There were 8 Le Mans Hypercars at the 2023 Festival of Speed

1. Peugeot 9X8

While it wasn’t in action on the Hill, the Peugeot 9X8 had to be one of the most impactful hypercars in the paddocks at Goodwood this year. Why? It’s wearing that Le Mans livery, looking absolutely incredible lighting up the paddocks, even among such incredible machinery from the event’s hundred-year history.

2. Jota Porsche 963

What was running on the Hill, came liveried in gold with ‘Singer’ and ‘Hertz’ emblazoned across it. Arguably the best of the Le Mans underdogs this year, the Jota-fielded Porsche 963 enjoyed a brief stint in the lead. It’s so cool that this new era of financially-viable hypercars has got the privateers involved already. More cars means more variety and better racing. And it looked so cool steaming up our Hill.

3. Ferrari 499P

How special was it to see this? The Le Mans-winning Ferrari 499P, alongside the trophy for its 24 hours of toil. Fly- and rubber-spattered, it rightly earned a rest and thus enjoyed a quiet weekend on static display at the 2023 Festival of Speed. It’s difficult to comprehend that this is the first Ferrari to contest for a win at Le Mans in five decades, let alone the first to win in nearly six.

4. Lamborghini Squadra Corse SC63

Lamborghini originally  appeared in the 1960s to combat Ferrari on the road, this time Lamborghini is bringing the battle to the track. Thus the 2023 Festival of Speed was the venue for Lamborghini’s 2024 hypercar protagonist, the SC63. Packing a new 3.8-litre twin-turbo V8 engine and running on the first Ligier LMDh chassis, the SC63 will make its debut in the IMSA GTP class at Daytona, before hitting the WEC and Le Mans later in the year. Before that, testing and before that, we got to see it in the flesh at Goodwood.

5. SCG 007

Say what you want about the pace of the SCG 007, Glickenhaus is a modern hero of endurance racing, and perhaps the ultimate underdog. He’s fought Toyota since the first season of hypercars in 2021 and stuck it out into the expanding grids of 2023 and beyond. We’ve seen him and his cars at Goodwood many times and it was so great to see the car running up the Hill once again. It’s probably still the prettiest Hypercar yet made too…

6. Toyota GR010 

Very much still the ones to beat, in spite of their loss at Le Mans this year, Toyota Gazoo Racing and its GR010 made the LMP/Hypercar transition near-seamlessly. This is a sharply-honed team and a car that hit the ground running. We loved to see it in the paddocks at Goodwood this year and look forward to seeing what GR has planned for its Le Mans comeback in 2024.

7 and 8. Porsche 963

If you didn’t look up at the 2023 Festival of Speed, you might have missed it, but who doesn’t when faced with a Goodwood Central Feature? Shooting up into the sky as a part of Porsche’s sculpture was another Porsche 963, in this case a factory car in the Le Mans ‘Porsche 75’ livery, celebrating multiple great Porsche liveries of the past. An appropriate jewel in the crown of this year’s central feature, even if Porsche’s own 963s had a tough go of it at La Sarthe…

Another 963 was the one in the paddocks, also of the factory team, wearing the more traditional red and white livery we saw it debut in at last year's Festival of Speed.

Photography by Drew Gibson, Max Carter, Darren Heath and Joe Harding