Six best moments from Friday at 2022 Festival of Speed

Nigel’s flying Ferrari run

We’ve got to start with the return of Il Leone, as Nigel Mansell got back in a V12 Ferrari F1 car for an emotional and spectacular FOS demonstration. The 1992 World Champion spent some of his favourite racing days piloting Ferrari’s 640 series of F1 cars with their revolutionary paddle-shift transmissions. Off the start line on the Goodwood Hill, it was like Brazil 1989 all over again, as our Nige held nothing back. It was a spectacular run as he fully exercised the V12 and put the 639 prototype through its paces up the Hill. This might be one of our favourite moments of the weekend, let alone Friday but let’s let the rest of Saturday and Sunday play out before we decide…

McMurtry’s unbelievable speed

From one of the most beloved racers of recent memory, to an entirely new concept. All-electric and with fan-powered downforce, McMurtry and Max Chilton were threatening Hill domination before the event got underway. As of yesterday’s absolutely mind-blowing shootout practice run, we’re in no doubt of this crazy little machine’s potential. Looking like Batman’s latest creation, the McMurtry Speirling could be the future of racing and supercars.

Ferrari SP3 Daytona craziness

The Ferrari SP3 Daytona is the latest in the marque’s Icona series of special production vehicles. It’s pretty fresh out of the gates too, so you’d imagine they’d go a touch easy on it. False. This SP3 got an absolute thrashing up the Hill, to the point of touching the mud and getting a bit squirrelly on the exit of Molecomb. There’s no all-wheel-drive, no hybrid assistance, it’s just the driver and 840PS (603kW) of V12 power going to the rear wheels. This car is very much in the spirit of the ‘60s prototypes that inspired it, even beyond the looks.

Bentley Speed Six Continuation revealed

A big reveal for Bentley at FOS on Friday was its next Mulliner Continuation project, the Speed Six. This series of 12 cars will be the first of their kind for 92 years, since the originals were dominating Le Mans in 1929 and 1930. Displacing 6.5 litres with six-cylinders, these pre-war Bentleys recall what became the backbone of the flying B’s reputation pre-war, one of the marque’s most successful racers. At £1.5million a pop, they aren’t cheap. Not that it matters. All of them are spoken for.

Bond cars and F1 cars at Bonhams sale

The Bonhams sale at FOS always brings an eclectic selection of machinery for attendees to chance their arm at owning and 2022’s edition was no different. Yes, a classic Aston Martin and Frazer-Nash BMW were the big hitters, each comfortably surpassing £500,000 but it was the pink 2017 F1 car and the film star Aston Martin DBS from No Time To Die that caught our eye. Which was more expensive do you think? You’re wrong, it was the Aston, at £414,000. The Force 2017 Force India wearing a test BWT livery for the 2018 season sold for just £80,500. Why? It’s missing its Mercedes-AMG F1 hybrid V6 turbo powertrain. A cool display piece all the same.

Porsche 963’s FOS debut

We were so incredibly excited yesterday to bring you your first look at a fully-revealed and named LMDh top-level endurance racer. The Porsche 963, bereft of its camouflage, took to the Goodwood Hill for a spectacular debut to close out Friday. A taste of things to come, it won’t be long before these will be packing Le Mans and Daytona grids alongside BMW, Cadillac, Audi, Lamborghini, Acura and many more. Ran in collaboration with Team Penske, the Porsche Penske Motorsport outfit along with customer teams, could be about to continue the industrialised motorsport legacy of Porsche’s Group C leviathans. We can’t wait to see it.

You can catch every second of the weekend’s action by clicking here for our Festival of Speed live stream.

Photogaphy by Pete Summers and Joe Harding.