Full Throttle – The Endless Pursuit of Power: each of the three cars on this list embodies the theme of the 2016 Goodwood Festival of Speed (FoS). In fact, with a theme like that, the four-day long automobile extravaganza is set to be extraordinary – a sort of Glastonbury of auto awesomeness if you will. As this year’s “headline” act, BMW will be the focus of the festival, and this is apparent starting from the sculpture in the grounds dedicated to its automotive accomplishments. We reported on that here, so check that out for more details on BMW-related activities.
Cars as old as 40 years from the German brand’s archives will be on display at avenue ‘M’, and, for our part, the BMW 507 is the car of the moment, even though it was built in 1957. BMW will take this precious two million-dollar car out for a spin around the track with the festival’s founder, Lord March at the wheel. Seriously, that man gets to have entirely too much fun.
“I’m delighted that BMW has chosen to mark its centenary with us,” Lord March told the AFP. “I will be honored to drive one of the rarest, and most beautiful, BMWs ever built to open what promises to be a terrific show.” If you’re one of the lucky ones who are attending the prestigious show, look out for the Vision Next 100, a concept car the company thinks it will be producing in 2116.
Other automobile manufacturers will also be celebrating milestones; Volkswagen will celebrate 40 good years of its hatchback, the Golf GTi and Lamborghini will mark 50 years since the Miura model debuted, news we also covered here. Moving on from the classics, we find a strange contemporary beast lurking in plain sight here: the McLaren P1-GTR (above). Normally a track-only hypercar that is based on the prefectly road-legal P1 model, this particular car has been modified by racing team Lanzante so that it is road-legal once again! It appears here to celebrate the late James Hunt’s F1 championship drive in 1976 for McLaren – it was a memorable one and you can relive it by watching the Ron Howard film Rush. A one-off P1-GTR in Hunt’s colors will be taking over the Hillclimb circuit.
Lamborghini’s Restored Miura
Not one to be left out, Japanese automaker Mazda will also unveil a new Icon special edition of its Miata MX-5 droptop sportscar, while Renault will put its new Twingo GT turbocharged city car and the Clio RS16 concept hot hatch to the test. Speaking of tests, we cannot wait to see how the Bugatti Chiron (below) will fare in the hill-climb challenge. The car, though still sporting the engine of the Veyron, reportedly brings approximately 1,500 horses that propel it towards the title of world’s fastest production car…eventually. Goodwood will be the public’s first chance to see the car up close as it races every day of the event, as we reported on earlier. If Bugatti ditches the speed-limiter for this, records will tumble…
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