After two years of waiting, the time had finally come: the Festival of Speed or FOS could start its next edition. It almost didn’t take place again, but the British government gave permission for the organisation under the title of a “test event”. Perhaps a little odd with the new flare-ups of the Delta variant, but who are we to judge? Unfortunately, we could not be there due to travel restrictions from outside the UK with the necessary quarantines of twice 10 days! The FOS 2021 is the biggest event in the UK after the various lockdowns since March 2020.

So we decided to postpone the trip to 2022 and follow this edition via the excellent livestream provided by the organisation. On Thursday, there are traditionally the constructors’ series and the Michelin Supercar run. The car brands bring their newest and most exotic models to the Duke of Richmond’s garden party.

Some brands had even decided to launch new models in world premiere. Lotus, which is being celebrated as a brand this time, presented their last model with an internal combustion engine with the Emira. From 2028 onwards, unfortunately, all Lotuses will be electric. The Emira is a nice little sports car that certainly deserves to be seen. The Duke, at the wheel of this Emira, opened the festival on Thursday morning with the first hill climb. The traditional artwork in front of the house was also linked to Lotus. When we saw the somewhat bizarre structure, we had to blink our eyes. There was not a single Lotus on it! But that could be solved: with an App and an I-phone you could download an application with which you could see the cars. Yes, I suppose so, but we still prefer real cars! Virtual ones are not really our thing. This structure will of course have been a lot cheaper as far as the building costs are concerned and given the past and difficult year 2020, the reason must be sought there.

BMW also presented a new version of its 2-series coupé. This newcomer focuses even more on the sporty driver. The standard present widened wings and sporty accents make this pretty clear. BMW makes the link to the earlier 2002 models and is there a better location than the FOS for this premiere? We don’t think so and it was once again the Duke who personally took the curtain off the newcomer in the BMW M Town building. A beautiful, sporty and affordable coupé and certainly the most beautiful BMW of the last 10 years.

Ford took advantage of the FOS to present its new 2022 rally car: the Puma Rally 1 hybrid, which is to replace the WRC Fiesta. The new rally regulations stipulate that from 2022 all participating cars must be equipped with a hybrid system. Ford and M Sport are the first to do so. The Puma will also participate in the Shoot-out during the weekend. The Ineos Grenadier, driven by Jim Ratcliffe, also made its debut at the FOS. Ratcliffe wants to make this Land Rover Defender-based off-roader the best and most robust it can be. The final tests are currently underway and then the Grenadier can go into production. It will then be the only car with the name of an English pub. It is in the “Grenadier” pub that the idea for this 4 x 4 was born.

Kimera Automobili presented its reincarnation of the Lancia 037. A new 037? Beautiful but necessary? Fortunately, they do not demolish old versions but use a base of the Lancia Beta Monte Carlo. They plan to build 37 examples, each costing around €500,000.

A big part of the charm of the FOS are of course the Supercars. Nowhere else ( except maybe Monaco ) do you see so many super and even hypercars. Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati, Pagani, Porsche, Aston Martin, Singer Porsche, Mclaren, Lotus, Bugatti, Glickenhaus, Zengo and even BMW ( with their M division ) and Mercedes ( with AMG ) put their best foot forward. To see, hear and almost “feel” these Supercars pass by, that is only possible at the FOS. Also the most exotic like the Aston Martin V12 Speedster or Valkyrie, a Ferrari Monza SP2 and a Lamborghini SCV 12 climbed the hill. The latter with its 820 HP V12 certainly made the most beautiful sound of the day! Unfortunately, the Murray T50 was not yet present.

The participants of the rallystage were also allowed to climb the hill once on the first day. A nice array of rally cars from the past 60 years presented themselves. Some of the participants were a bit too fierce on the wet road surface and hit the straw bales first. Fortunately, they were all able to continue their journey.

With the practice series before the Shoot-out, we got several racing cars on the track anyway. A nice mix of all motorsport series: F1, Nascar, touring cars, proto’s, rally, group C and even some pre-war participants. The oldest participant, a Mercedes Benz, is already 107 years old. The pilot sent his “Blitzen Benz” up the hill as fast as he could and with the accompanying oversteer. Wonderful to see. The youngest participants came from Ford with the already mentioned Puma Rally and the new Mustang Mach E with 1400 electric horsepower. Fastest was the Mclaren 720 GT3 of Rob Bell who, despite the still dirty road surface, knocked off under 50 seconds.

There was also a Lotus moment in front of Goodwood House but there were only two cars on display. The new Emira and the 2000 HP electric Evira, still under development. A bit disappointing for such a celebration.

Also in Goodwood they have to go along with the new times. With the Electric Lane, they now have a kind of car show where all electric models that are currently on the market are presented. It’s all very well, but give us a good old V8 or 12! Sounds much better.

In the Future Lab we saw a demonstration of the Mars Rover. A robot that will normally be dropped on Mars in 2028 to study the surface. Wonderful technology!

From tomorrow, the car manufacturers will make way for motor racing and there will be much more variety on the track. We will continue to follow it and keep you posted on all the good stuff we see coming.

Report: Joris de Cock
Photos: Goodwood Press Centre, Lotus, BMW, Dominic James, Drew Gibson, Jayson Fong, Nick Dungan