The 7 loudest cars at the 2023 Goodwood Revival

1. Lola T70 Spyder

The fastest cars to race at the Revival are of course the Can Am monsters and sports prototypes of the Whitsun Trophy. More often than not powered by big thunderous V8s, these short stubby roofless bruisers have very little exhaust pipe between the fire-spitting tips and the heads of the engine. That means the noise they emit is truly biblical. Fast and loud, athankyou, Mr. Rawlings.

2. Ford Thunderbird

While most of the Whitsun Trophy field use small block V8s – yes, 4-6 litres is small in relative terms – there is one absolute animal on our entry list, that packs a whopping 7.0-litre lump under that long hood. It emits what can only be described as the soundtrack to the apocalypse out the side pipes just ahead of the rear wheels. Yes, Bill Shepherd’s Ford Thunderbird is a highlight of the St. Mary’s Trophy presented by Motul, the sight of it battling the likes of the Lotus Cortina, Jaguar Mk2 and Alfa Romeo Giulia, is nothing short of comical.

3. Shelby Cobra ‘Flat Earth’

Bill knows how to have fun and that the Venn diagram of ‘fun’ and ‘loud’ is normally a single circle. Fun and noise is what this 7.0-litre Cobra is all about. Roofless and windscreen-less, it’s Bills vision of what could have happened if the Cobra were taken to the ultimate extreme. His ambition is to fight for top positions among Ford’s Le Mans-dominating GT40 in the Whitsun Trophy.

4. Saab 93B

Quite unlike anything else on this list, as mentioned in the introduction, is this little Saab 93B. A far cry from the 7.0-litre monsters it has half a chance of shouting over, it packs a 750cc three-cylinder two-stroke engine. No lie, even just at idle, it sounds like it’s punching little holes in space time. Needless to say, what was a ‘gateway car’ to get into events, is now a permanent member of that owner’s collection. Catch it brapping its way around the St. Mary’s Trophy.

5. Corvette Stingray

The Corvettes are rarely a match for the Cobras in the RAC TT Celebration in terms of pace, but good lord do they make it on sound thanks to those trumpet-like side pipes and the monstrous Chevy small-block they evacuate gasses from. They thunder round the circuit with a World War 2 fighter plane-like pagger. The sound is reason enough not to miss it, but the added appeal is that the C2 Corvette is one of the prettiest, most iconic shapes in motoring. Just look at this shot of it sideways through Madgwick!

6. Cheetah Chevrolet

Of course, if you want to go a bit off-piste compared to a Corvette but you want to keep the famous small block, the Cheetah looks like it could have jumped out of Wacky Races. The sights and sounds of it bobbing around our track are little short of comical – and loud. The cherry on the cake? It’s owned and driven by our friend Duncan Pittaway, who for lack of a more refined expression, is an absolute legend.

7. Tojeiro-Ford

Adding some thunderous Ford power to proceedings, but with a bit of a different flavour to the Cobra, is the Tojeiro-Ford EE. An outlier on the TT grid, the Tojeiro is a bit of a strange-looking beast that uniquely packs its American tower of power amidships. So, like the Lola T70 we opened with, that means shorter exhaust pipes and even more noise. We can’t wait for the V8 concerto on Sunday in the TT…

Photography by Drew Gibson, Jayson Fong, Joe Harding, Jordan Butters, Toby Whales and Nick Dungan.