Supercar smorgasbord at Goodwood Festival of Speed 2018

By: Unique Cars magazine

Date: 22.08.2018

Birthday celebrations highlight Goodwood Festival of Speed

Over 200,000 people flocked to the 25th anniversary of the Goodwood Festival of Speed, the four-day event held at the Duke of Richmond’s 5000-acre estate in Sussex.

Fans were treated to more more than 1000 special cars, including Le Mans winners, Indycars, F1 cars, exotic sportscars, Nascars, American muscle cars and supercars like David Brabham’s BT62.

The hillclimb is the main focus of the Goodwood Festival of Speed and on hand to hustle the mouth-watering machinery up the 1.9km course were stars including Sir Jackie Stewart, Mika Hakkinen, David Brabham, Marino Franchitti, Derek Bell, Martin Brundle, 1976 Bathurst winner John Fitzpatrick and Top Gear presenter Chris Harris.

Porsche, celebrating its 70th birthday brought along the largest assortment of its prized old and new cars ever assembled, including the original VW Beetle-based Porsche.

Other Porsches included the 917 made famous by Steve McQueen in Le Mans plus other Le Mans racers, the 956 and 962 from the 80s and the 919 that was Mark Webber's World endurance Championship car.

Land Rover was also celebrating a birthday, its 70th, with a 70-vehicle display.

Making its first appearance outside the US was the re-discovered Highland Green 1968 Ford Mustang GT from the Steve McQueen movie Bullitt. Sean Kiernan, whose late father bought one of the two Mustangs used in the movie, drove it up the hillclimb to thunderous applause.

Two of the strangest vehicles tackling the hill were the Aston Martin Cygnet, a microscopic city car with a V8 stuffed in it and a 240km/h Honda ride-on lawnmower.

The action wasn’t confined to the hillclimb with Bonhams hosting their annual and 50th auction at Goodwood.

The most valuable car under the hammer was the 1961 Aston Martin DB4GT Zagato, driven by Jim Clark in the RAC Tourist Trophy at Goodwood and in the Paris 1,000 Kilometres at Montlhery. It sold for a staggering $17.9 million – the most valuable British car sold at a European auction.

An equally famous Aston Martin was the 1965 DB5 from the classic James Bond film Golden Eye, fetching $3.48 million, well above pre auction estimates.

| Read more: Golden Eye Aston Martin sells for $3.5M

The John Surtees CBE, 1957 BMW 507 Roadster realised a record $6.76 million. An ex-Scuderia Ferrari 1932-34 Alfa Romeo Tipo B Grand Prix Monoposto fetched $8.15 million, while a 2012 Bugatti Veyron Super Sport Coupé went for $3.63 million and a 1931 Bentley 4½-Litre Supercharged Tourer ‘Blower’, one of 50 built, sold for $3.58 million.

The 1977 Porsche 911S that starred in The Bridge sold for seven times its pre-sale estimate, achieving $251,000.

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