An electric Ford ran to the top of the Goodwood hill quicker than anything else in the field, and for the first time in the event’s history, battery cars claimed both of the top two spots in the Timed Shoot-Out. A few hundred yards down the lawn, McLaren pulled the covers off the last non-hybrid V8 it plans to build. The 2026 Festival of Speed, held July 9 through 12 on the Goodwood Estate in West Sussex, spent four days staging exactly that contrast. Combustion took its bows. Electricity rewrote the timing sheets.
That tension runs through the festival every summer, but 2026 sharpened it. Headline reveals split cleanly down the middle. On one side sat a run of naturally aspirated and turbocharged holdouts building toward a farewell, led by McLaren’s 777-horsepower 788HS and a 2,031-horsepower Hennessey with a gated manual. On the other sat the electric Lexus LFA Concept, a Ford demonstrator making more than 1,400 horsepower, and a wave of battery hardware from Hyundai, Renault, Alpine, and China’s Denza.
Presiding over all of it, from a plinth normally reserved for century-old marques, was a Californian company that builds reimagined Porsche 911s by hand.
Key Takeaways
- McLaren 788HS: 777 bhp, 200 units, positioned as the brand’s final non-hybrid V8. McLaren has not published a price.
- Ford Super Mustang Mach-E won the Timed Shoot-Out with Romain Dumas driving, and electric cars took the top two positions for the first time. The all-time hill record still belongs to the 2022 McMurtry.
- Singer Vehicle Design became the first boutique builder chosen as the Central Feature, the sculpture in front of Goodwood House.
- Electric Lexus LFA Concept appeared at Goodwood. Its “engine” note is synthesized, a simulated V10 paired with virtual gears, not a real powertrain sound.
- Audi Nuvolari arrived as the 987-hp hybrid successor to the R8, capped at 499 cars.
- Hyundai’s “Aero Hatch,” the Ioniq 3, debuted but will not be sold in the United States. The high-performance Ioniq 6 N ran the hill alongside it.
- Hypercar power figures ran from 777 bhp to the 2,031-bhp Hennessey Venom F5-M, billed as the world’s most powerful manual car.
The Setting: “The Rivals” and Singer on the Plinth
Goodwood built its 2026 program around a theme it called “The Rivals,” a nod to the paddock duels that defined motorsport eras. The framing gave the organizers license to park old adversaries next to each other on the hill and let the crowd sort out the history.
The larger statement stood on the lawn. Every year the estate commissions a sculpture in front of Goodwood House and hands the honor to a single marque. Ferrari has had it. So have Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, and Lotus, companies measured in decades and world championships. For 2026 the estate gave the plinth to Singer Vehicle Design, the Los Angeles shop that restores and re-engineers air-cooled Porsche 911s for owners willing to wait years and pay accordingly.
Artist Gerry Judah suspended three Singer-reimagined 911s on a triple arch above the drive, a Classic, a Classic Turbo, and the track-focused DLS. It marked the first time a specialist builder rather than a century-old manufacturer took the spot. Rob Dickinson, the former Catherine Wheel frontman who founded Singer, framed it in personal terms. “Singer has grown up at Goodwood, which has become a second home to us,” he said, crediting the Duke of Richmond for the first invitation back in 2015. 2026 marked the company’s eleventh straight appearance at the event.
The choice reads as a marker of where enthusiast money and attention have moved. A restomod house now commands the same real estate once reserved for Le Mans winners.
Tier One: The Headline Hypercars
At the top end, the reveal list ran deep enough that a 987-horsepower Audi struggled to be the loudest car in its own paddock. Power was not the differentiator. The stories underneath the numbers were.
McLaren 788HS: The Last V8 Send-Off
McLaren opened the festival on July 9 with the 788HS, its first all-new car since 2024 and, by the company’s own account, the definitive close to its second-generation Super Series. Its name encodes the output. 788 refers to the metric figure of 788 PS, which converts to 777 bhp in American terms. Those badge letters stand for High Sport, making this the third McLaren road car to carry the HS designation, after the 12C-based High Sport of 2012 and the 675LT-derived MSO special of 2016.
