Monterey Car Week 2019
This last weekend has been the end of Monterey Car week in Carmel, California which some would say is the greatest car event in the world. Spanning a week and covering many factors such as the Concours D'Elegance, Quail and general Cars and Coffee events. The Concours D'Elegance was held at Pebble Beach and visitors were witness to some of the best restored classic cars in the world such as the 'Best in Show' Bentley 8 Litre Gurney Nutting, the 1936 Mercedes 540K Cabriolet and the stunning 1955 Ferrari 750 Monza Scaglietti Spider. Another key event was the Tour D'Elegance which was simply the drive to the concours event through the Californian country. With over 175 cars in the tour including some very rare Lamborghini Miura SVs, a Ferrari 250 GT TDF, an Aston Martin DB4GT Zagato, Ferrari 250 Testarossa and even a Bugatti Type 57SC Atlante. Another event was the reunion at WeatherTech Laguna Seca raceway which played host to BMW 3.0 CSLs, M1 Procar's, Singer Porsche 911s and even Keke Rosberg's Williams F1 car.
Quail, however, is the area of Monterey Car Week that most people talk about as it has many of the best and most up to date hypercars and supercars in one place at once. An example is the US debut of the De Tomaso P72 and the all-new electric Lotus Evija. Pagani were once again at the big car shows and this time debuted their new Pagani Huayra Roadster BC, a one of 20 roadster version of the 2016 Pagani Huayra BC. I feel the best way to show that this show is one of the greatest in the world is to simply list the supercars and hypercars that were in attendance : Bugatti EB110SS, Bugatti EB110GT, 2 Porsche 918 Spyders, Ford GT, Ford GT Heritage Edition, Lamborghini Countach 25th, Ford GT MK2, 10 McLaren Sennas, 2 Mercedes-McLaren SLR 722S Roadsters, Porsche Carrera GT, Lamborghini 350GT, the actual 'Back to the Future' DeLorean, 2 Koenigsegg Agera RS Final Editions, Koenigsegg Regera, Koenigsegg Jesko, Koenigsegg CCX-R Trevita, Koenigsegg Agera R, Koenigsegg CCX, Koenigsegg CCXR, Singer DLS, Porsche 911 'Rallye', RUF CTR Yellowbird, Pagani Zonda C12, Pagani Zonda R, Pagani Zonda Cinque, Pagani Huayra Roadster, Pagani Zonda F, Lamborghini Diablo SV, McLaren GT, Audi R8 LMS GT2, the new Drako GTE, Aston Martin Valhalla, Hennessey Venom GT, Ferrari P80/C, McLaren F1 LM, McLaren F1 HDK, McLaren F1 GTR Longtail, the first look at the SSC Tuatara, Lamborghini Aventador SVJ Roadster, Lamborghini Reventon, Pininfarina Battista, Ferrari 290MM, Ferrari 250 GTO, Ferrari 250 GT SWB, Ferrari F50 GT, Ferrari 288 GTO Evoluzione, Ferrari F40 GTE, Ferrari 275 GTB Alloy, Saleen S7 Twin Turbo, Bugatti Chiron, Bugatti Divo, Rimac C-Two, W Motors Fenyr SuperSport, Bentley EXP1000 Concept just to name a few. See why it's one of the best car shows now?
Auctions are also a key sector of Car Week as it is a very affluent area so there is a lot of money thrown around at the auction block. There are 4 main auction houses that have an auction at Monterey being Mecum Auctions, Bonhams, Gooding and Co. and RM Sotheby's. Beginning with Mecum, they had a very successful auction with a very high percentage of lots selling with some of the more expensive lots selling for just over $2,000,000 like the Ferrari 275 GTB/4, Ferrari LaFerrari, Porsche 918 Weissech and Ferrari 275 GTS. Bonhams auction in comparison with the other two auction houses had a fairly standard auction with not many extremely expensive cars. However of these few expensive cars, not too many of them sold such as the Porsche 718 RSK, Bentley 4 1/2 Litre, Delahaye 135M, Porsche 918 Weissech and Ferrari F40. Of those that did sell, Bonhams successfully sold the Ferrari 340 America for $3,635,000, the Fiat 8V Supersonic for $1,625,000 and the Shelby Cobra for $1,380,000. Gooding had a very successful auction with 17 cars selling above $1million, some including some very expensive classics such as the Ferrari 250 GT LWB California Spider which sold for $9,905,000, the Ferrari 250 GT Series 1 for $6,800,000, the ex-Niki Lauda Ferrari 312T for $6,000,000, the Ferrari 250 GT TdF for $5,100,000, the Aston Martin DB4 GT for $3,600,000 and the Porsche 911 Carrera RS 3.8 for $1,710,000. Although these cars sold for insane prices and Gooding had around a 73% sell rate, there were a lot of special cars that did not sell such as the Ferrari F50, Ferrari LaFerrari, Porsche 959 Sport, Ferrari F40, Ferrari Sergio and even an Aston Martin Vulcan.
For the Sotheby's auction, I will need a separate paragraph for all the cars mainly due to the auction being what I proclaimed to be the greatest auction of all time. The Sotheby's auction also took place over three days with the first day being known as 'An Evening with Aston Martin' which very clearly focused on Aston Martin sales. Some significant sales from that day would be the Aston Martin DB5 Shooting Brake which sold for $1,765,000, the Aston Martin DBAR1 Zagato which sold for $296,500, an Aston Martin DB5 'Bond Car' used in actual filming in 'Thunderball' and 'Goldfinger' for $6,385,000, an Aston Martin DB5 Volante for $1,325,000 and an interesting Aston Martin V8 Vantage GT4 for only $81,200. Obviously there were some Astons that didn't sell such as the DB3S Works, two variants of the Aston Martin Vanquish Zagato and an Aston Martin DB4 GT. The other days featured a lot of high end exotica going across the block including a few collections. The BMW Motorsports Collection sold a 3.0CSL, 3.5CSL IMSA, 320i IMSA Turbo and an M3 DTM for a combined $3,141,000 but this wasn't even the highest sale of those days. A Bugatti Veyron 16.4 sold for $1,050,000, a one off Porsche Carrera GT for $1,193,000, a one off Ford GT for $1,242,500, a Ferrari 250 GT Series 1 for $1,517,500, Ferrari F40 for $1,682,500, a Pagani Huayra Tempesta for $2,040,000, a Ferrari 365 GTS for $2,205,000, a Ferrari LaFerrari for $2,947,500, Ferrari F50 for $3,000,000, a Ferrari FXX from the Ming Collection for $3,520,000, a Porsche 718 RS 60 Werks for $5,100,000, a Ford GT40 Roadster Prototype for $7,650,000, a Ferrari 250 GT SWB for $8,145,000 and finally a one of two McLaren F1 LM for $19,805,000. With $107,000,000 from the 74% sale rate of the auction, it would seem to be an auction that Sotheby's would remember for all the right reasons. However in a small error, the Sotheby's auction was left embarrassed by the car community. In selling the 1939 Porsche Type 64, the first car to ever wear the Porsche crest and therefore the most important Porsche in history, there was an error in the price of the car shown upon screen that was met with amusement for the audience. The renowned Dutch auctioneer who was selling the car appeared to begin the bidding at $30,000,000. The Porsche did not carry an estimate so the audience went along with it until the screen displayed $70,000,000 which would make this the most expensive car sale at auction of all time. However the auctioneer stepped up to correct that the start bid was actually $13,000,000 and therefore the bid was only up to $17,000,000. With the audience in confusion and the price corrected, there was no further bids due to a disgruntled audience who believed themselves to have been tricked. In the end there was no sale of the Type 64 and therefore it remains at the Porsche Museum where it was originally selling from.
