Horseless to Hybrid
The Goodwood Festival of Speed covers the history of motoring pretty comprehensively every year. For the 2024 edition, the event organisers made a point of emphasising this fact with the Horseless to Hybrid main theme. Spread over five classes, the dawn of motoring with a steam-engined Salvesen Wagonette and the propeller driven Leycat through to the most recent electric and hybrid racers were highlighted. In addition to the main theme, 2024 Goodwood Festival of Speed also celebrated 130 years Mercedes-Benz motorsport, 100 years of MG, the 50th anniversary of Shadow's Can-Am win, the life of Niki Lauda, 40 years since Joest Racing's first Le Mans win and 20 years of Red Bull Racing. Away from the hill-climb, numerous cars celebrated their world debut and a colourful mix of show cars took part in the annual Cartier Style et Luxe Concours d'Elegance. Founding sponsor Bonhams held their annual sale and grossed close to £11 million.
Our photographers spent four days around Goodwood House to capture all the highlights, which have been compiled in this class-by-class 210-shot gallery.

Cartier Style & Luxe Concours d'Elegance
A total of seven classes were included in this year's Cartier Style & Luxe Concours d'Elegance. Taking centre stage was the venerable Bugatti Type 57 that was produced in a variety of versions between 1934 and 1940. At that time, it was the only model produced by Bugatti and derivatives also won Le Mans twice. Eight examples were on display, including several of the rare Sourbaissé or low chassis variants. It was no surprise that a Type 57 S was chosen as 'best of show' by the celebrity judges. The pick of the litter was the Corsica Roadster bodied example that has had just two owners since 1969. Also celebrated was the 20th anniversary of the Pagani Zonda. The line-up included several early models but also the 'Attack' that was completely rebuilt for its current owner by the factory just last year, long after production had stopped. The recently passed-away design genius Marcello Gandini was honoured with two classes; one with Lamborghinis only and the other with the 'regular' production cars penned by the Italian. The latter included anything from a Volkswagen Polo and Citroën BX to the Maserati Khamsin and Alfa Romeo Montreal. The other classes covered early Rolls-Royces, beach cars and farm tractors from major manufacturers.

Anniversaries
The central feature in front of Goodwood House was reserved this year for MG, which celebrates the company's 100th anniversary year. Sculptor Gerry Judah created an arrow pointing west and east with an MGB and Cyberster on either end. This is a nod to the British manufacturer's current Chinese ownership. On 'track', MG was represented by several iconic models like the K3 Magnette raced successfully in period by Tazio Nuvolari and a 6R4 Group B rally car.
Some suggest the first motor race was staged when the second automobile was produced, which means that the Mercedes-Benz company was involved from very early on. They were and this year the German manufacturer marks 130 years of motorsport. A striking selection of historic Mercedes and Benz racing cars were lined up for the celebration, which included the 1908 French Grand Prix winning Mercedes, the freshly restored 1924 Targa Florio winner and a choice of Formula 1, Group C and GT silver arrows. Also part of the display was the reconstruction of the famous 300 SL-based transporter.
A particularly poignant celebration was the 50th anniversary of the first World Championship win for Niki Lauda. The legendary Austrian, who passed away five years ago, was represented by an eclectic mix of competition cars he campaigned during his hugely successful career.

Joest Racing
Established in 1978, Joest Racing is the most successful team that raced at Le Mans during the last five decades. Originally running Porsches as a privateer, the Reinhold Joest-led organisation was later associated with manufacturers like Audi and Bentley. Between 1984 and 2013, the German team won the race outright a remarkable 16 times. Now well in his eighties, Joest himself was at Goodwood to celebrate this unique achievement with the occasion being the 40th anniversary of the team's first Le Mans win. That very car, a Porsche 956, was on hand and demonstrated every day by its current custodian. In 1984, the Porsche works team did not race at Le Mans but they were back the following year. That did not matter much for the result as the very same Joest Racing 956 scored an outright victory again. Another double winner was the fascinating TWR Porsche WSC-95 that crossed the line first at Le Mans in both 1996 and 1997. The car had actually started life as one of the 1991 World Sports Car Championship winning Jaguar XJR-14 Group C cars. The roof was chopped off and a flat bottom was fitted for the 1995 Daytona 24 Hours but the car was never raced there due to unfavourable rules. Joest Racing reckoned it could do a great job at Le Mans and requested to run the car for Porsche with back-to-back wins as the result. At Goodwood, it was reunited with Le Mans winning driver Stefan Johansson. Also on hand at Goodwood was the 2002 Le Mans winning Bentley and the Joest-run Audi R8 LMS that was driven to outright victory in the 2011 Bathurst 12 Hours.

Shadow Racing
Perhaps the biggest star of the 2024 Goodwood Festival of Speed was American collector and Shadow enthusiast Jim Bartel. He brought over his fantastic collection of Shadow Racing cars to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Jackie Oliver winning the Can-Am Championship in a Shadow DN4. Bartel's collection was complemented by additional cars from other collections. As a result, the dedicated Shadow class featured almost the complete range of sports cars and single seaters produced under the leadership of the mysterious Don Nicholls. Reportedly a secret service agent in a previous life, Nicholls initially favoured unusual designs, which makes the early Shadows particularly interesting. Tiny wheels, big radiator mounted wings and a cramped driving position looked good on paper but it was not until the more conventional DN4 that Shadows became truly successful. Not only did the Anglo-American cars win in Can-Am, a Grand Prix victory was also scored. Still able to fit in his original racing suit, Jackie Oliver was on hand to drive the very DN4 that had brought him the championship in 1974. Run by ERA Motorsport, the other cars from the Bartel collection were driven by the likes of Damon Hill, Rick Knoop, Jake Hill and Marino Franchitti. Bartel had emphasised to 'his' drivers that everybody at Goodwood should remember the Shadows, which was taken to heart by Jake Hill in particular with spirited drives in the bright red Shadow Mk1.

Supercar Run
Not only does the Goodwood Festival of Speed look back at the rich history of motoring, the present and the future also take centre stage with the 'First Glance' and 'Supercar' groups. The supercar group, in particular, is a favourite as it often represents the very first time the latest high-performance models are driven in public. This was certainly the case for the Aston Martin Valiant, which was developed by the British manufacturer especially for Formula 1 driver Fernando Alonso. Appropriately, he was on-hand at Goodwood and demonstrated the car, which was liveried in the colours of the legendary V8 Vantage RHAM/1 racer. Also attracting a lot of attention were the gloriously howling Gordon Murray Automotive models with Dario Franchitti fittingly demonstrating the latest track-focused 'Niki Lauda' model. Another racing legend, Mika Häkkinen, was seen out in the McLaren Solus GT that was painted in the same colours as the McLarens he raced to the Formula 1 World Championship in 1998 and 1999. Ferrari was also out in force with the line-up including the one-off SP-8 and the track-only 499P Modificata, which is derived directly from the 2023 and 2024 Le Mans winning 499P Hypercar.

Final thoughts
After four days of nearly non-stop action, another memorable Goodwood Festival of Speed came to a close. In the timed shoot-out, it was Romain Dumas who won once more, this time piloting the all-electric Ford SuperVan 4.2. A class winner at Pikes Peak, the 2,000 bhp machine defied physics to conquer the hill in a mere 43.98 seconds. The dates have already been set for the 2025 edition but to help you through the year-long wait, we have compiled a 210-shot gallery with all the stars from 2024.