In pictures: Goodwood Festival of Speed 2018

All the action from the 25th instalment of FoS

Sun-drenched Goodwood hosted its Silver Jubilee Festival of Speed at the weekend (12-15 July) and shared its 25th birthday celebrations with a mind-boggling number of other notable anniversaries.

Chief among these was Porsche’s 70th, but the event also saw Alpine mark 40 years since the A442 B won the Le Mans 24 Hours, Land Rover and Lotus' own 70th birthdays and more.

Jaguar’s XK line was another to reach the big seven-0, and that anniversary was remembered with a grid of stunning Big Cats (pictured here), among them Le Mans-winning C- and D-types, and the XK120 ‘NUB 120’.

Scroll on for more photos from the weekend.

Porsche 356-001

Porsche's 70th anniversary was celebrated at this year's Festival of Speed, and this is where it all began for the German marque.

The pre-A 356 appeared in March of 1948, featuring a lightweight tubular spaceframe chassis based around an increased-capacity Volkswagen Beetle flat-four air-cooled engine with just 40bhp on tap.

Created by Ferry Porsche, the son of founder Ferdinand, the 356 was the first production car to bear the Porsche name, although three special Type 64 cars had been built pre-war for the Berlin to Rome race.

Mercedes-Benz T80 and W125 Rekordwagen

Mercedes-Benz brought out the crown jewels for its 2018 visit to the Festival of Speed.

As well as the W154 and W165 Grand Prix racers, it gave the famous W125 and T80 speed record cars an outing; they usually live in the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart and are rarely seen outside Germany.

Both cars were body-off, with their extraordinary technology on show. The 1938 W125 Rekordwagen was designed to run without a radiator to keep its drag coefficient as low as possible, and featured a 5577cc V12 engine cooled by iced water in the tank at the front of car.

In January 1938, it achieved a speed of nearly 270mph on the autobahn between Frankfurt and Darmstadt.

Mercedes-Benz T80 and W125 Rekordwagen (continued)

The enormous T80, meanwhile, was built in 1939 to smash the land-speed record. Its streamlined body was designed by Ferdinand Porsche and featured a six-wheel chassis and 44-litre V12 tuned version of the engine that powered the Messerschmitt Bf109.

Although theoretically capable of reaching an astonishing 470mph, it was never formally put to the test due to the start of WW2.

Hans-Joachim Stuck in the Auto Union Type C

One unforgettable sight was that of the supercharged 1936 V16 Auto Union Type C being driven up the Goodwood hill climb by Hans-Joachim Stuck, son of pre-war racing legend Hans Stuck, who himself drove the car in period.

Tom Kristensen in the Wanderer

Part of the later Auto Union group of companies, Wanderer built this W25 Streamliner Special endurance racer, driven here by nine-times Le Mans winner Tom Kristensen, to compete in the prestigious 5000km Liege–Rome-Liege race in 1938.

Unleash the beast!

Duncan Pittaway’s spectacular Fiat S76 ‘Beast of Turin’ was another Festival favourite.

Mercedes-Benz 300SLR

The Goodwood Festival of Speed always attracts the finest historic cars – and they don't come much finer than this one.

'658' is the car that Juan-Manuel Fangio drove to second place in the 1955 Mille Miglia, finishing only behind team-mate Stirling Moss.

Emerson Fittipaldi in the McLaren-Cosworth M23

The Gordon Coppuck-designed M23 gave McLaren its first drivers and constructors' F1 championship win in 1974, with Brazilian Emerson Fittipaldi behind the wheel and DFV delivering the power. Fittipaldi was reunited with the car to pilot it around the Goodwood track at the weekend.

Williams FW08B

Most people are familiar with the six-wheeled Tyrrell P34 Formula One car, but there were several other attempts to add two extra wheels to an F1 car – and this was one of them.

The Williams FW08B was designed by Patrick Head in 1982, and was extensively tested that year. Alas, once the FIA caught wind of it, it was banned before it could turn even one wheel in anger.

Martin Brundle in Eagle-Weslake

Commentator and ex-F1 driver Martin Brundle was the lucky man at the wheel of the stunning 1967 Mk1 Eagle-Weslake T1G at this year's Festival of Speed.

The car, which had been specially flown over from the USA for the weekend, took the late Dan Gurney to the last of his four Grand Prix wins, at Spa in 1967.

Jenson Button in the Honda RA301

This is Jenson Button’s 17th visit to the Festival of Speed, and this year he teamed up with Honda to drive the ex-John Surtees V12 RA301.

The car was based on a Lola monocoque and finished second at the French Grand Prix in 1968.

Ferrari 158

The gorgeous Ferrari 158 leaves the paddock holding area to head out onto the hill-climb. This is the car in which John Surtees won the 1964 Italian Grand Prix, propelling him on the path to the driver’s championship at the end of the season.

