25 glorious Goodwood Festival of Speed classics

Goodwood delights

Goodwood echoed to the sound of screaming Formula One V10s, burbling V8s and sonorous ‘sixes’ as hundreds of classic cars joined the Festival of Speed on 23-26 June.

Nigel Mansell piloted both Ferrari and Williams F1 cars up the hill, while the 50th birthday of BMW’s M division saw many of Munich’s most iconic racers at the event.

Lancia and Group B rallying both celebrated milestones at the festival, too, leaving the hill filled by the pops and bangs of turbocharged rally cars for much of the day. From the raucous to the refined, the 2022 Goodwood Festival of Speed had a bevy of classics of all kinds.

It was hard to narrow it down, but here are our favourites, in no particular order.

1. 1972 Ford Capri RS2600

Ford entered Touring Car racing in the ’60s, when British-built Cortinas and American Galaxies successfully toppled the previously dominant Jaguar Mk2s.

In the ’70s, the Ford Capri RS2600 emerged as the brand’s front-running model, a status cemented in 1972 by a second-place finish at Le Mans and victory at the Spa 24-hour race.

2. 1980 Mercedes-Benz 500SL Rallye

After the 450SLC Rallye finished fourth in the 1980 World Rally Championship, Mercedes-Benz began working on a replacement to compete in the 1981 season.

The 500SL Rallye, with its shorter wheelbase, low weight and Walter Röhrl behind the wheel, made a very promising proposition. However, the project was scrapped after only four prototypes were produced. 

3. 1969 Lancia Fulvia HF Barchetta F&M

Lancia created the Barchetta F&M by essentially lopping the top off a Fulvia HF.

The result was a successful lightweight race car which would go on to win the two-litre class at the 1969 Targa Florio at the hands of Sandro Munari and Rauno Aaltonen.

The car pictured at the 2022 Goodwood Festival of Speed is the sole remaining original Barchetta F&M.

4. BMW 3.0 CSL ‘Batmobile’

A homologation special, the 3.0 CSL marked the beginning of BMW’s M Division in spectacular style by winning the European Touring Car Championship straight out of the gate.

Given its ‘batmobile’ moniker as a result of its exuberant bodywork, the CSL also went on to become the first of BMW’s famous ‘Art Cars’.

5. Brabham-BMW BT52

Following a short gestation period of only six weeks, the Gordon Murray-penned Brabham-BMW BT52 proved to be a successful racer at the hands of Nelson Piquet.

The four-cylinder turbocharged engine helped power Piquet to the 1983 F1 drivers’ title, etching the BT52 and its iconic delta-wing shape into the Formula One hall of fame.

The car was driven up the hillclimb by Nelson’s son, Pedro Piquet.

6. 1986 Lancia Delta HF 4x4

Following the outlawing of Group B rallying in 1986, Lancia was forced to drop the space-framed Delta S4 as its WRC contender.

Fortunately, it had already been developing a four-wheel-drive, roadgoing variant of the standard Delta chassis, the Delta HF 4x4. Later Integrale developments of the Delta would become iconic, but the narrow-bodied HF 4x4, now rarer today, was crucial in securing the Delta as Lancia’s most successful rally car.

The Delta featured in the Cartier Style et Luxe concours d’elegance at the Festival of Speed, celebrating 40 years since Lancia’s first international rallying title.

7. 1932 Bucciali TAV8-32 V12 ‘Fléche d’Or’

It takes something truly special to make crowds overlook a Bugatti Atlantique and Delahaye 135, but the Bucciali in the Avant Garde Elegance class of the Festival of Speeds’ concours did just that.

Just six Bucciali were ever built, each one different from the other, of which three remain.

Built on a Mercedes-Benz Type S chassis, the Bucciali is powered by a 5-litre Voisin V12 driving the front wheels.

8. 1914 Sunbeam 350hp

A car that set the Land Speed Record three times, including the first to exceed 150mph, the Sunbeam’s latter two records were in the hands of Malcolm Campbell, who painted the car in his iconic ‘Bluebird’ livery.

The car was recently restored to full working order by the National Motor Museum in Beaulieu.

9. 1989 Ferrari 639

As a former Ferrari F1 driver himself, star driver of the weekend Nigel Mansell couldn’t resist joining Ferrari’s 75th celebrations.

The 639 was a car he only briefly drove, however, a short-lived early attempt at a paddleshift F1 car.

10. 1992 Williams-Renault FW14B

Celebrating the 30th anniversary of his F1 championship win, Nigel Mansell took to the Goodwood hill in the car which dominated the 1992 season, the innovative FW14B.

The car pioneered the use of active suspension, which would later be banned in the sport – but is prevalent in performance cars today.

11. 1993 McLaren F1 ‘XP4’

The 30th anniversary of the McLaren F1 was celebrated with its own six-strong class in the Cartier Style et Luxe, the Goodwood Festival of Speed’s concours.

XP4 is the fourth of five experimental prototype cars built by McLaren prior to main production, and featured in contemporary media extensively in the mid 1990s.