Overall Monterey Car Week has been shown to be an ultimate haven for supercars and hypercars and one of the ultimate car shows to attend alongside the Goodwood Festival of Speed and Top Marques Monaco.
Sunday 25 August 2019
Goodwood FOS 2019 Review - First Glance + Other Displays
The next and final section of the Goodwood Festival of Speed review for this year is the First Glance Paddock and the smaller displays such as the Performance Parking and the independent stands. The First Glance paddock tends to do what it says on the tin, if you will, with many manufacturers debuting new models and occasionally the announcement of a car nobody knew existed
First Glance Paddock
Firstly at the First Glance paddock was a new version of the Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio being the AR Racing edition. This was made to celebrate Alfa Romeo's return to Formula One with the Alfa Romeo Sauber team. Many people will look at this and just think its a Giulia with a livery, when in fact the AR pack adds an Akrapovic titanium exhaust, many carbon fibre parts such as the rear diffuser and a more prominent rear wing and, most importantly, it gives the owner status. The reason for this is Alfa will only bring 10 of these special editions to the UK and only 3 of the Stelvio AR which is the AR version of their SUV. The next car is a very interesting Aston Martin being the prototype of the DBX. The DBX is set to be the first SUV made by Aston Martin which has now been confirmed for a December launch and it made an appearance under a camo livery in order to hide the body shape and the styling until a full launch. The camo car did look good unfortunately I did not love it like I do many other Aston Martins such as the next car. The Rapide has been at the forefront of luxury for Aston Martin and had gone through many facelifts and changes but none so dramatic as the new Rapide E. This fully electric version of the Rapide will be the first fully electric car built by Aston Martin. However it will not be mass produced with numbers limited at 155 examples which is a shame. But for a £250,000 price tag on each car, I doubt there will be many more buyers. Bentley had two new models debuting beginning with the Bentayga Speed which is an updated version of the original W12 model. This update features the darker grills and bumpers and an alternative hybrid V6 engine. If I'm honest, I believe this to just be an update for the sake of updating as the Bentayga was fine as is. The other model they were debuting was the new Flying Spur which for once didn't look like a hideous monstrosity like it used to. Actually looks very clean, very luxury and incredibly Bentley. BMW debuted another hideous M version of one of their SUVs. The X4 is a car that is caught in limbo, it's not luxury enough to fit into the family of the X7 and X5 but not small enough to be classed as a crossover like the X1 and X3. It fits into the worst section for BMWs which is the sports SUV which homes the X4 and the X6. The Competition version adds a little bit of extra horsepower, a few carbon bits and not much else. Citroen showed their new C5 Aircross SUV which was only really there to represent Citroen for their 100th anniversary and therefore did not get very much attention. Ford showed off the insane looking updated version of the GT500 Mustang which is set to be the most powerful Ford Mustang of all time. Although an official figure has not been released, Ford have said it has excess of 700bhp which is Ferrari 812 power. The green spec on it helped to make it look as if it were the vehicular incarnation of the Incredible Hulk which was incredible alongside the next car which is the Honda e. The Honda e is a cute little car made by Honda as their first entrant into the electric car market and it was the cutest thing at the whole show. It was so small and cutesy compared to all the massive SUVs and Crossovers and actually looks a fun and happy little car. Also it is unique as it does not have a 6000 mile range like many electric cars predict - may be a bit of an exaggeration but even so. Jaguar last year debuted their XE SV Project 8 which is a customer racing kind of car. Based on the XE saloon, the Project 8 is limited to 300 units with a top speed of 200mph to create an insane saloon car. With 0-60mph in 3.7 seconds it is one of the fastest four-door cars on the market. However the Project 8 at this years FOS was a little different, because Jaguar brought the new Touring package. The Touring package has identical statistics to the regular XE except with the reduction of the carbon fibre rear wing. The Touring package is limited to 15 examples and the price is expected to be above the £149,995 price of the regular Project 8. From what I saw at Goodwood, this car is one of the greatest saloons currently on the market and it 100% makes up for the very high price of the car. Jeep made their debut at Goodwood by bringing their ultimate hybrid. A hybrid between an SUV and powerful muscle car that is. The Jeep Cherokee Trackhawk features the 6.2 litre V8 used in the Dodge Challenger Hellcat and Demon, which produces 697bhp and can propel the Jeep to a 180mph top speed which is ridiculous for a 2.3 tonne 4x4. Lamborghini also brought their Urus for the first glance paddock which is not really a first glance but it's always good to see a Urus. Lexus brought their new RCF Track Edition which took the already insane RCF and boosted the power, the aerodynamics and increased the carbon fibre usage by around 800%. This must be the ultimate form of the Lexus RCF as I don't see how Lexus can do any better with the RCF. Next is the Lotus Evora GT4 which is a track version of the Evora for Lotus customers to buy and take to tracks much like the Ferrari XX programme or Aston Martin's AMR programme. The Lotus sounded absolutely godly and one can only dream of the sound of 20 or more of these rocketing around a circuit. Maserati brought their new upgraded version of the Levante 4x4 with the V8 similar to the Quattroporte GTS and very similar to the Ferrari 488 GTB. Mercedes and Mini shared a similarity in that they both showed some new cars under camo being the new Mercedes A45 AMG and the electric Mini concept. Both of which went a little under my radar due to 'better' cars elsewhere. These better cars can include the new Polestar One which is a subseries of Volvo with their electric saloon which is the only electric car that I think I would go out and but because I was so impressed with it. Another of the wow factor cars is the Porsche Taycan which nobody knew existed yet. It is the Porsche electric car that has been teased for years but never seen. Granted it was shown under a camo that hid the body shape but it was still there and I was there for the world debut of the Porsche Taycan. Overall the First Glance paddock was very interesting and very good to see what will be gracing showrooms over the next year or so.
