The demise of the traditional motor show has made the Festival of Speed (FoS) bigger than ever, a chance for enthusiasts to wander the grounds of the Duke of Richmond’s Goodwood estate in the south of England and see all the latest models.
This year, I took a focused approach but I was also braving the massive crowds on the Saturday to chat to a few executives and have a special ride up the famous hill.
A tour of the McLaren stand showed that clients seeking bespoke work have plenty of choice, even before they get into more individualisation.
McLaren revealed its customer hypercar, a very limited edition 750S Le Mans and the latest in its supercar series, the new W1. The company describes the W1 as “authentic theatre” and it is easy to see why, with intricate aerodynamically optimised design, active aero appendages, spectacular gullwing doors and a moulded interior.
The W1 boasts a new MHP-8 engine with an electric motor, F1-derived battery technology and a lightweight quick eight-speed gearbox, with McLaren claiming the W1 can reach 200km/h in only 5.8 seconds.
A quick walk past the house to take in the spectacular sculpture dedicated to South African automotive design maestro Gordon Murray and it was time to sit down at Renault. A chat with Laurens van den Acker, chief design officer of the Renault Group, revealed a new trend in design, what he calls “experience design”.
“It’s the interaction between you and the car, because cars are becoming more intelligent,” he told me. “Take a step back and cars were just mechanical objects, then they became objects that protected you passively, then actively and now they start to interact with you.”
He likens it to our phones, where once the focus was on the design of a smartphone, now it is how we interact with them and he sees this experience design becoming increasingly important.
That’s not to say you can’t have an emotional connection to your car too, having driven the electric Renault 5 recently, that emotion can still be there and it’s a connection every designer wants to draw into their creations, but the emotion is being packaged in that whole concept of experience.
It’s a focus for Chinese automakers too and yet another brand debuted at Goodwood, Denza. Part of the massive BYD group, Denza is about to launch in SA to provide a more premium offering.
It’s Z9 GT is a seriously quick coupe-like sedan, the D9 is the latest model to showcase the return of the MPV, albeit more luxurious than those we are used to.
Now there’s the B5, the one that has everyone excited, with its utilitarian design that could well lure people away from the Land Rover Defender and Toyota LandCruiser.
Then it was time to pay a quick visit to Ferrari, partly to see the new Roma facelift, or what the Maranello firm is now calling the Amalfi, but also to have a quick glass of bubbles with a good friend, Chanelle Zackey-Prinsloo.
After successfully driving the marketing for the Ferrari importer in SA, she is now in charge of marketing for one of Ferrari’s biggest international markets, northern Europe. It’s a massive gig and kicking it off with Goodwood is right at the deep end, but it’s great to see another South African making an impact on the international stage.
And yet another South African who has achieved exactly that prefers drinking petrol to champagne, the Toyota Gazoo Racing Hilux.
Proving its mettle time and again on the Dakar and in other global cross-country rally events, the Hilux is a real success story in international motorsport and naturally when I was offered the chance to go up the famous hill in one, I jumped at it.
This was going to be a passenger ride, but what a ride it was, with American driver Seth Quintero behind the wheel, keen to show-off what the Hilux can do.
The 22-year old flicked the Toyota sideways at every opportunity, creating vast clouds of smoke while doing donuts opposite the Goodwood house and then launching it up the hill at speed.
There were more donuts at the top of the hill to the applause of the crowd, where the day ended with the chance to chat to some motorsport legends.
Juha Kankkunen won four World Rally Championship drivers’ titles and piloted the latest GR Yaris WRC car up the hill. Asked if he prefers the new car to the old ones, the answer was emphatic, “the new one, it’s so easy.”
He and Toyota WRC team principal Jari-Matti Latvala were comparing notes when a young driver by the name of Esteban Ocon joined the conversation. He had a blast tackling the hill in a Toyota Yaris WRC car rather than his usual Haas F1 machine.
It had been a busy and very hot day, and with other members of the Business Day and Wanted motoring team in attendance, look out for more of our FoS experiences.
One thing is for sure, though, the Goodwood Festival of Speed continues to be the world’s greatest motor show.