12. 1982 Subaru GL Wagon

The trend of restomodding classic cars has finally come to the Subaru GL/Leone, with Travis Pastrana having just built this 2.3-litre turbocharged machine.

Little of the original GL remains under the bodywork, but the car still makes use of a Subaru engine.

13. 1982 Ford Escort RS1700T

The Escort was a rallying hero prior to the Group B era, but Ford couldn’t really get the Mk3 Escort to work as a rally car, which has left the RS 1700T largely forgotten.

A rear-wheel-drive car under the usually front-wheel-drive Mk3 Escort body, the Ford had neither the traction nor power to compete with the all-wheel-drive Audi quattro, but it was one of the most interesting cars in the Festival of Speed’s 40 years of Group B celebrations as a result.

14. 1970 Lancia Fulvia HF

Lancia remains the most successful manufacturer in rallying history, and 50 years on from winning rallying’s final International Championship – the WRC’s predecessor – the front-wheel-drive Lancia Fulvia HF made an appearance on the Goodwood hillclimb.

The impressive Fulvia won the Italian Rally Championship every year between 1965 and 1973, and paved the way for Lancia’s rallying success with the Stratos and Group B Delta S4.

15. 1936 Auto Union Type C

Fantastically weird looking, the Auto Union Type C is the ultimate incarnation of the rear-engined Grand Prix cars.

Terrifyingly fast in a straight line thanks to its aerodynamics and V16 engine, the car was wayward in corners and struggled for success as a result.

16. 1980 Toyota Celica RA40

While later Toyota Celicas would be dominant in the WRC, Toyota’s A40 Celica only briefly dipped into rallying for six months.

Ben Mellors has built this exacting replica of one of those cars, using a standard bodyshell and one of the original competition engines.

17. 1997 Ford Escort Cosworth WRC

The Escort Cosworth WRC was built to satisfy new rally regulations in 1997.

After M-Sport took over the running of the works team, the cars made their debut at the ’97 Rallye Monte-Carlo, finishing a commendable second place.

The Escort was retired from WRC duties at the end of 1998, making way for a new generation with the Ford Focus.

18. Nissan Skyline R32 GT-R

The R32 GT-R made its name in the Japanese Grand Touring Championship in the early ‘90s, winning all the 29 races it entered.

Its dominance gradually reached further afield – wins at Spa and Bathurst helped secure the model’s iconic status, and earned it the nickname ‘Godzilla’. 

19. 1954 Ferrari 250 Europa

Part of a celebration of front-mounted V12 Ferraris, the 250 Europa was the oldest of the display and a milestone for Ferrari, arguably the maker’s first GT – though its successor, the Europa GT, was the first to be badged such.

It was also one of the last Ferraris to use the relatively short-lived Lampredi V12 engine.

20. 1970 Ford Escort Twin-Cam

The Goodwood Festival of Speed rally stage wouldn’t be complete without a classic Escort, in this case a Twin-Cam with extensive history with Gunnar Palm.

Palm navigated for Söderström Bengt in a handful of rallies in the car, including the 1968 Acropolis, and teamed up with Hannu Mikkola for the 1969 Tour de Course – perhaps a practice run for their famous World Cup Rally Marathon win in an Escort the next year.

21. Ferrari 250MM

Originally a 212, Mexican racer Efraín Echeverría had this car converted to 250MM spec by Ferrari, racing it in the Carrera Panamericana.

Today one of the most collectible Ferraris, this one is owned by noted marque enthusiast Nick Mason.

22. 1979 Aston Martin Bulldog

Aston Martin’s aborted attempt at the production car speed record has recently been restored by a team including original engineer Richard Gauntlett’s son, and there are promises that the car will attempt to reach the speeds it was originally aiming for – over 200mph – soon.

It wasn’t going that fast up Goodwood’s hill last weekend, but then it was one of the car’s first post-restoration appearances.

23. 1927 Austin Seven Maythorn & Son

Maythorn & Son Ltd of Biggleswade, Bedfordshire, was better known for building bodies for Rolls-Royces, Damilers and Voisins, but two Austin Sevens came through the workshop, too.

Both were ordered by American customers, the car in Goodwood’s Cartier Style et Luxe concours d’elegance going to Woolworths founder Seymour Knox. The original wicker over paint bodywork reflected its 6000 miles since new.

24. 1989 Mitsubishi Galant VR-4

Before Mitsubishi went rallying with the Lancer, the Galant VR-4 was its weapon of choice.

It was the company’s first high-performance AWD system, mated to a turbocharged, four-cylinder engine, and proved competitive in the WRC, even if it wasn’t a championship winner. Overshadowed by the storied Lancer, a sole Galant took to Goodwood’s rally stage.

25. 1972 McLaren-Chevrolet M8F

McLaren’s successful foray into Can-Am racing reached its pinnacle with the M8F when a Chevrolet ‘big-block’ V8 was shoe-horned into the car, taking Peter Revson to a championship win in 1971.

Its 8-litre V8 was capable of over 800bhp.