Other Displays
The final section of this review has to cover the multiple other displays at Goodwood which includes Performance Parking and the independent stands as well as random pop up displays. I'll begin with the random pop up areas.
The main area of this was the Bentley centenary celebration in the centre of all the manufacturer stands on the green. This was a display of 30-40 cars that celebrated the 100 years of Bentley with some very special cars dotted around. I'm not very knowledgeable about the older Bentleys so the cars that stuck out to me were the modern ones such as the brand new Mulsanne Speed talked about prior. There was also a Bentley Continental GTZ on this green which is a regular 2006 Continental but with the body styled by Zagato. A very controversial design that I love and others hate but I found the signature Zagato 'double-bubble' on the roof line to be the feature that swayed the GTZ from hate to love. The other notable Bentley was the Continental GT3-R which is a one of 300 Bentley inspired by motorsport hence the British Racing Green touches and the carbon fibre spoiler that would be very strange on a regular Bentley. A second pop up area I was a large fan of was the Pagani area. On the day I attended the Pagani Raduno was supposed to attend with multiple one off Zondas and Huayra BCs and Huayras but they did not attend although they said they would. However there were some Zondas there. In a row of 5 cars there was Zonda 001 which was the first C12 chassis produced known as La Nona (grandmother) which had been restored to original status after going through multiple changes to other specifications. Next along was the Zonda F in red with black carbon accents which was my favourite of the 5 due to the simplistic beauty and presence that came with it. Next in the line up was a carbon blue bodied Pagani Zonda Revolucion which was the track only Zonda built for those to track day their Zondas. Next was one of the rarest Paganis in existence in the form of the Cinque. This one of 5 car was built as a farewell to the Zonda name with lots of carbon fibre elements in what we thought was the last iteration of the great car. Well 7 years after the release of the Cinque, Pagani came up with the HP Barchetta which is one of three which Pagani now say is the last Zonda. This example finished in carbon blue over regular black carbon with wheel shields much alike the old Jaguar Le Mans cars and a bespoke interior. This actual car is owned by Pagani founder, Horatio Pagani hence why it's one of the prettiest cars around. Another interesting area was that of 4 cars down by the south performance car park. There were two cool cars and two amazing cars. The two cool cars were a Dodge Challenger SRT Demon which is an 840hp, £100,000 muscle car and a Miami Blue Porsche 911 GT2 RS which was only the 4th GT2 RS I had seen. But now the amazing cars begin with a McLaren P1 LM which is a one of 6, road legal version of the McLaren P1 GTR. When the P1 GTRs were being converted to a road legal, Lanzante Motorsport commissioned 6 P1 LMs for road use exclusively. It also held the lap record at the Nürburgring with 6m 43secs but it was disqualified as it did not hold a registration plate and therefore could not be recorded. However even with all these credentials, the McLaren was not the best car here. The best car was a really strange looking Aston Martin. It had the general body shape of the One-77 but had a large carbon rear wing, massive wide arches and a ridiculous front splitter. It turns out that this car was the test mule for the Aston Martin Vulcan based on an unused Aston Martin One-77 chassis, which explains all of the aerodynamic modifications. It is also apparently the first time that Aston Martin has shown this car in public.
Performance Parking
The Performance Parking area is set up every year for owners to pay a certain fee to have their car parked inside the grounds at Goodwood to which some would say is a car show in itself. The South Performance Parking was a lot quieter than the main PP area but still had some hidden surprises. The one that caught my eye the most was obviously the blue Pagani Zonda C12 S with lots of carbon additions. The Pagani Raduno was supposed to be around on the Saturday but unfortunately this Zonda was the only example ,of over 20 on the Raduno, that was there. Even so I never complained. Along with this was a Ferrari 360CS, Lamborghini Diablo SV, Porsche 911 GT3 RS 4.0, Jaguar XE SV Project 8, two Ferrari 488 Pistas and a Liberty Walk Ford Mustang GT. This was only day one as well. Day 2 consisted of an Aston Martin DBS Superleggera, a couple of new Aston Martin Vantages, a Ferrari 458 Speciale, another Ferrari 488 Pista, a 1989 Aston Martin Vantage Volante and a McLaren 600LT.
The main PP makes the south one look like a regular car park, which very clearly is difficult to do. The direction we entered the festival happened to be by the Performance Parking which was an added bonus. In this car park there was two Lamborghini Aventador SVJs, a brand new Lamborghini Huracan EVO, McLaren 675LT, lots of McLaren 600LTs and Ferrari 488 Pistas, a Porsche 918 Weissech, a Porsche 911 GT2 RS, another Porsche 918 Spyder, the Team Galag Batmobile Tumbler, a Ferrari F12 N-Largo S and a very rare Weissmann MF5. That list should state the obvious that this car park was so much better.
