cost of tearing apart a GTR. So it was decided we’d need a sequential gearbox, passive suspension, and we used a 650 baseline tub, (which) is the same as a P1 tub. But we wanted a roll cage in it, so we used a GT3 roll cage, and body panels from a GT3 are the front wings and lower front bumper just ‘cause they’re actually wider than P1 and we knew Mike was going to have some steering lock issues later on. The Lanzante side was to not literally give a P1 but to give something that was leaning towards what was going to be required when it got to New Zealand.”

New Zealand is where the MadLab is, Whiddett’s shop, to which the car was air-freighted. Through several miracles and a lot of hard work by all concerned, the team put together the car in 100 days and Mad Mike wowed the crowds at Goodwood.

Polestar Concept BST

Last year at Goodwood we saw the Polestar 6 convertible. The Concept BST coupe builds on that with aggressive fender flares and a gregarious rear wing.

“This car is a demonstration of how far we can push our performance brand—Polestar turned up to 11, if you will—and a demonstration of how we could apply the BST formula to our lineup in the future,” said Thomas Ingenlath, CEO of Polestar.

The BST went up Goodwood’s 1.2-mile-long “driveway,” taking its place among some of the great race cars in the world.

Maseratis Galore at Goodwood

Maserati showed off two MC20 specials at Goodwood, inspired by the racing success of the MC12 20 years ago. The pair are called the MC20 Icona and MC20 Leggenda. If you like either, you can get in line to purchase one, as both will be made in a limited edition of 20 units each (their MC12 predecessors were also built in limited runs for homologation purposes of 25 units each).

Specifically, the cars were inspired by two MC12 specials from years ago, the MC12 Stradale and MC12 GT1 Vitaphone. The cars also offer features from Maserati’s Fuoriserie personalization program, including what Maserati calls “refined and exclusive liveries and interiors.”

As if that wasn’t enough MC nomenclature, also on the Maserati stand at Goodwood was an MC12 Versione Corse, which had been developed in 2006. The Versione Corse was also based on the racing MC12 but designed for non-competitive use on the track. They only built 12 of those, each powered by a 755-hp V12.

There was one more Maserati on the stand, too: an MC20 Cielo in Blu Victory, a spyder with a retractable glass roof and the Maserati Trident painted in white on the tonneau cover. The metallic color of the MC20 Cielo in Blu Victory came from the Collezione Corse Fuoriserie, selected “to take up the nuance of the MC12 from 20 years ago.”

MG Cyber GTS Concept

You may have owned an MG back in the day, when a straight-four powered the car through a four-speed manual and the top took a week to put together. A few things have changed in the roughly 50 or so years since then.

MG is now owned by Chinese carmaker SAIC and everything’s electric. The handsome Cyber GTS Concept that debuted at Goodwood is a 2+2 electric hardtop coupe version of the previously revealed Cyberster roadster. From certain angles it looks like a little Aston Martin.

While the roadster uses dual electric motors driving the rear wheels, it’s possible the Cyberster GTS will have a single electric motor driving the rear wheels. Specs were not provided, though it’s believed this will be a 2+2, hopefully with a rear seat bigger than the parcel shelf some of us rode in in the MGB way back when.

Consider this a rolling argument against those EV tariffs.

Mini John Cooper Works E PROtotype

This is the first JCW model of a Mini to get an all-electric powertrain. The number 37 on the bonnet is an homage to Mini’s 1964 victory at the Rally Monte Carlo. It was driven up the hill by none other than Charlie Cooper, the actual grandson of Mini Cooper mastermind John Cooper.

The 37 car ran with the 317 car—the very same that won its class at this year’s Nurburgring 24 Hours. More specs, info, and maybe even a drive impression will be available when the cars officially debut this fall.

BMW M5

BMW rolled out the seventh-generation of its M5 on its stand at Goodwood, and no less a local luminary than the good Duke himself stepped out.

“I’ve always been a huge M fan,” said His Grace. “I’ve had a few Ms myself. This one looks fantastic—727 horsepower, amazing.”

His Grace may have been referring to European PS, which is a little more generous than our SAE standard hp, of which the M5 gets 717. Indeed, the car is capable of 0-60 in 3.4 seconds and a top speed of 190 mph. In addition to 727/717 hp, der neue M funf sports 1000 Nm, or 738 lb-ft of torque from its hybrid electric drivetrain.

“Everyone who has driven the last V8 knows the supple feel,” said BMW M CEO Frank Van Meel. “Now, with the hybrid drive, it’s even more supple.”

The hybrid has a 14.8-kWh battery capable of up to 27 miles on electricity alone.

It rides on double-wishbone front and multilink rear suspension attached to 20-inch front and 21-inch rear alloy wheels wrapped in 285/40 ZR20 front and 295/35 ZR21 rear tires. Suspension includes adaptive M dampers front and rear.

The 2025 M5 will be out in the fourth quarter of this year with a starting sticker of $120,675—an $8,780 bump from the outgoing model, but you get a hybrid powertrain and a lot more power.

Ford Raptor T1+

No less a rally hero than two-time WRC champion Carlos Sainz Sr. took the Ford Raptor T1+ up the hill at Goodwood, oversteering onto the Duke’s grass on a couple corners and brushing the haybales on others. The Raptor T1+ uses a T45 steel spaceframe chassis draped in carbon-fiber bodywork.

It rides on 37-inch tires wrapped with 17 x 8.5-inch alloy wheels. Under the hood is a 5.0-liter Coyote-based V8 with dry-sump oiling system and a revised exhaust system. The whole thing rides on double wishbones at each corner to control with Fox coilovers.

If you missed it at Goodwood, you can see it race at the 2024 Baja Hungary in August, the 2024 Rallye du Maroc in October, and the 2025 Dakar Rally in January.

You haven’t driven this Ford lately.

BYD Yangwang U9

Yangwang is the luxury label of Chinese mega-brand BYD and the U9 is its second offering, after the U8 SUV. Revealed at last year’s Shanghai auto show, the U9 went on sale in February with four electric motors combining for 1290 hp, good enough for a 0-62 mph time of 2.36 seconds, a quarter mile in 9.78 seconds, and a top speed of 192 mph, the company claims.

An active suspension system can raise and lower the car, and BYD had it doing a little dance on its stand at the show, including sitting up on just three of its four wheels. It can also do “tank turns” like its U8 SUV sibling. Price is listed at $235,00 depending on exchange rates. But don’t look for it in US showrooms any time soon.