The 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 sends 777 bhp and 590 lb-ft of torque to the rear wheels through forged internals, low-inertia twin-scroll turbochargers, and a second fuel pump added to feed the top of the rev range. McLaren quotes 2.8 seconds to 60 mph, a 205-mph top speed, and a 10.1-second quarter mile for the coupe. Dry weight sits at 1,265 kg, or 2,789 pounds, which is the number that matters more than the horsepower. Downforce climbs about 10 percent over the outgoing 750S, and the ride height drops five millimeters.
Production stops at 200 cars, split into 100 coupes and 100 Spiders. McLaren has not announced pricing, and estimates from the specialist press scatter widely, from roughly $400,000 to $600,000 before options, with a Special Operations build capable of passing a million dollars once the catalog opens up. One documented option, a gold-plated engine heat shield, runs into the tens of thousands on its own. McLaren described the car as an “extraordinary finale” that “distills nearly a decade of engineering development into its most complete and uncompromising form.” Read past the press language and the point holds: this is the last McLaren V8 that answers to nothing but itself, no hybrid assist, no electric motor filling the low end. First deliveries follow later in 2026.
Audi Nuvolari: The R8 Replacement Nobody Expected to Be a Hybrid
Audi ended the R8 in 2024 and left a hole where its supercar used to be. The Nuvolari fills it with a different philosophy. Named for pre-war racing great Tazio Nuvolari, the car pairs a twin-turbo 4.0-liter V8 making 788 hp with three axial-flux electric motors, each contributing around 148 hp, for a combined 987 hp. Audi claims 2.7 seconds to 60 mph and a 217-mph top speed.
It also breaks with Audi tradition in construction. This is the first customer Audi to use a carbon-fiber body rather than the aluminum spaceframe the brand made its name on. Production caps at 499 examples with orders opening in the first half of 2027. Underneath, it borrows heavily from Lamborghini’s hybrid V8 architecture, which places it in the same family as the Temerario and gives Audi a genuine flagship again.
Hennessey Venom F5-M: A Gated Manual Making 2,031 Horsepower
One reveal paired the wildest power figure of the weekend with the most old-fashioned interface. Hennessey brought the Venom F5-M, a version of its Texas-built hypercar fitted with a six-speed manual and an exposed gated shifter. That 6.6-liter twin-turbo V8 makes 2,031 bhp, which Hennessey says makes this the most powerful manual-transmission car in the world. The claim is hard to argue with. Nothing else combines a clutch pedal with four-figure output at that level. Hennessey plans to build 12, priced from about $2.65 million.
For an American audience the F5-M carries extra weight. It comes out of Sealy, Texas, not Modena or Woking, and it plants a flag for a domestic builder in a field dominated by European names and Danish upstarts.
Zenvo Aurora, Gordon Murray, and the Fan Car
Denmark’s Zenvo ran the Aurora, a hypercar built around a 6.6-liter quad-turbo V12 paired with three electric motors for a combined 1,850 hp. The company projects customer deliveries in the second half of 2027, so the Goodwood car remained a prototype making its case in public.
Gordon Murray Automotive used the hill to run the S1 LM, a track-and-road commission limited to five cars, alongside the T.33 Spider and a customer example of the T.50s named for Niki Lauda. Pagani brought the Huayra 70 Derecho, an open-top special with an 852-hp V12 and a claimed 217.5-mph top speed. And McMurtry returned with the Spéirling Pure, the production version of its fan car. Roughly 1,000 hp in a package under 2,200 pounds, a claimed 0-60 near 1.55 seconds, and a fan system that manufactures downforce at a standstill. Its predecessor still holds the outright hill record, which becomes relevant further down this page.