First Glance Paddock
Firstly at the First Glance paddock was a new version of the Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio being the AR Racing edition. This was made to celebrate Alfa Romeo's return to Formula One with the Alfa Romeo Sauber team. Many people will look at this and just think its a Giulia with a livery, when in fact the AR pack adds an Akrapovic titanium exhaust, many carbon fibre parts such as the rear diffuser and a more prominent rear wing and, most importantly, it gives the owner status. The reason for this is Alfa will only bring 10 of these special editions to the UK and only 3 of the Stelvio AR which is the AR version of their SUV. The next car is a very interesting Aston Martin being the prototype of the DBX. The DBX is set to be the first SUV made by Aston Martin which has now been confirmed for a December launch and it made an appearance under a camo livery in order to hide the body shape and the styling until a full launch. The camo car did look good unfortunately I did not love it like I do many other Aston Martins such as the next car. The Rapide has been at the forefront of luxury for Aston Martin and had gone through many facelifts and changes but none so dramatic as the new Rapide E. This fully electric version of the Rapide will be the first fully electric car built by Aston Martin. However it will not be mass produced with numbers limited at 155 examples which is a shame. But for a £250,000 price tag on each car, I doubt there will be many more buyers. Bentley had two new models debuting beginning with the Bentayga Speed which is an updated version of the original W12 model. This update features the darker grills and bumpers and an alternative hybrid V6 engine. If I'm honest, I believe this to just be an update for the sake of updating as the Bentayga was fine as is. The other model they were debuting was the new Flying Spur which for once didn't look like a hideous monstrosity like it used to. Actually looks very clean, very luxury and incredibly Bentley. BMW debuted another hideous M version of one of their SUVs. The X4 is a car that is caught in limbo, it's not luxury enough to fit into the family of the X7 and X5 but not small enough to be classed as a crossover like the X1 and X3. It fits into the worst section for BMWs which is the sports SUV which homes the X4 and the X6. The Competition version adds a little bit of extra horsepower, a few carbon bits and not much else. Citroen showed their new C5 Aircross SUV which was only really there to represent Citroen for their 100th anniversary and therefore did not get very much attention. Ford showed off the insane looking updated version of the GT500 Mustang which is set to be the most powerful Ford Mustang of all time. Although an official figure has not been released, Ford have said it has excess of 700bhp which is Ferrari 812 power. The green spec on it helped to make it look as if it were the vehicular incarnation of the Incredible Hulk which was incredible alongside the next car which is the Honda e. The Honda e is a cute little car made by Honda as their first entrant into the electric car market and it was the cutest thing at the whole show. It was so small and cutesy compared to all the massive SUVs and Crossovers and actually looks a fun and happy little car. Also it is unique as it does not have a 6000 mile range like many electric cars predict - may be a bit of an exaggeration but even so. Jaguar last year debuted their XE SV Project 8 which is a customer racing kind of car. Based on the XE saloon, the Project 8 is limited to 300 units with a top speed of 200mph to create an insane saloon car. With 0-60mph in 3.7 seconds it is one of the fastest four-door cars on the market. However the Project 8 at this years FOS was a little different, because Jaguar brought the new Touring package. The Touring package has identical statistics to the regular XE except with the reduction of the carbon fibre rear wing. The Touring package is limited to 15 examples and the price is expected to be above the £149,995 price of the regular Project 8. From what I saw at Goodwood, this car is one of the greatest saloons currently on the market and it 100% makes up for the very high price of the car. Jeep made their debut at Goodwood by bringing their ultimate hybrid. A hybrid between an SUV and powerful muscle car that is. The Jeep Cherokee Trackhawk features the 6.2 litre V8 used in the Dodge Challenger Hellcat and Demon, which produces 697bhp and can propel the Jeep to a 180mph top speed which is ridiculous for a 2.3 tonne 4x4. Lamborghini also brought their Urus for the first glance paddock which is not really a first glance but it's always good to see a Urus. Lexus brought their new RCF Track Edition which took the already insane RCF and boosted the power, the aerodynamics and increased the carbon fibre usage by around 800%. This must be the ultimate form of the Lexus RCF as I don't see how Lexus can do any better with the RCF. Next is the Lotus Evora GT4 which is a track version of the Evora for Lotus customers to buy and take to tracks much like the Ferrari XX programme or Aston Martin's AMR programme. The Lotus sounded absolutely godly and one can only dream of the sound of 20 or more of these rocketing around a circuit. Maserati brought their new upgraded version of the Levante 4x4 with the V8 similar to the Quattroporte GTS and very similar to the Ferrari 488 GTB. Mercedes and Mini shared a similarity in that they both showed some new cars under camo being the new Mercedes A45 AMG and the electric Mini concept. Both of which went a little under my radar due to 'better' cars elsewhere. These better cars can include the new Polestar One which is a subseries of Volvo with their electric saloon which is the only electric car that I think I would go out and but because I was so impressed with it. Another of the wow factor cars is the Porsche Taycan which nobody knew existed yet. It is the Porsche electric car that has been teased for years but never seen. Granted it was shown under a camo that hid the body shape but it was still there and I was there for the world debut of the Porsche Taycan. Overall the First Glance paddock was very interesting and very good to see what will be gracing showrooms over the next year or so.
Other Displays
The final section of this review has to cover the multiple other displays at Goodwood which includes Performance Parking and the independent stands as well as random pop up displays. I'll begin with the random pop up areas.
The main area of this was the Bentley centenary celebration in the centre of all the manufacturer stands on the green. This was a display of 30-40 cars that celebrated the 100 years of Bentley with some very special cars dotted around. I'm not very knowledgeable about the older Bentleys so the cars that stuck out to me were the modern ones such as the brand new Mulsanne Speed talked about prior. There was also a Bentley Continental GTZ on this green which is a regular 2006 Continental but with the body styled by Zagato. A very controversial design that I love and others hate but I found the signature Zagato 'double-bubble' on the roof line to be the feature that swayed the GTZ from hate to love. The other notable Bentley was the Continental GT3-R which is a one of 300 Bentley inspired by motorsport hence the British Racing Green touches and the carbon fibre spoiler that would be very strange on a regular Bentley. A second pop up area I was a large fan of was the Pagani area. On the day I attended the Pagani Raduno was supposed to attend with multiple one off Zondas and Huayra BCs and Huayras but they did not attend although they said they would. However there were some Zondas there. In a row of 5 cars there was Zonda 001 which was the first C12 chassis produced known as La Nona (grandmother) which had been restored to original status after going through multiple changes to other specifications. Next along was the Zonda F in red with black carbon accents which was my favourite of the 5 due to the simplistic beauty and presence that came with it. Next in the line up was a carbon blue bodied Pagani Zonda Revolucion which was the track only Zonda built for those to track day their Zondas. Next was one of the rarest Paganis in existence in the form of the Cinque. This one of 5 car was built as a farewell to the Zonda name with lots of carbon fibre elements in what we thought was the last iteration of the great car. Well 7 years after the release of the Cinque, Pagani came up with the HP Barchetta which is one of three which Pagani now say is the last Zonda. This example finished in carbon blue over regular black carbon with wheel shields much alike the old Jaguar Le Mans cars and a bespoke interior. This actual car is owned by Pagani founder, Horatio Pagani hence why it's one of the prettiest cars around. Another interesting area was that of 4 cars down by the south performance car park. There were two cool cars and two amazing cars. The two cool cars were a Dodge Challenger SRT Demon which is an 840hp, £100,000 muscle car and a Miami Blue Porsche 911 GT2 RS which was only the 4th GT2 RS I had seen. But now the amazing cars begin with a McLaren P1 LM which is a one of 6, road legal version of the McLaren P1 GTR. When the P1 GTRs were being converted to a road legal, Lanzante Motorsport commissioned 6 P1 LMs for road use exclusively. It also held the lap record at the Nürburgring with 6m 43secs but it was disqualified as it did not hold a registration plate and therefore could not be recorded. However even with all these credentials, the McLaren was not the best car here. The best car was a really strange looking Aston Martin. It had the general body shape of the One-77 but had a large carbon rear wing, massive wide arches and a ridiculous front splitter. It turns out that this car was the test mule for the Aston Martin Vulcan based on an unused Aston Martin One-77 chassis, which explains all of the aerodynamic modifications. It is also apparently the first time that Aston Martin has shown this car in public.