Maserati Eldorado Special

This eye-catching single-seater was built for the 1958 Two Worlds Trophy – or “Trofeo dei due Mondi”, to give it its full name – a 500-mile run on the Monza circuit, spread over three rounds.

Notably, the Eldorado was one of the first cars ever to be sponsored by a non-motorsport brand, in this case the Eldorado ice cream company. The brand's colours also adorned this 410hp racer, while Stirling Moss was the man behind the wheel. He eventually finished a creditable seventh.

Morris Mini Cooper S works rally car

The rally stage at Goodwood was as popular as ever, with almost 100 cars competing on the dusty stage designed by rally driver Hannu Mikkola.

This works rally Mini is the actual car that Paddy Hopkirk drove to fourth place in the 1963 RAC Rally.

Lancia 037 tears up the Goodwood rally stage

The Lancia 037 was built to take advantage of the new Group B rules in 1982, and featured a mid-mounted 2-litre supercharged engine driving the rear wheels.

The 037 brought Lancia the manufacturers title in the 1983 World Rally Championship, with Markku Alén and Walter Röhl winning multiple stages in it.

Vauxhall Cavalier 'Mega Bertha'

First time out after a prolonged restoration by Ric Wood, Mega Bertha is based around a Mk1 Vauxhall Cavalier coupé and features a spaceframe chassis, glassfibre silhouette and big block Chevy.

Ford Galaxie 500

A piece of motorsport history here: this US upstart was the first non-British winner of the British Touring Car Championship, with Jack Sears taking the 1963 title in it.

Richard Petty in the Dodge Charger

Here’s probably the last time we’ll see the great Richard Petty driving his 1972 STP-liveried Dodge Charger NASCAR in the UK. Petty originally drove it to secure his fourth of seven NASCAR championship wins.

Porsche 961

A true one-off, this 959-derived car raced at Le Mans in 1986, finishing in seventh place.

Ford Mustang GT Fastback from 'Bullitt'

One of the most famous cars in the world, Steve McQueen’s 1968 Mustang Fastback from the movie Bullitt made its long-awaited driving debut at the Festival of Speed.

Alpine-Renault A442B

Even at Goodwood you don't see many actual Le Mans 24 Hours winners on the track – but that's exactly what this Renault-Alpine was, taking victory at La Sarthe in 1978. 

Smoking and sliding

A real crowd-pleaser from the 25th FoS was Grant Williams behind the wheel of this Jaguar Mk1, raced in period by Roy Salvadori and part of the touring-car celebration, with burnouts right the way up the hill!

Cheetah-Chevrolet

Duncan Pittaway’s Cheetah-Chevrolet certainly had an interesting Festival: his team worked all hours to get the unique prototype ready, but the V8 blew up on the first run.

Undeterred, Pittaway removed the engine from a friend’s motorhome and overnight fitted it to the Cheetah. It finally roared up the hill to a huge cheer – the engine was then refitted to the motorhome.

Volkswagen Golf Bi-Motor

How do you make a VW Golf go faster up the notorious Pike’s Peak hill climb in Colorado? Easy: you stick another turbocharged engine in the back.

The result is this four-wheel drive monster capable of taking on the steep gravel incline; its dual motor kicks out an impressive 650bhp.

BMW 3.0 CSL 'Batmobile'

This homologation special scored a class victory at the 1973 Le Mans 24 Hours, with Dieter Quester, who drove it at Goodwood, one of the two men behind the wheel.

Citroëns in the Cartier Style et Luxe

It was 60 years ago that Citroën launched its practical and simple Deux Chevaux, or 2CV, and this was celebrated with a class of its own in the Cartier Style et Luxe concours.

Bright Sparks

At the start of the last century, it was a toss up as to whether electric power or the internal combustion engine would evolve into the mass-produced vehicles of the future.

This Edison Electric, in the Bright Sparks class of the Cartier Style et Luxe concours, is one of the three cars originally built by Thomas Edison and Arrol-Johnston in London in 1912.

Edsel Citation

You don't see many of these mid-range, mid-'50s Fords around nowadays. But looking at this 1958 example, we wish they were a lot more common.

Jaguar XK140

Who says a concours car has to be pristine? An eye-catching contender in the Cartier Style et Luxe concours was this one-off ‘barn-find’ Michelotti-bodied XK140.

Now owned by Jaguar Land Rover Classic, the plan is to restore it to its former glory, then show it again at Goodwood.

A D-type like you’ve never seen before

Also nestled in the concours was this Michelotti-designed D-type coupé, based on the crashed remains of the XKD 513. It was acquired in France in 1958 and displayed at the 1963 Geneva show.

The centrepiece

Goodwood's central sculptures are always worth seeing, and this year's was no exception. The Gerry Judah-designed artwork showcased six iconic models displayed 52m in the air.

Look, no hands!

This ’65 Mustang, wearing a wrap to commemorate this Silver Jubilee event, was the first autonomous road car to tackle Goodwood’s hillclimb, the under-the-skin tech thanks to Siemens and a team from Cranfield University.