The Numbers, Side by Side
| Car | Powertrain | Peak power | Production | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hennessey Venom F5-M | 6.6L twin-turbo V8, manual | 2,031 bhp | Limited | In production |
| Zenvo Aurora | 6.6L quad-turbo V12 + 3 motors | 1,850 hp | Limited | Deliveries H2 2027 |
| Denza Z Coupe | Electric, tri-motor | 1,500 hp | TBC | Prototype |
| McMurtry Spéirling Pure | Electric, fan downforce | ~1,000 hp | Limited | In production |
| Audi Nuvolari | 4.0L twin-turbo V8 + 3 motors | 987 hp | 499 | Orders H1 2027 |
| Pagani Huayra 70 Derecho | Twin-turbo V12 | 852 hp | Limited | Revealed |
| McLaren 788HS | 4.0L twin-turbo V8 | 777 bhp | 200 | Deliveries H2 2026 |
Tier Two: The Electric Debuts
The battery contingent at Goodwood 2026 was not a token presence off to the side. It ran the hill, set the fastest time of the weekend, and previewed two of the most anticipated performance cars in development anywhere.
The Electric Lexus LFA: Correcting the Sound Question
The original Lexus LFA, built from 2010 to 2012, remains one of the finest-sounding cars ever made. Its 4.8-liter V10 revved so fast that Lexus fitted an analog tachometer needle that could not keep up, and Yamaha helped tune the intake to sing. So when the electric LFA Concept, a battery sports-car study Lexus first showed in December 2025, arrived at Goodwood, the sound was the first thing everyone asked about.
Here the coverage needs a correction. Reports circulating after the debut suggested the electric LFA uses “real” engine sound. It does not. According to evo, the car pairs virtual gears, similar to the trick Hyundai uses in the Ioniq 5 N, with a synthesized engine note “clearly based on that of the original LFA’s screaming 4.8-litre V10.” People who saw it move described it as eerily quiet in person, with no genuine mechanical voice. Lexus says the concept will “completely redefine the sound of an electric sports car,” which is marketing for a good speaker system, not a combustion engine.
Lexus stayed tight-lipped on the concept’s hardware. Numbers enthusiasts keep repeating, a twin-motor all-wheel-drive layout, a range near 434 miles, and a 0-62 time in the low two-second range, remain unofficial rather than anything Lexus has confirmed. What the company has shown points to an aluminum structure, steer-by-wire, and a yoke fitted with an “F-mode” dial, on a platform that shares aspirations and core technology with the combustion Toyota GR GT.
The GR GT arrives in 2027, and the electric LFA follows it.
Hyundai Ioniq 6 N and the “Aero Hatch” America Doesn’t Get
Hyundai brought two contrasting electric cars to the hill. One, the Ioniq 6 N, first revealed in 2025, made its dynamic hillclimb debut, following the Ioniq 5 N that reset expectations for what a battery car could do with virtual gears and a simulated exhaust. It makes up to 641 hp with its N Grin Boost engaged and runs from zero to 62 mph in 3.2 seconds. That 6 N is the more relevant of the two for American buyers, and Hyundai positioned it as a benchmark for the segment.
The car that drew the “Aero Hatch” headlines is a different matter. That name is Hyundai’s design label, drawn from its Concept Three, and the production car wearing it is the Ioniq 3, a compact electric hatchback. Entry versions make 145 hp and 184 lb-ft from a single front motor, with up to 214 miles of range and a slippery 0.263 drag coefficient. Hyundai builds it in Izmit, Turkey, runs Android Automotive through its new Pleos Connect system, and has guided pricing to under £25,000 in Britain, a little over $30,000 converted.
American readers should hold the enthusiasm. The Ioniq 3 is not coming to the United States. Hyundai has earmarked it for Europe and Australia, which leaves it as one more efficient, affordable EV hatch that the American market does not receive.
Renault, Alpine, and Denza
Renault ran the 5 Turbo 3E, an electric homage to the mid-engine rally hatch of the 1980s. Two in-wheel motors at the rear produce a combined output that sources place between 533 and 547 hp, and Renault fitted a hydraulic handbrake for the express purpose of encouraging drifts. Alpine used the festival to preview its next electric sports car on a fresh performance platform, with an 800-volt architecture, dual rear motors, and an aluminum chassis. And Denza, the sub-brand under China’s BYD, showed the Z Coupe, a tri-motor electric two-seater making a claimed 1,500 hp. The Denza sat within a large Chinese performance presence at the show, a reminder that the pressure on European hypercar makers now comes from Shenzhen as much as Stuttgart.
