HiPhiĬhinese electric car maker HiPhi made an impact at this year’s Festival of Speed when it unveiled its Y - a mid-size SUV. New Caterhams don’t come around all that often so this was something to get very excited about.

Lightweight sports car specialists, Caterham, took the wraps off its very special 2+1 sports seater Project V - an all-new closed-roof model. The all-new BMW 5 Series made an appearance, alongside the firm’s much more exotic modern interpretation of the 3.0 CSL. Marking the impending retirement of the legendary W12 engine, Bentley had a spectacular 12-car parade of W12 Bentleys including the new Batur, a Continental GT Le Mans Collection and several Mulliner special editions. The drop-top E-ternite concept also made an appearance, as did the A110 R Le Mans. The newly-unveiled Alpine A290_ß concept previews an all-electric hot hatch due out in 2024 and there was the hardcore A110 R making runs up the Hillclimb course. Several cars from Alpine were in attendance. Considering it’s a full-EV, the AIM EV Sport 01 is relatively lightweight at 1,425kg. It’s an all-electric sports car with around 600bhp going to the rear wheels. If you’ve not heard of AIM before that could be because the new EV Sport 01 is the firm’s first ever car. This year we were lucky to witness the wraps coming off a remarkable array of new cars seen for the first time, as many big new models made their UK debuts. The cars are not just on static display either, as the Festival of Speed is where the Duke of Richmond opens up his driveway to become one of the world’s most famous hill climb events.

There were a number of official reveals of brand new cars as well as the usual crop of UK debuts for new performance models. Goodwood’s motoring events have become must-visit experiences for petrolheads of all ages, with a mix of race and road cars, and motorcycles unmatched almost anywhere else in the world. Thankfully, the adverse weather conditions subsided and the Festival reached its usual climax with some stunning performances from racing legends in the ‘Sunday Shootout’ on the Goodwood hill. After a successful opening two days, organisers took the difficult decision to cancel the Goodwood FoS festivities on Saturday in the face of a Met Office weather warning for high winds across southern England that would have endangered safety on a site with so many tents and other temporary structures in place.

The gates have now closed on 2023’s Goodwood Festival of Speed following a very mixed weekend.

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