► All the important new cars to see at the FOS ► Mix of world, European and UK debuts ► Everything from hypercars to electric hot hatches
The Goodwood Festival of Speed is back and with it comes a vast array of important new car launches to see from the world’s automotive manufacturers. Growing in popularity each year, it’s become one of the UK’s biggest automotive events, and while it might be known for its legendary motorsport activities, it’s as much about the new cars these days.
With around 200,000 attending the Festival of Speed over the course of the four days it runs (July 9 to 12), it’s become a popular event for manufacturers to showcase their latest new metal.
With everything from electric SUVs to track-only hypercars making their debut at this year’s event, it’s one of the busiest in some time in terms of new cars. Here are the ones to look out for.
With production ending of the petrol Alpine A110 at the end of June 2026, the French firm, renowned for its lightweight sports cars, is moving to a bold new era that’ll include plenty of EVs.
Alpine has teased the upcoming electric A110 for some time, but the firm will be using Goodwood to show off a new development car. Called the A110 Future for now, the heavily camouflaged mule looks to use bodywork from the outgoing A110, but should provide some more clues to this exciting new electric sports car.
Audi shocked the world at last month’s Monaco Grand Prix with the reveal of the Nuvolari supercar, an indirect hybrid successor to the R8, but with the heat turned up to 10.
Based to some degree on the Lamborghini Temerario, the Nuvolari is one of the coolest Audi designs in years, and it will be exceptionally limited – only 499 will be made. It’s one to look out for at this year’s Festival of Speed, where it’s taking on the famous hillclimb.
The wildest Bentley sports car in years, the new Supersports, will be taking to the Goodwood hill alongside the latest special editions from the firm.
The Supersport might look like a Continental GT but there’s a lot more to it than that. It loses the hybrid powertrain of the standard car in favour of pure V8 combustion, moves to rear-wheel-drive and is the closest thing yet to a ‘GT3’ Bentley.
BMW usually goes big at Goodwood and this year’s event is no different. Headlining the stand is the new ‘M Concept Neue Klasse’, which previews a new all-electric M3. It’s being shown as part of a wider celebration of 40 years of the M3.
Also on show is the new BMW X5, including the electric iX5, fresh from its reveal only a week ago.
Goodwood has become a popular place for Chinese car brands to show off their latest new metal, and this year will be no different. Possibly the biggest reveal of them comes from BYD’s premium brand Denza, which has shown off its new Z sports car, which is a three-motor electric coupe with four seats and is capable of a 217mph top speed. It had its global reveal at the Festival, and is essentially a hard-top version of the Z convertible shown earlier this year in China.
Additional BYD models, such as the Shark pick-up and Defender-rivalling Bao 5, also made their European debut, while the firm’s premium marque Yangwang has the U9 Xtreme, currently the world’s fastest road car, doing runs up the hillclimb.
While nothing new is being shown by Gordon Murray Automotive (GMA) at this year’s Festival of Speed, the event has the first public showing for the S1 LM.
It’s the closest that GMA has got yet to recreating the original F1, with the GTR-lookalike being limited to just five cars, and they’ve all been sold to the same person.
US Porsche tuner Gunther Werks is at the Festival of Speed and it’s looking to try and take the hillclimb record with its new Project F-26, which draws inspiration from the Porsche 935 Slantnose.
Former F1 driver Scott Speed will be behind the wheel as the firm contests the record with its new 1,052bhp creation.
Hennessey is back at the Festival of Speed this year showing perhaps its maddest creation yet – the Venom F5-M. That ‘M’ at the end is a crucial distinction as it uses a gated six-speed manual gearbox, and with more than 2000bhp, it’s the most powerful manual hypercar.
A UK buyer is the owner of Chassis 1, and it’s this car that is going up the hillclimb with Alex Brundle (son of Martin) behind the wheel.
Jaguar continues to tease its radical new Type 01 as the firm gears up for a reveal later in 2026, but the firm promises that the car it has at the Festival of Speed will be wearing its lightest camouflage and ‘give the clearest indication of its design direction yet’.
A prototype of the Type 01 is also taking to the Goodwood hillclimb for the first time, and is likely to be one of the most controversial cars at this year’s event.
If you were starting to think Goodwood was ignoring big SUVs at this year’s Festival of Speed, fear not as Lamborghini has its new Urus SE Performante on show at this year’s event.
It’s the fastest Urus yet, with its 4.0-litre V8 hybrid powertrain now putting out more than 800bhp. Lamborghini also boasts it has the most carbon-fibre body parts of any SUV. Know your audience, etc.
McLaren 788HS
The McLaren 788HS represents the end of an era for the British firm as the final car in the ‘Super Series’ as we know it, with McLaren’s new owners promising more electrified models.
In comparison, the 788HS is old-school, with its twin-turbo V8 putting out 777bhp (or 788 metric horsepower), allowing a 2.8-second 0-62mph time. It’s also equipped with a wild aerodynamics package, and is limited to just 200 cars: 100 Coupes and 100 Spiders.
McMurtry has history at Goodwood, with a prototype of its wild Speirling setting the Festival of Speed’s hillclimb record back in 2022, a record that looks virtually impossible to beat.
McMurtry is back this year with the final production version of its track-only Speirling, with a considerably bigger battery (100kWh, up from 60kWh), improved regenerative braking and a better cooling system. It’s certainly one to look out for at Goodwood.
Mercedes-AMG CLA 45
Another important world debut at this year’s FOS is the Mercedes-AMG CLA 45. Moving from petrol to electric power for this new generation, it shares plenty of technology with the AMG GT 4-Door, the firm’s first electric AMG, and with its three Yasa-sourced axial flux motors, delivers an almighty 671bhp and a 0-62mph time of 2.7 seconds. Worth remembering that this is essentially the ‘entry-level’ AMG model…
You can still get it as a Saloon or Shooting Brake, while AMG is hoping to dial up the fun with a sports sound that exactly replicates that of the old petrol CLA 45.
MG Go! Concept
MG is showing off two important new concept cars at this year’s Festival of Speed, both of which preview important new cars arriving in the future. The first, the ‘Cyber Concept’ hints at a more stylish and larger performance SUV, but the car we’re really interested in is the Go! Concept.
It’s a close look at the new Renault 5-sized MG2 electric supermini due in 2027, and is one of MG’s first proper attempts at retro design. If the production model looks anything like this sporty-looking concept, we can see it doing well.
One of the most hyped electric cars of recent years is undoubtedly the Renault 5 and its wild Turbo 3E hot hatch stablemate.
While a prototype version of the 3E has gone up the hill previously, this year Renault is showing off the full production version ahead of its wild 555bhp hot hatch, with first deliveries starting in 2027.
The Range Rover Electric is the car that seemingly never gets any closer (it should have first arrived in 2024), but it FINALLY seems to be getting nearer, with the new EV being previewed publicly for the first time at this year’s Festival of Speed in production spec.
That said, with the electric version not set to look much different from the ICE models, there probably won’t be too many differences to look out for.
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