Goodwood’s Festival of Speed ran from 9 to 12 July this year, with the estate handed over to Singer and its reimagined 911s. Look past the crowds and the SPF 50 and one theme ran the length of the hill: petrol taking its bow while electric cars quietly rewrote the record books. For the first time in the event’s history, battery cars took both top spots in the timed shoot-out. A few yards down the lawn, McLaren was sending off its last non-hybrid V8. That tension, between the engines we grew up loving and the silent machines now beating them on the clock, is the real story of Goodwood 2026. Here are the ten cars that told it best.
Alpine A110 Future
The current A110 has been turning heads for close to a decade, and it has earned every one of them, from the featherweight base car to the track-focused F1 and WEC specials. Now Alpine is turning the page. The A110 Future prototype ran up the hill in the hands of Pierre Gasly, and it previews the next-generation, all-electric car. The familiar silhouette is still there, wrapped around a visibly wider stance, but the important change is underneath: this sits on Alpine’s new 800-volt Performance Platform, with an aluminium structure and a dual rear-motor layout meant to keep the A110’s lightness of touch intact once the combustion engine goes. Alpine has not released power or performance figures for the prototype, which is fair enough for a development mule. The electric sports car fight, against the MG Cyberster and whatever survives of Porsche’s on-again, off-again electric Cayman, has properly begun, and Alpine has put down an early marker.
Bentley Flying Spur S
Bentley brought its largest ever Goodwood presence this year, and while the crowd gravitated to the drama of the new rear-wheel-drive Continental GT Supersports, the more telling car for luxury buyers sat quietly in the First Glance paddock. This is the new Flying Spur, and the S is the pick of the range. Crewe has dropped the old four-lamp face for a single headlamp each side, the first time a Bentley saloon has worn single front lamps since 1962, bringing it into line with the latest Continental GT.
The W12 is now history. In its place sits a 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 paired with an electric motor for a combined 671 bhp (680 PS) and 930 Nm, driving through an eight-speed dual-clutch gearbox and active all-wheel drive. The S also gets an electronic limited-slip differential, a first for the badge. It is a shade over 2.5 tonnes, yet it will reach 60 mph in 3.6 seconds. Production starts at Crewe in September, with first deliveries expected early in the fourth quarter.
Honda Prelude HRC Concept
Ever since Honda revived the Prelude as a hybrid coupe, one question has followed it around: where is the hot version? At Goodwood, Honda Racing Corporation gave a partial answer. The Prelude HRC Concept, first shown at the Tokyo Auto Salon in January, made its world-first dynamic run up the hill, driven by Jessica Hawkins.
This is more than a sticker pack. HRC has added a fixed rear wing that stands almost as tall as the roof, a carbon front splitter, carbon side skirts and a proper rear diffuser, then widened the arches to cover a broader track and 265-section tyres in place of the standard 235s, with the ride height dropped to suit. Honda has said nothing at all about power or mechanical changes, so for now this is an aerodynamic and bodywork study rather than a new performance model. What it signals is more interesting than the car itself: a future tier of HRC road-car parts sitting above today’s Type R and Type S.
Porsche Taycan Turbo GT with Manthey Kit
A Manthey badge used to mean the loudest, most focused petrol 911s in Porsche’s range. Not any more. The Manthey Kit for the Taycan Turbo GT with Weissach Package is the first Manthey has built for an electric car, and it turns the fastest Taycan into a circuit weapon. It made its public debut on the hill at Goodwood, and watching it corner in person tells you more than any spec sheet.
The aero does the heavy lifting, with canards, extended skirts, fender louvres and an adjustable rear wing more than tripling downforce over the standard car. On the powertrain side, maximum battery discharge climbs to 1,300 amps. System output rises to 804 bhp, with Attack Mode summoning up to 978 bhp for short bursts and launch control unlocking a full 1,019 bhp. To prove the point, development driver Lars Kern lapped the Nürburgring Nordschleife in 6 minutes 55.5 seconds, a time certified by a notary at the track. That is more than nine seconds inside the previous Electric Executive Cars class record set by the Xiaomi SU7 Ultra, and twelve seconds quicker than Kern’s own benchmark in the standard Taycan Turbo GT Weissach.
Lamborghini Urus SE Performante
When the plug-in hybrid Urus SE arrived, it left a question mark over the hardcore Performante badge. Goodwood answered it. The Urus SE Performante made its first public appearance here, static on the stand in Giallo Crius and running the hill in Verde Hydra. It wears the usual Performante weight-saving cues, a carbon bonnet, reworked bumpers and extended side skirts, but the headline is the powertrain. By tightening the integration between the 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 and the electric motor, Lamborghini has lifted combined output to 812 CV (801 bhp) and 1,000 Nm, making this the most powerful production Urus yet.
Lamborghini has not yet published acceleration or top speed figures for the Performante. For reference, the standard SE is quoted by Lamborghini at 3.4 seconds to 62 mph and 312 km/h, which is 194 mph, so expect the Performante to shade the sprint by a tenth or so. Treat any specific figure as an estimate until Sant’Agata confirms one. On price, the SE currently sits at around £208,000 in the UK, and a Performante premium in the region of 10 per cent would be in keeping with how Lamborghini has positioned the badge before, though nothing official has been announced.
