Goodwood Festival of Speed 2026: The Rivals
By the Editors · Published 15 July 2026
The 33rd Festival of Speed ran from 9 to 12 July 2026 under the theme The Rivals — Epic Racing Duels, built around the head-to-head contests that have shaped motorsport, on four wheels and two.
Singer takes the lawn
The Central Feature — the Gerry Judah sculpture that stands in front of Goodwood House each year — went to Singer Vehicle Design. It is the first time the honour has gone to a company that reimagines other manufacturers' cars rather than building its own. Since the Central Feature was introduced in 1997 it has celebrated Ferrari, Porsche, Mercedes-Benz, Aston Martin, Jaguar and Lotus. Judah's structure carried Singer's Classic, Classic Turbo and DLS models above the lawn. The Duke of Richmond opened the Festival on Thursday morning alongside Singer's Chief Strategy Officer Mazen Fawaz, in a 1991 DLS Turbo.
Ford and Ferrari, sixty years on
The weekend's centrepiece was the reunion of the three Ford GT40 MkIIs that finished first, second and third at Le Mans in 1966 — chassis P/1046, P/1015 and P/1016. Sixty years after Ford finally beat Ferrari at La Sarthe, the three cars — owned by the Miller Family Automobile Foundation and Rob Kaufman of RK Motors, the Miller Foundation's acquisition of the Le Mans-winning P/1046 having made the reunion possible — ran the Hill in the formation that made the finish famous. All three are expected at the Revival in September.
The rivalries
Porsche 917 against Ferrari 512S, from the 1970 World Sportscar Championship. Lancia 037 against Audi Quattro, from the 1983 World Rally Championship. Yamaha against Suzuki on two wheels. The Festival also marked the 50th anniversary of the Hunt–Lauda title fight of 1976 and the 30th of Damon Hill's 1996 championship. Ferrari celebrated 75 years of racing.
The shootout
Romain Dumas won the Timed Shootout in the Ford Super Mustang Mach-E — his third consecutive win and fifth overall. The outright hill record still belongs to Max Chilton, who ran 39.08 seconds in the McMurtry Spéirling fan car in 2022; this year's winning time was several seconds off it.
What debuted
Ferrari Amalfi, Aston Martin DB12 S, McLaren 788HS, GMA T.50S, Toyota GR GT, Zenvo Aurora Tur, Renault 5 Turbo 3E, Alpine A110 Mule, Cupra Raval, Honda Super-N and BMW i3 among others. Formula E made its Festival debut with the GEN4 car. GMA's S1 LM show car was also on display — the first of the five-car run sold as a build slot for $20.63 million (approx. £15.8M) at RM Sotheby's in Las Vegas in November 2025, a record for a new car at auction excluding charity sales.
Elsewhere on the estate
The Cartier Style et Luxe concours ran seven classes, covering Mercedes-Benz, Koenigsegg hypercars and Italian coachbuilt cars. Cathedral Paddock became the Americana Celebration, marking the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence with Shadow, Scarab and Shelby machinery among up to fifty American cars and bikes. The new FOS Fan Zone hosted Damon Hill, Lando Norris, Jamie Chadwick and others. Future Lab covered robotics, quantum computing and space travel, with Tim Peake returning as ambassador.
Next year
The 2027 Festival of Speed runs from Thursday 15 to Sunday 18 July.