Our top 10 cars from the 2016 Goodwood Festival of Speed

So here goes, contentious no doubt, but our thoughts on the top ten cars (for us) at the 2016 Goodwood Festival of Speed.  What do you think?  Did you go, if so, what were your top 10?

In no particular order…

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Rolls-Royce Phantom III Vanvooren Two Seater Drophead Coupé (Built 1937)

This is a unique Phantom III.  It was bought for the personal use of General Wladyslaw Sikorski (1881-1943), Poland’s exiled Prime Minister and Commander in Chief of its armed forces during World War II.  While most of the 704 Phantom IIIs built were given ponderous bodywork, the car presented here is unique in being the only true two-seater built on this chassis.

Lancia Beta Montecarlo (Built 1980)

The silhouette Montecarlo was built by Abarth for the  2-litre Group 5 GT category.  It won the World Championship three times, from 1979 to 1981, and beat four Porsche 935 K3s to win the 1981 Watkins Glen Six Hours race.

McLaren MP4/2C (1986-specification)

This Formula One car designed by John Barnard of McLaren for the 1984 season. 12 wins in 1984, at the time the highest number of wins in a season by a single team. Lauda beat Prost to the championship by just half a point in the final race, even though Prost had 7 wins to Lauda’s 5 (at the final round in Portugal, Prost needed to win and have Lauda finish 3rd or worse to take the title. Lauda finished second). This remains the closest finish to a championship in Formula One history.  McLaren comfortably won the constructors’ championship from Ferrari with a score of 143.5 to just 57.5 from the Prancing Horse.

Benz 200HP ‘Blitzen Benz‘ (Built 1909)

Determined to top 125mph, a speed not even aircraft or trains could achieve at the time, Benz enlarged its 15-litre GP engine to make the 21.5 litre monster.  It produced a powerful 200bhp, and by 1914 had hit 144mph.  Looks super cool as well hey!

TVR Trident Fissore Coupé (Built 1965)

Isn’t this magnificient and beautiful?  The TVR Trident story is probably the most intriguing and dramatic chapter in TVR history. In the 1960s, TVR saw its future in a move upmarket, and to achieve this it sought to build an Italian-designed coupe, built around its familiar American V8 mechanicals.  Between 1964 and 1966 TVR produced only four Tridents before losing the manufacturing rights to a local TVR dealer who started making his own (non TVR) Tridents. The TVR Tridents are unique in many ways: designed by an Italian/English designer, handmade by Carrozzeria Fissore in Turin and powered by an American Ford Cobra V8. They are also the only TVRs to date to feature a steel/aluminium body work.   The project was scrapped when the company went bankrupt in 1965.

AC 428 (Built 1965-73)

The AC Frua or AC 428 is a British GT built by AC Cars from 1965 to 1973. With an Italian body, British chassis, and American big block V8 it is a true hybrid. Production was 81 cars built in total: 49 coupés (known as fastbacks), 29 convertibles, and 3 special bodied.  Stunning.

Napier-Railton Special (built 1933)

This is a 24 litre beast.  The ultimate example of the titanic pursuit of power in racing, the Napier aero engine gave some 580bhp.  It was enough for this Railton shassisto take the Brooklands lap record and 47 world records in England, France and the USA.

McLaren F1 GTR (Built 1995)

An absolute epic car.  Designer Gordon Murray acceded to Ray Bellm’s request to turn the F1 road car into a racer. The result was one of the most successful racing cars ever, with Le Mans victory and wins in the BPR Global GT Series.

Fiat S76 (Built 1911)

Known as the “Beast of Turin”, Fiat created  the hugely powerful S76 to set a new land speed record.  Duncan Pittaway has rebuilt the car with the chassis from one car and the engine from another.  Epic.

Ferrari FXX (Built 2005)

What’s not to love.  This high performance race car and prototype built by Ferrari which owners could only drive with Ferrari’s permission, on race tracks only, as part of the Ferrari development programme.  Now that’s exclusive.  What a noise this car makes by the way.

So there you have it.  How did we do?  What did you think were your top 10?  We’d love to hear your thoughts.