Performance Parking
The Performance Parking area is set up every year for owners to pay a certain fee to have their car parked inside the grounds at Goodwood to which some would say is a car show in itself. The South Performance Parking was a lot quieter than the main PP area but still had some hidden surprises. The one that caught my eye the most was obviously the blue Pagani Zonda C12 S with lots of carbon additions. The Pagani Raduno was supposed to be around on the Saturday but unfortunately this Zonda was the only example ,of over 20 on the Raduno, that was there. Even so I never complained. Along with this was a Ferrari 360CS, Lamborghini Diablo SV, Porsche 911 GT3 RS 4.0, Jaguar XE SV Project 8, two Ferrari 488 Pistas and a Liberty Walk Ford Mustang GT. This was only day one as well. Day 2 consisted of an Aston Martin DBS Superleggera, a couple of new Aston Martin Vantages, a Ferrari 458 Speciale, another Ferrari 488 Pista, a 1989 Aston Martin Vantage Volante and a McLaren 600LT.
The main PP makes the south one look like a regular car park, which very clearly is difficult to do. The direction we entered the festival happened to be by the Performance Parking which was an added bonus. In this car park there was two Lamborghini Aventador SVJs, a brand new Lamborghini Huracan EVO, McLaren 675LT, lots of McLaren 600LTs and Ferrari 488 Pistas, a Porsche 918 Weissech, a Porsche 911 GT2 RS, another Porsche 918 Spyder, the Team Galag Batmobile Tumbler, a Ferrari F12 N-Largo S and a very rare Weissmann MF5. That list should state the obvious that this car park was so much better.
Saturday 3 August 2019
Goodwood FOS 2019 Review - Cartier + Supercar Paddock
Every year at Goodwood, there are two sections that tend to get the most attention out of all the areas. These are the Cartier Style et Luxe and Supercar Paddocks. These tend to get a lot of attention as they feature the latest and greatest sports cars, the debuts of some superb vehicles and some of the most expensive cars around. I shall begin with the review of the Cartier Style et Luxe.
CARTIER STYLE ET LUXE
The Cartier Style et Luxe is a concours event of machines that represent the finest of their type and class in the world. The Cartier is always judged by a group of specially selected judges, that this year was made up of jockey Frankie Dettori, Lapo Elkann, the former marketing director of Fiat, and the Earl of Snowdon. The categories this year were 'Cent Ans d'Avant Garde' which celebrated the centenary of the creation of French luxury manufacturer Avoins Voisin, 'A Sting in the Tail' which celebrated the 70th anniversary of Abarth, 'Like Father Like Son' which is a celebration of the creative mind of Jean Bugatti, son of Ettore. The next category was 'Continental Drift' which was paired with the Bentley centenary celebration, to celebrate their R-Type model, 'Tea for Two' to present the Volkswagen vans over time, 'Milanese Maestros' to celebrate the centenary of Italian coachbuilders Zagato and finally 'Aston-ishing' to celebrate the Aston Martin V8 and its glamourous history. A few highlights of the Cartier show for me begin with the 1962 Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato, one of very few designed by Zagato, with luscious curves and a value of up to £14.3m. In fact, most of the Aston Martins at Cartier caught my eye such as the 1988 V8 Zagato, the 1971 DBS which was the first Aston to wear the, now legendary, DBS badge and the 1985 Aston Martin Lagonda which was seen to be one of the most luxury Aston Martins of all time. Another highlight was the Bugatti Type 57C Atlante which was entered by the Bugatti museum and is valued at up to £6m. The curves of this car was something else, as if sculpted by Leonardo Da Vinci himself. Finished in an original paint colour and having only undergone a restoration of a single body panel, it was one of the most original Type 57s around. Finally it is worth mentioning the best in show at the Cartier Style et Luxe which came as a surprise to me, in that it was not the DB4 GTZ or the Type 57C. But in fact the winner of best in show came from the 'Sting in the Tail' category and in the hands of the 1950 Abarth 205 Monza. There is very little known about this model anywhere, other than it is powered by a 1.1 litre inline-4 engine and is one of 3 ever made. It is thought that the one featured at Goodwood this year was the first Abarth car ever made by the manufacturer in 1950 and in the same year was entered into the vicious Mille Miglia race in Italy that covers nearly 1000 miles of Italian coastal road. This plus the gorgeous Italian styling makes it fairly plain as to why it won best in show. Overall the Cartier Style et Luxe gets better and better each year and always becomes more and more unique, a word perfect to describe the Concours event entirely.
