The Goodwood Festival of Speed is one of the great annual events on the British motorsport calendar. It might be a push to call it the highlight of the summer – a certain race at Silverstone might just take that accolade – but it is an event to celebrate not just what is new in motorsport and precision engineering, but vintage as well.
Naturally, for some, the focus is elsewhere. A Hello reader might be more interested in the celebrity status of A Formula 1 veteran like Max Verstappen than the details of his many great race wins. But even that magazine seemed appreciative of what this event was really all about, noting the celebration of “130 years of technological progress”.
Amid what it described as an “intoxicating celebration of the world’s most glamorous sport” there were examples of new engineering marvels that didn’t even involve motorsport at all, like an electric-powered hydrofoil speedboat. But, of course, it was the display of cars old and new that took centre stage.
While the performances of vintage vehicles showed just what was possible many years ago and will have brought back memories for older attendees, the power and precision of new motoring technology were only made more apparent by seeing the latest vehicles in action alongside older ones.
A prime example of this was the Land Rover Defender Octa, which made its debut at its correspondent sat in the vehicle as it tore up the famous 1.16-mile hill climb, describing it as setting a “mind-boggling performance mark”.
Behind the impressive display was a 4.4-litre twin-turbo V8 engine that generated 626 HP and 750 Nm of torque, making it the most powerful Defender yet.
Land Rover is like many other leading makers that have regularly had vehicles at Goodwood down the years, all showing off characteristics that were ground-breaking in their day. In each case, the event offers those at the top of motorsport the chance to remind us that great engineering never stops pushing onward and upwards.