McLaren 788HS
The era that began with the 720S in 2017 is over, and Woking has sent it off with a sledgehammer. The 788HS is only the third road car to wear the High Sport name, after the 2012 12C HS (five built) and the 2016 688 HS (twenty-five built), and every one of the 200 cars will be finished by McLaren Special Operations, so no two need be alike.
The M840T 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 is up to 777 bhp, enough for 0 to 60 mph in 2.8 seconds and a 205 mph top speed. The aero is the real story: an S-duct bonnet, a multi-zone front splitter, an active rear wing and an F1-style diffuser combine for 10 per cent more downforce than the 765LT, a figure McLaren says it verified in a Formula 1 wind tunnel. Production is split 100 coupes and 100 Spiders, with prices expected in the £450,000s before options. Given the bespoke commissioning, most will cost a good deal more.
Mercedes-AMG GT 4-Door
Purists may want to sit down. This is the first ground-up electric AMG, and it does without the V8 entirely. Revealed in May and shown at Goodwood, the new GT 4-Door is the production version of the wild AMG GT XX concept, built on the bespoke AMG.EA platform with a trio of YASA axial-flux motors, a first for a series-production car. Peak output is 805 bhp in the GT55 and 1,153 bhp in the GT63, fed by a 106 kWh battery good for around 285 miles on the WLTP cycle and capable of charging at more than 600 kW, which is enough for 10 to 80 per cent in roughly eleven minutes.
The acceleration claims need a caveat. Mercedes has quoted 0 to 60 mph in as little as 2.0 seconds, while reported figures for the individual variants sit nearer 2.3 seconds for the GT63 and 2.4 for the GT55, so the headline number looks like a best-case launch rather than an everyday one. Mercedes has not published a kerb weight or a top speed for the car, and it is a heavy machine by any measure, so we have left both out rather than guess. Either way, it is the GT XX made real, and if you can live without the exhaust note it may be the new performance saloon benchmark.
Renault 5 Turbo 3E
If you doubted that an EV could carry real soul, spend a minute with this. The production Renault 5 Turbo 3E is a proper homage to the mid-engined rally specials of the 1980s, right down to a run limited to 1,980 numbered cars, a nod to the original’s 1980 debut. It swaps combustion for a rear-wheel-drive layout with two in-wheel motors making 555 hp, and thanks to a full carbon body it weighs just 1,450 kg. That is good for 0 to 62 mph in under 3.5 seconds and a 167 mph top speed.
Inside there is a rally-style vertical handbrake for the theatre and Renault’s OpenR displays for the everyday. Renault’s UK site now lists it from £140,000 excluding options, up from the £135,000 introductory price offered to the first 500 reservation holders. That is a startling sum for a Renault 5, but as a low-volume, heavily personalised collector’s piece, nothing else quite compares.
Denza Z
From a mini rally hero to a full-scale supercar. The Denza Z is the first supercar from BYD’s premium Denza brand, and it made its public debut at Goodwood, with Jenson Button among those driving it. It is a genuinely striking thing, and it has the numbers to match the looks. A tri-motor setup produces 1,180 kW, which is 1,582 bhp, or 1,604 PS in metric terms, and that output is the same across all three variants.
The coupe reaches 100 km/h in 2.25 seconds on Denza’s own figures; the Racing, on optional semi-slicks, cuts that to 1.96 seconds and tops out at 217 mph. It still manages a 254-mile WLTP range, carbon-ceramic brakes and space for four, so it is not a pure track toy. The 76 kWh battery will take a 10 to 97 per cent charge in about nine minutes on a suitable 1,500 kW charger. UK prices are £142,900 for the coupe, £159,900 for the Spider and £172,900 for the Racing, which is to say less than a new Porsche 911 Turbo S.
Lexus LFA Concept
Last year the hill saw the twin-turbo V8 Toyota GR GT concept. This year Toyota brought the near-production GR GT and, alongside it, the uncamouflaged Lexus LFA Concept, its European outing after a December 2025 unveiling in Japan. This is the electric twin of the GR GT, sharing the same aluminium spaceframe, but where the Toyota keeps its V8, the Lexus trades the old car’s V10 heritage for electric motors. It is expected to be the first production Lexus to use next-generation solid-state batteries, which promise far greater energy density than today’s packs.
Lexus is deliberately saying nothing about performance. No power output, no acceleration claim, no range figure has been published, and the company has confirmed only that the production car is close to design sign-off. Anyone quoting hard numbers for this car at the moment is guessing. What Lexus has been willing to talk about is feel: the programme’s general manager has said the aim is to redesign the sound of a performance car rather than synthesise a V10, which tells you more about the car’s ambitions than a 0 to 62 time would. Following the greatest-sounding supercar ever built is a tall order, and Lexus seems to know it.