SUPERCAR PADDOCK
The supercar paddock went over a few changes this year from last year, mainly the location closer to the start line to accommodate for the new Drift Arena but also due to the size of the paddock. It is estimated that the paddock in its entirety would produce 8000bhp, an insane statistic so lets get to the cars. First up is the Apollo IE which made its debut last year and made another appearance this year but in a different colour scheme. Last year it appeared in its, now iconic, livery of purple carbon with gold wheels, however this year it donned a metallic blue with the gold wheels. The Apollo doesn't just look amazing but the 6.3l V12 mounted in the rear screams even when at low rpm. Next along is Aston Martin who really made a big show at their section of the paddock, debuting 2 new models as well as some fan favourites. One of these launches was of their Vantage AMR which is a standard V8 Vantage but with some enhancements by Aston Martin Racing (AMR) to amp up the power and improve the already beautiful design. Not the standout for me unfortunately as they also debuted the convertible version of their grand tourer, the DBS Superleggera. This Volante version allows for 715bhp to be heard even more by the driver and also is the fastest convertible Aston Martin ever made with a top speed of 211mph. Aston also brought their DB11 AMR and the Vulcan AMR Pro that they brought last year which would've been the centre of attention if a certain 4 Astons were not in attendance. The Lava Collection was present at Goodwood which is the full collection of Aston Martin Vanquish Zagatos, the Coupe, Volante, Speedster and Shooting Brake. Every detail of each car was sublime and most definitely the best looking area of the paddock. Adding that to the rarity of each car, 99 of each except the Speedster which has 28 examples, Aston absolutely smashed it. Bentley did not have such a presence in the Supercar Paddock as they were celebrating their centenary in the centre of the trade areas so only featured a Continental GT and GTC which unfortunately were simply looked past. BMW had their new M8 on display to give its debut to the Goodwood crowds. This was not any M8 though as it had the Performance package on it which added carbon fibre details and a little extra horsepower. Similarly to the M8 was the AC Schnitzer ACS8 which is the German bodykit manufacturers attempt at making a BMW M8 look more mean than it already did which was a success for them. Although it did not run, the AC Schnitzer and its £3,000 exhaust system would be a blast to watch. Brabham have become a fan favourite at Goodwood over recent years with their BT62 and this year was no different with two BT62s gracing the grounds of Goodwood and stunning audiences with the V8 roar and retro design to hark back to Brabhams former glories in Formula One. Dallara made its Goodwood debut this year with their critically acclaimed Stradale track car for the road. Probably didn't get as much attention as it deserved, even with the bright yellow colour it was finished in. The next car we have is possibly the most beautiful car I have ever seen, the De Tomaso P72. Built to celebrate 60 years of the marque and designed to look like 1960s Le Mans legends such as the Ferrari 330 P4. It is just breath-taking and definitely worth the €750,000 price tag. It is now the turn of the Tifosi, Ferrari had a mixed bag of cars at this years FOS which needs some discussion. To start off positive, some of the cars they brought were spectacular. The one off P80/C track car was simply sublime, the Monza SP2 built to look like the 250TR was created by a genius and the one of 2 SP3JC based on an F12tdf chassis was almost too good to be true. However this is where the problems begin. First and foremost there was only one of the XX series cars being the FXXK EVO. That's not a complaint because the FXXK is a ridiculous looking car but I'd have preferred to see the FXX or the 599XX if not as well as. It was not only that I felt Ferrari lacked in. The rest of their line up was their current range and at the time of the festival they had announced three new models months in advance being the F8 Tributo, 488 Pista Spider and the SF90 Stradale. However, they took it upon themselves to not bring any of those, not even the prototypes or test mules shown at Geneva. Instead they brought a 488 Pista Coupe, GTC4 Lusso, Portofino and an 812 Superfast. I'm not complaining as the Pista is an excellent sports car and the 812 sounds godly, all I'm saying is they had so much potential to do better and they didn't take that opportunity. Hopefully next year they will learn from this. Ford debuted their new version of the Ford GT known as the MKII Track Edition which costs an extra £400,000 to current Ford GT customers to get a new one that cannot be taken on the road due to the enhancements from the GTLM used in GT3 racing. To the Ford, its a nice idea but I don't think it will work as I doubt many will invest in it. Honda decided to create an entrance with a chrome orange NSX which looked hideous for such a good car which was a massive shame. Jaguar had an F Type SVR on their stand which is enough said as it is a good quality sports car but no wow factor. If wow factor is what's needs then the obvious choice is Lamborghini. Not only did they have a Lamborghini Aventador SVJ in matte green which stunned crowds but they also had both versions of the new Lamborghini Huracan EVO, being the Coupe and the Spyder. The Huracan EVO is more or less the performance of the Huracan Performante without the aero modifications besides the double exit shotgun exhausts to make it the ultimate iteration of the Huracan platform. But this still wasn't the biggest wow factor in the Lamborghini section as that accolade goes to the SC18 Alston, a car that the world did not know existed. The SC18 Alston is a creation by the Lamborghini Squadro Corse racing division and it shows with ultimate aerodynamics and the most aggressive styling you will ever see on a supercar. This one off car takes lots of styling influence such as the Lamborghini GT3 cars but also some previous limited series cars such as the Veneno, Sesto Elemento and Reventon. And as if it could not get any better, I overheard a Lamborghini representative state the commission cost of this car, which was €5million. Before I move on to Lexus, there was another manufacturer in the paddock that is not written into the programme which is Koenigsegg. They brought two cars with them this year, the first being the Agera RSN, a one off version of the Agera RS finished in a blue and white two-tone effect. The RSN is one of the Agera RS family that is made up of 25 official cars and a lot more custom versions made for customers. The Agera RS is also the current holder of the worlds fastest road car after last year it clocked a speed of 278mph over two runs on average, it peaked a 285mph speed. The second car they featured is the Regera. There happened to be one at FOS last year in carbon green, but the one this year was a lot more special as it was finished in purple carbon fibre and a gold stripe down the centre. It is rumoured that the gold stripe had actual gold leaf in it which is just ridiculous. Moving on to Lexus who debuted the convertible version of their already beautiful LC500 known as the LC C. Although the name may be a little drab, I can say the styling is perfect for Lexus for them to return to the top for luxury sports cars. If I could I would most definitely buy this car because it is near perfect. Lotus featured two of their newest versions of the Exige, the Sport 410, and the Evora, the GT 410 Sport. These two were trademark Lotus, very loud, very aggressive and, for me, very overpriced. I love Lotus and the things they stand for since Colin Chapman chose lightness over any other element. However these new models are close to £80,000 in price, which is second hand Lamborghini Gallardo money but if it is a track car you are wanting then the Lotus is most likely your best bet. If you're just looking for a supercar, the Lotus is not the car for you. McLaren had a ridiculous Festival of Speed with the cars they provided. Starting off small with the 720S which is their top Super Series car at the moment but not too special in comparison to what else was there. Next along was the 600LT Spider, the convertible version of the ultimate McLaren supercar seen to be the best supercar on the market at this time next to the brand new McLaren GT which fills a gap in the McLaren brand of the grand tourer. The gold paint colour sold it for me as well as the sleek lines and the comparisons that can be drawn to the new Speedtail (also in attendance elsewhere). Here's where the line gets really special with a certain hypercar trio beginning with the McLaren Senna, although the same as the one featured last year, it is always a sight to see one of these beasts. But it's nowhere as beastly as the blue and chrome McLaren Senna GTR next to it. This is the first time the Senna GTR has been seen in the UK and heard in the UK too as it took to the hill across the weekend. Honestly it's such a spectacle to even see this car in the flesh, let alone to see it burn rubber and speed up the hill at full throttle. McLaren finished off with a volcano yellow McLaren P1 which is one of the early press cars still owned by McLaren. Moving on from McLaren to Mercedes who brought two iterations of the AMG GTR, the Roadster and the Pro which I saw once and was excited once but then never went back as although they have presence and look insane, they didn't stand out significantly enough to go back to them. The next car I did go back to, a lot. This is the Pagani Zonda R, the fastest Zonda ever made, the most track focused Zonda ever made and the most prolific Zonda ever made. Holding the Top Gear lap record for many years and the Nordschliefe lap record for many years, banned at many circuits with sound restrictions and only ever really driven at events or Italian circuits such as Monza or Imola. This was really a sight to see and to hear at FOS. Porsche put in a decent showing with the new 718 Cayman GT4, the production 911 Speedster after last years concept and the Porsche 935 built to celebrate the historic racing car. It was not Porsche who won the Porsche cars funnily enough, it was the modifiers of Porsches who won me over. First Lanzante who took a Porsche 911 930 from 1986 and fitted it with a McLaren Formula One engine, then there was TechArt who took a normal 991.2 GT3 RS and added lots of marble carbon to create the £350,000 GTStreet RS. Finally was Singer who had a 1989 and 1990 Porsche 911 with their restomod design to round off the Porsches. Finally of the paddock were two interesting supercars starting with the French Prato Orage based on a Corvette chassis with 800hp from a supercharged 8.1 litre V8. The final car is the W Motors Fenyr Supersport which has diamonds infused in the headlamps and just looks like the most 'Dubai billionaire' car I have ever seen.
