One of the reasons I love the Goodwood Festival of Speed, and there are many, is that it brings together such a diverse collection of astounding machines. These cars, trucks, and bikes bridge a gap that spans centuries and the collective people in attendance are there to celebrate all of it. One of the highlights of the weekend, however, is when the fastest machines in attendance line up for a crack at a full-tilt run up the hill.
The fastest car ever to do the dash is a McLaren-Mercedes MP4/13 Formula 1 race car driven by Nick Heidfeld. His time is an astonishing 41.6 seconds. Any time below the one minute mark is very quick, and the fastest cars dip down below 50 seconds.
The top ten fastest, however, cluster around 44 seconds. A focused hillclimb racecar sits at number two with a time of 42.95 (It’s a Gould-Cosworth GR51), while Heidfeld remains the lone figure in the 41-second club.
Can that time be topped? Could someone actually dip below 40 seconds? It would take a monumental effort… but Porsche might have something ready for such a heroic effort.
These are the Top 10 fastest runs up the Goodwood FOS hill climb course
By Jeff Glucker
Jun 6, 2018
By Jeff Glucker
Jeff Glucker is the co-founder and Executive Editor of Hooniverse.com. He’s often seen getting passed as he hustles a 1991 Mitsubishi Montero up the 405 Freeway. IG: @HooniverseJeff
That McLaren-Mercedes is twitchy.
I thought the same about the three-axle Tyrell and assigned it to the uneven road… but the final wiggle of the McL-M towards the finish was spectacular indeed.
Yep – Heidfeld made it very clear that was not just an easy demo run…
I’m not sure the Porsche will beat Heidfeld’s time, and I doubt there will be a modern F1 car go for a time again. I think the only prospect of beating 40 seconds would be to invite modern outright hillclimb cars; 1050 lb open wheelers with big aero, powered by either Cosworth F1 V8s or turbo/s-c superbike engines.
I may have underestimated the 919 Evo though, hadn’t seen that before
ha
I’ve been busy soso I sure I have missed a lot more important stuff happening than a bunch of guys with nothing better to do drive an old race car. Kinda wish I hadn’t though.
Did you see what the 919 is doing elsewhere right now though? It already beat Lewis Hamilton’s time around Spa, and Hamilton set that in an even more modern F1 racer. If anything has the best chance, yes it’s one of those crazy hillclimb beasts but I think this 919Evo is probably the best machine for the job right now.
Fair point, only 2 downsides I see: the size of the car as mentioned by Monkey10is below, and whether it will be allowed.
Just have to get Lord March’s guys to bang the stakes holding the hay bales in a bit deeper I suppose. As for the size, some of the Nascar or Craftsman truck drivers have done good runs, so it is all down to being precise.
Let’s hope it happens!
The Jag is actually bigger!
Also, I was there when Skinner drove the truck up the hill and it was FUCKING ELECTRIC – we were yelling!
A private group next to us, all stuffy Italian Ferrari owners, looked over in disgusted shock – it was great.
Yes I saw the other reply – quite surprising.
I think the year I went Skinner was in a normal Cup car, but de-restricted (similar to the 919 Evo really, no Nascar tech inspection to comply with) and was trying to do a burnout the full length of the course!
Law’s Jag did 44.4 to win the shootout (looked it up) and Jesse James was running his trophy truck up the hill, though the top paddock area onto the rally stage then jumping it off a corner berm onto the off-road area to come back down the hill.
3 days was not enough to see everything
Wew, for a moment I thought I’d missed the festival, but it’s not for another five weeks. Don’t spook me like that!
It would be great to see the Porsche 919 (‘evolution’ spec) have a try at this; but the McL-Merc record will be tough to beat.
The hybrid Porsche will have the benefit of 4wd and whatever tweaks they have made since it was retired and freed up from LMP regs; but it is a bumpy, twisty course and very narrow. I think the overall footprint of the Porsche will give the biggest challenge. Just look how little road is left around Justin Law’s XJR8 or Loeb’s Peugeot at the grandstand straight or the stone wall — my guess would be that the Porsche is longer than both and as wide as the latter.
And will Porsche really want to risk it? Each year some cars find the bales
I think so, based on where they’re taking the car… I think the goal is total lap time domination around the globe. Spa is done. The Ring is next. Laguna Seca is on the list. Why not Goodwood as well, right?
The Jag is 3″ wider (that’s based on the non-Evo spec car, mind you – that rear wing could change things). The Porsche weighs over 70lbs less with insane downforce and nearly the same hp as the Jag.
The Porsche is also 5″ shorter.
(based on quick Wiki maths)