The Auto Express team has been down at the 2015 Goodwood for the Festival of Speed, schmoozing with the motoring celebs, frequenting the champagne and lobster tent and, most importantly, casting an eye over the incredible cars. It’s a tough job but someone’s got to do it and there were no shortage of volunteers in the AE office when FoS time came around.
The 2015 version of the Goodwood Festival of Speed has turned up some absolutely fantastic cars but then, the FoS always does. Whether you like to lust after priceless 1960s Ferraris or go jelly-legged at the sound WRC exhausts barking through the trees of the rally stage, Goodwood is a destination for a car lovers with few equals.
For a complete taste of the sights and sounds of the 2015 Festival of Speed in the comfort of your own home, check out our main page. But here we’ve given the members of the Auto Express team the borderline impossible mission of picking their favourite cars from the magnificent selection at the event. Rest assured that the models we’ve picked as Goodwood’s best are real crackers.
Scroll down the page or click through the gallery to discover more…
Alpine A110 Coupe
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The Alpine A110 Coupe has always been impossibly pretty and has some impressive motorsport pedigree, too, with its one, two, three finish at the 1971 Monte Carlo Rally. At this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed, though, it takes on a whole new significance.
The Alpine Celebration concept made its debut at the Le Mans 24hr race last week and will make another appearance at Goodwood, signalling the final leg of development before the Alpine brand relaunches next year. It also gives us our first glimpse of how the production car will look, complete with heavy visual references to the gorgeous A110 you see here. We know it will be mid-engined, and Renaultsport knows how to set up a chassis, let’s pray the finished article looks half as good as the A110.
Mercedes C111 concept
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First shown by Mercedes at the 1969 Frankfurt Motor Show, the C111 still has the ability to shock with it’s wedgey profile and gullwing doors. It’s a car that was ahead of its time thanks to independent suspension and a lightweight fibre glass body, and despite intense interest from the public it never made it to full production.
Several prototypes were completed though, including this one with a 3.5-litre V8 engine, although the original show car was fitted with a more exotic Wankel rotary engine. A piece of automotive history that still has the ability to shock, even alongside the newer and faster SLS AMG and AMG GT.
VW Golf R400 concept
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It’s a Golf, surely there is some more exotic titillating machinery around at Goodwood? Perhaps, but this isn’t any ordinary Golf it’s the Golf R400 that’s destined for production next year and takes the hot-hatch power war to a whole other level.
Whereas the new Audi RS3 resorts to five cylinders and 2.5-litres of swept capacity for its RS3, the R400 will churn out a barely believable 394bhp from a mere 2.0-litre turbocharged engine. There are whispers that Mercedes will give chase with an even more powerful A45 AMG before long, but chances are it won’t catch the Golf. Oh, and we already rate the 296bhp Golf R as one of the finest driver’s car out there, so with another 100bhp to play with, the R400 will be nothing short of sensational.
Get all the top stories and pics from the 2015 Goodwood Festival of Speed here…