Overall these two sections of FOS were absolutely superb and I have no idea how it can get any better in all honesty.
CARTIER STYLE ET LUXE
The Cartier Style et Luxe is a concours event of machines that represent the finest of their type and class in the world. The Cartier is always judged by a group of specially selected judges, that this year was made up of jockey Frankie Dettori, Lapo Elkann, the former marketing director of Fiat, and the Earl of Snowdon. The categories this year were 'Cent Ans d'Avant Garde' which celebrated the centenary of the creation of French luxury manufacturer Avoins Voisin, 'A Sting in the Tail' which celebrated the 70th anniversary of Abarth, 'Like Father Like Son' which is a celebration of the creative mind of Jean Bugatti, son of Ettore. The next category was 'Continental Drift' which was paired with the Bentley centenary celebration, to celebrate their R-Type model, 'Tea for Two' to present the Volkswagen vans over time, 'Milanese Maestros' to celebrate the centenary of Italian coachbuilders Zagato and finally 'Aston-ishing' to celebrate the Aston Martin V8 and its glamourous history. A few highlights of the Cartier show for me begin with the 1962 Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato, one of very few designed by Zagato, with luscious curves and a value of up to £14.3m. In fact, most of the Aston Martins at Cartier caught my eye such as the 1988 V8 Zagato, the 1971 DBS which was the first Aston to wear the, now legendary, DBS badge and the 1985 Aston Martin Lagonda which was seen to be one of the most luxury Aston Martins of all time. Another highlight was the Bugatti Type 57C Atlante which was entered by the Bugatti museum and is valued at up to £6m. The curves of this car was something else, as if sculpted by Leonardo Da Vinci himself. Finished in an original paint colour and having only undergone a restoration of a single body panel, it was one of the most original Type 57s around. Finally it is worth mentioning the best in show at the Cartier Style et Luxe which came as a surprise to me, in that it was not the DB4 GTZ or the Type 57C. But in fact the winner of best in show came from the 'Sting in the Tail' category and in the hands of the 1950 Abarth 205 Monza. There is very little known about this model anywhere, other than it is powered by a 1.1 litre inline-4 engine and is one of 3 ever made. It is thought that the one featured at Goodwood this year was the first Abarth car ever made by the manufacturer in 1950 and in the same year was entered into the vicious Mille Miglia race in Italy that covers nearly 1000 miles of Italian coastal road. This plus the gorgeous Italian styling makes it fairly plain as to why it won best in show. Overall the Cartier Style et Luxe gets better and better each year and always becomes more and more unique, a word perfect to describe the Concours event entirely.
SUPERCAR PADDOCK
The supercar paddock went over a few changes this year from last year, mainly the location closer to the start line to accommodate for the new Drift Arena but also due to the size of the paddock. It is estimated that the paddock in its entirety would produce 8000bhp, an insane statistic so lets get to the cars. First up is the Apollo IE which made its debut last year and made another appearance this year but in a different colour scheme. Last year it appeared in its, now iconic, livery of purple carbon with gold wheels, however this year it donned a metallic blue with the gold wheels. The Apollo doesn't just look amazing but the 6.3l V12 mounted in the rear screams even when at low rpm. Next along is Aston Martin who really made a big show at their section of the paddock, debuting 2 new models as well as some fan favourites. One of these launches was of their Vantage AMR which is a standard V8 Vantage but with some enhancements by Aston Martin Racing (AMR) to amp up the power and improve the already beautiful design. Not the standout for me unfortunately as they also debuted the convertible version of their grand tourer, the DBS Superleggera. This Volante version allows for 715bhp to be heard even more by the driver and also is the fastest convertible Aston Martin ever made with a top speed of 211mph. Aston also brought their DB11 AMR and the Vulcan AMR Pro that they brought last year which would've been the centre of attention if a certain 4 Astons were not in attendance. The Lava Collection was present at Goodwood which is the full collection of Aston Martin Vanquish Zagatos, the Coupe, Volante, Speedster and Shooting Brake. Every detail of each car was sublime and most definitely the best looking area of the paddock. Adding that to the rarity of each car, 99 of each except the Speedster which has 28 examples, Aston absolutely smashed it. Bentley did not have such a presence in the Supercar Paddock as they were celebrating their centenary in the centre of the trade areas so only featured a Continental GT and GTC which unfortunately were simply looked past. BMW had their new M8 on display to give its debut to the Goodwood crowds. This was not any M8 though as it had the Performance package on it which added carbon fibre details and a little extra horsepower. Similarly to the M8 was the AC Schnitzer ACS8 which is the German bodykit manufacturers attempt at making a BMW M8 look more mean than it already did which was a success for them. Although it did not run, the AC Schnitzer and its £3,000 exhaust system would be a blast to watch. Brabham have become a fan favourite at Goodwood over recent years with their BT62 and this year was no different with two BT62s gracing the grounds of Goodwood and stunning audiences with the V8 roar and retro design to hark back to Brabhams former glories in Formula One. Dallara made its Goodwood debut this year with their critically acclaimed Stradale track car for the road. Probably didn't get as much attention as it deserved, even with the bright yellow colour it was finished in. The next car we have is possibly the most beautiful car I have ever seen, the De Tomaso P72. Built to celebrate 60 years of the marque and designed to look like 1960s Le Mans legends such as the Ferrari 330 P4. It is just breath-taking and definitely worth the €750,000 price tag. It is now the turn of the Tifosi, Ferrari had a mixed bag of cars at this years FOS which needs some discussion. To start off positive, some of the cars they brought were spectacular. The one off P80/C track car was simply sublime, the Monza SP2 built to look like the 250TR was created by a genius and the one of 2 SP3JC based on an F12tdf chassis was almost too good to be true. However this is where the problems begin. First and foremost there was only one of the XX series cars being the FXXK EVO. That's not a complaint because the FXXK is a ridiculous looking car but I'd have preferred to see the FXX or the 599XX if not as well as. It was not only that I felt Ferrari lacked in. The rest of their line up was their current range and at the time of the festival they had announced three new models months in advance