With 1,000 kilos, 1,000 horsepower and 0-100 in 1.5 seconds, this donning left all the competitors. Join in perhaps the world’s funnest car circus.
At the world’s biggest annual celebration of motorsport and car culture, the Goodwood Festival of Speed (FOS) in England, it was once again an electric car that proved to be the fastest.
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Celebrity heavy
This year’s festival got off the ground last week.
Every year, Charles Henry Gordon-Lennox – 11th Duke of Richmond – opens the gates to the Goodwood House estate.
Here he welcomes the worst in the automotive world – both old and new.
In addition to cars, come the elite in motorsport and the automotive industry, as well as any celebrity with a hint of an automotive interest.
The Festival of Speed is a mecca for every car enthusiast. But now it’s not just what guzzles fuel that makes the headlines at the traditional car meet.
Exclusive car exhibition
It’s not just about lining up any sports car at Goodwood. The exhibition cars are carefully selected each year, based on history, technology or performance. To say that the exhibition is exclusive is no exaggeration.
To top it all off, this is not a static view. The cars are driven anti-clockwise up a 1.8 kilometer long hill in front of the Duke’s house.
With Formula 1 drivers such as Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button behind the wheel, you understand that the cars are driven to the maximum regardless of age or value.
Increased electrical interest
Goodwood has traditionally been synonymous with petrolheads, but the Festival of Speed itself has taken big steps towards electrification.
Electric supercars such as the Audi RS e-tron GT or the Porsche Taycan GTS are now compared to fossil fuel-powered supercars.
In 2021, Goodwood introduced for the first time “Electric Avenue” – an entire street dedicated to electric cars.
Several new electric car models were awarded at this year’s festival, such as the Electra Meccanica Solo, Fisker Ocean and Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 ePerformance.
The festival is considered one of the most important exhibition arenas for sports cars among the car manufacturers, and the electric cars have undoubtedly struck a chord with the public.
– Electric Avenue was one of the most visited exhibitions at this year’s festival, and we plan to expand further next year, said the Duke of Richmond in a press release.
Electric track record
The highlight of the festival over four days is undoubtedly Sunday, when the world’s fastest cars together with the world’s most skilled drivers test themselves and the cars in the famous Goodwood hill race.
Winning here is considered as prestigious as winning a Formula 1 race, both for the car and the driver.
In 2018, the automotive world was shocked when Volkswagen won the hill race with its all-electric ID.R.
It was the first time an electric car won the traditional hill race.
In 2019, an electric car won once again, breaking the track record that had stood since 1999, that time by a McLaren MP4/13 Formula 1 car.
Unknown technological wonder car
The McMurtry Speirling is an all-electric prototype developed and built by McMurtry Automotive in England.
The name McMurtry derives from a famous Irish inventor, Sir David McMurtry, and Speirling means thundercloud.
The chassis and body are made from 100 percent carbon fiber to keep weight to a minimum. The car weighs just under 1,000 kilograms, and produces 746 kW per tonne – or one thousand horsepower .
0-100 km/h goes in a staggering 1.5 seconds, and 0-300 km/h in under nine seconds.
The top speed is unknown, but McMurtry says that it is “well above” 320 km/h.
The hypercar, often referred to as the “electric batmobile”, was measured at 250 km/h up the narrow and winding 1.8 kilometer hill race.
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