It takes weeks to come down from the extreme high that is the Festival of Speed – in fact, I’m barely cured by the time the Revival Meeting lands with an attention-grabbing thud. While still wafting around up here for Team Cloud Nine, pretending that normal life isn’t happening, I’m still seeing, smelling and feeling that incredible line-up of competition machinery doing its stuff on the hillclimb. Having once again spent the weekend glued to a microphone in the commentary box, therefore witnessing everything that came at me, I’ve been tasked with picking favourites. It comes with the territory, of course, and it’s a challenge I always find enjoyably difficult.
JUN 30th 2016
Henry Hope‑Frost's Top 22 FOS Favourites – Part 1
Fiat S76
Duncan Pittaway’s outrageously sophisticated ‘Beast of Turin’ – it’s 105 years old, remember – again thundered up the hill, flames belching from its 28.3-litre motor, its creator and custodian sawing at the wheel to keep control. And to think Duncan drives it on the road!
Auto Union Type C
Six litres of supercharged V16 grunt in a 750kg chassis, on narrow, treaded tyres. How those pre-war Grand Prix heroes tamed 500bhp and 630lb ft of torque 80 years ago is beyond normal thought processes. Nick Mason and Frank Biela were lucky enough to get a snapshot of life in 1936.
Lotus-BRM 43
The 50-year-old time capsule was well and truly flung open when Andy Middlehurst appeared in period Jim Clark garb aboard the car in which the Scot won at Watkins Glen in 1996 to give the unique H16 BRM-powered machine its only GP win.
Alfa Romeo 308C
This beautiful and sonorous three-litre, supercharged eight-pot Italian Grand Prix car, built to challenge the Silver Arrows in the 1930s, was exercised enthusiastically, as ever, by Julian Majzub. It won plenty of races in period, but only when not up against the German supercars.
Ford GT
Just one week after forming part of the works, Chip Ganassi Racing-run Ford team at Le Mans, this GTE Pro-class racer, one of four in the French enduro, was aired by factory driver Marino Franchitti. And thanks to the sister car’s historic class win, 50 years after the GT40 1-2-3, car and driver got a great Goodwood reception.
Subaru Impreza WRX STI
Fans who’d followed Manxman Mark Higgins’ record-smashing 128mph run around the Isle of Man Mountain Course a few weeks ago got a thrill when the multiple British Rally Champion brought the Prodrive-built Scooby to FoS. And he didn’t disappoint.
Dodge Charger
NASCAR champion Bobby Labonte gunned the Scientifically Treated Petroleum-liveried, seven-litre V8 brute up the hill. The actual car used by King Richard Petty to win eight races – and secure a fourth title – in 1972, it’s retro stockcar muscle at its iconic best.
Mazda RX-8
Spectacular in the extreme, Kiwi ‘Mad Mike’ Whiddett hurled the 534bhp, rotary-engined drift car at the course at impossible angles – even taking Lord March for an alternative view of the hill. With car control to throw away, he was also never without a beaming smile, a cheeky quip or a victory salute.
Lancia LaSupra
So-called because the carbonfibre Lancia Delta Integrale clone’s motor originated from a Toyota Supra, Peter Pentell’s insane 3.0-litre, turbocharged V6, 900bhp Time Attack machine was among the event’s wackiest of racers. And, unsurprisingly, it went like stink, too!
Lancia Stratos
A rallycross hero of the 1970s, Franz Wurz was back behind the wheel of his 1976 European Championship-winning Stratos thanks to son Alex having bought it back. The ex-F1 racer and two-time Le Mans winner also had a go in the 2.4-litre V6 rally-racer to make it full Wurz family fever at FoS.
Audi Quattro S1 E2
Welsh Wizard David Llewellin, a former Group B hero and double British Rally Champion, rode the short-wheelbase, bewinged bucking bronco up the hill, hanging on valiantly until the top. I hope nobody missed the sight and sound of this most lairy of WRC weapons being used in the way its makers intended?
Photography by Drew Gibson, Nigel Harniman, Tim Brown, Marcus Dodridge, Jochen Van Cauwenberge and Jayson Fong
?width=628&height=0&bgcolor=black&quality=60)
?width=628&height=0&bgcolor=black&quality=60)
?width=628&height=0&bgcolor=black&quality=60)
Exclusive GRRC Videos
Join the GRRC Fellowship to access year-round exclusive videos, live streaming from events and more. Join now
?width=760&height=426&bgcolor=black&quality=60)
?width=760&height=426&bgcolor=black&quality=60)
?width=760&height=426&bgcolor=black&quality=60)