being the F8 Tributo, 488 Pista Spider and the SF90 Stradale. However, they took it upon themselves to not bring any of those, not even the prototypes or test mules shown at Geneva. Instead they brought a 488 Pista Coupe, GTC4 Lusso, Portofino and an 812 Superfast. I'm not complaining as the Pista is an excellent sports car and the 812 sounds godly, all I'm saying is they had so much potential to do better and they didn't take that opportunity. Hopefully next year they will learn from this. Ford debuted their new version of the Ford GT known as the MKII Track Edition which costs an extra £400,000 to current Ford GT customers to get a new one that cannot be taken on the road due to the enhancements from the GTLM used in GT3 racing. To the Ford, its a nice idea but I don't think it will work as I doubt many will invest in it. Honda decided to create an entrance with a chrome orange NSX which looked hideous for such a good car which was a massive shame. Jaguar had an F Type SVR on their stand which is enough said as it is a good quality sports car but no wow factor. If wow factor is what's needs then the obvious choice is Lamborghini. Not only did they have a Lamborghini Aventador SVJ in matte green which stunned crowds but they also had both versions of the new Lamborghini Huracan EVO, being the Coupe and the Spyder. The Huracan EVO is more or less the performance of the Huracan Performante without the aero modifications besides the double exit shotgun exhausts to make it the ultimate iteration of the Huracan platform. But this still wasn't the biggest wow factor in the Lamborghini section as that accolade goes to the SC18 Alston, a car that the world did not know existed. The SC18 Alston is a creation by the Lamborghini Squadro Corse racing division and it shows with ultimate aerodynamics and the most aggressive styling you will ever see on a supercar. This one off car takes lots of styling influence such as the Lamborghini GT3 cars but also some previous limited series cars such as the Veneno, Sesto Elemento and Reventon. And as if it could not get any better, I overheard a Lamborghini representative state the commission cost of this car, which was €5million. Before I move on to Lexus, there was another manufacturer in the paddock that is not written into the programme which is Koenigsegg. They brought two cars with them this year, the first being the Agera RSN, a one off version of the Agera RS finished in a blue and white two-tone effect. The RSN is one of the Agera RS family that is made up of 25 official cars and a lot more custom versions made for customers. The Agera RS is also the current holder of the worlds fastest road car after last year it clocked a speed of 278mph over two runs on average, it peaked a 285mph speed. The second car they featured is the Regera. There happened to be one at FOS last year in carbon green, but the one this year was a lot more special as it was finished in purple carbon fibre and a gold stripe down the centre. It is rumoured that the gold stripe had actual gold leaf in it which is just ridiculous. Moving on to Lexus who debuted the convertible version of their already beautiful LC500 known as the LC C. Although the name may be a little drab, I can say the styling is perfect for Lexus for them to return to the top for luxury sports cars. If I could I would most definitely buy this car because it is near perfect. Lotus featured two of their newest versions of the Exige, the Sport 410, and the Evora, the GT 410 Sport. These two were trademark Lotus, very loud, very aggressive and, for me, very overpriced. I love Lotus and the things they stand for since Colin Chapman chose lightness over any other element. However these new models are close to £80,000 in price, which is second hand Lamborghini Gallardo money but if it is a track car you are wanting then the Lotus is most likely your best bet. If you're just looking for a supercar, the Lotus is not the car for you. McLaren had a ridiculous Festival of Speed with the cars they provided. Starting off small with the 720S which is their top Super Series car at the moment but not too special in comparison to what else was there. Next along was the 600LT Spider, the convertible version of the ultimate McLaren supercar seen to be the best supercar on the market at this time next to the brand new McLaren GT which fills a gap in the McLaren brand of the grand tourer. The gold paint colour sold it for me as well as the sleek lines and the comparisons that can be drawn to the new Speedtail (also in attendance elsewhere). Here's where the line gets really special with a certain hypercar trio beginning with the McLaren Senna, although the same as the one featured last year, it is always a sight to see one of these beasts. But it's nowhere as beastly as the blue and chrome McLaren Senna GTR next to it. This is the first time the Senna GTR has been seen in the UK and heard in the UK too as it took to the hill across the weekend. Honestly it's such a spectacle to even see this car in the flesh, let alone to see it burn rubber and speed up the hill at full throttle. McLaren finished off with a volcano yellow McLaren P1 which is one of the early press cars still owned by McLaren. Moving on from McLaren to Mercedes who brought two iterations of the AMG GTR, the Roadster and the Pro which I saw once and was excited once but then never went back as although they have presence and look insane, they didn't stand out significantly enough to go back to them. The next car I did go back to, a lot. This is the Pagani Zonda R, the fastest Zonda ever made, the most track focused Zonda ever made and the most prolific Zonda ever made. Holding the Top Gear lap record for many years and the Nordschliefe lap record for many years, banned at many circuits with sound restrictions and only ever really driven at events or Italian circuits such as Monza or Imola. This was really a sight to see and to hear at FOS. Porsche put in a decent showing with the new 718 Cayman GT4, the production 911 Speedster after last years concept and the Porsche 935 built to celebrate the historic racing car. It was not Porsche who won the Porsche cars funnily enough, it was the modifiers of Porsches who won me over. First Lanzante who took a Porsche 911 930 from 1986 and fitted it with a McLaren Formula One engine, then there was TechArt who took a normal 991.2 GT3 RS and added lots of marble carbon to create the £350,000 GTStreet RS. Finally was Singer who had a 1989 and 1990 Porsche 911 with their restomod design to round off the Porsches. Finally of the paddock were two interesting supercars starting with the French Prato Orage based on a Corvette chassis with 800hp from a supercharged 8.1 litre V8. The final car is the W Motors Fenyr Supersport which has diamonds infused in the headlamps and just looks like the most 'Dubai billionaire' car I have ever seen.
Overall these two sections of FOS were absolutely superb and I have no idea how it can get any better in all honesty.
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