Tier Three: The Hillclimb, Where EVs Took the Top Two
The Timed Shoot-Out closes the festival. Its fastest cars from the weekend run the 1.16-mile hill one final time, flat out, for the best time. In 2026 the result made history in a way the record books had not seen.
Romain Dumas won in the Ford Super Mustang Mach-E, an electric demonstrator wearing a nameplate Americans know from their local Ford lot. His time came in at 41.98 seconds, clocked at 41.97 by some outlets, and it earned Dumas his fifth career Shoot-Out victory and Ford a third straight win. Behind him, Dan Ticktum put a prototype Gen4 Formula E car into second at just over 42 seconds.
The finish marked the first time electric cars locked out the top two positions in the Shoot-Out.
Fastest of the combustion runners was Alex Summers, third in a Shadow-Chevrolet DN4 Can-Am car from the 1970s at 46.31 seconds. The margin was not close. More than four seconds separated the quickest gas-powered machine from the electric winner.
The Super Mustang Mach-E is not a car anyone can buy. It makes more than 1,400 hp from three motors, carries a 50-kWh battery, and recovers energy at up to 710 kW under braking. That same platform won the 2026 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, giving Dumas his sixth King of the Mountain title. It exists to demonstrate what Ford’s electric hardware can do, and at Goodwood it did.
One record survived. The outright hillclimb time still belongs to Max Chilton, who ran a McMurtry Spéirling fan car to 39.08 seconds in 2022. Dumas came within striking distance of the modern crowd but stayed some way off Chilton’s mark. Electricity owns the leaderboard now. It has not yet owned the record.
Tier Four: Curiosities and a Market Footnote
Below the headline reveals sat a deep layer of debuts worth a look. Honda brought a trio: the Prelude HRC Concept previewing a sharper version of its returning coupe, the Super-N electric hot hatch, and a CB1000F motorcycle ridden up the hill by three-time champion Freddie Spencer. Bentley displayed the Supersports Mulliner in a gradient paint finish. BMW ran hardware from its Neue Klasse rollout, including the new iX3 and a Neue Klasse M concept, plus an M2 with a track kit. Ferrari gave the 296 Speciale A, the 849 Testarossa, and a manual-transmission 12Cilindri their hillclimb debuts. Cupra showed the Raval, its small electric hatch, and Subaru pressed an E-Outback into service as a course safety car while previewing the Uncharted EV.
One widely shared story from the week deserves a boundary. Two Aston Martin Valhallas from a single owner surfaced on the resale market, each a 2026 car with fewer than 200 miles. Its yellow example listed with a reported original sticker north of $1.27 million, including more than $217,000 in options. This is not a Goodwood story. Both cars are headed to Mecum’s Monterey Car Week auction in August, and the timing overlapped with the festival. As a market signal, the 1,064-hp Valhalla, one of just 999 Aston will build, already has owners cashing out. As Goodwood news, it belongs in a footnote.
What Reaches the United States
For all the hardware on the hill, the American takeaway is narrower than the reveal count suggests. The McLaren 788HS looks US-bound, with a US configurator page already live, though McLaren had not formally confirmed American allocation at the debut. Hennessey’s Venom F5-M is American by birth. Ford’s Super Mustang Mach-E wears a US nameplate but stays a demonstrator, not a showroom car.
Hyundai’s Ioniq 3 is confirmed for Europe and Australia only. Audi’s Nuvolari, the Zenvo Aurora, and Toyota’s GR GT carry no confirmed US plans yet, though Audi and Toyota both sell heavily here and a domestic launch would surprise no one. The electric Lexus LFA remains far enough out that Lexus has not confirmed range or output for the concept; the 434-mile figure in circulation is unofficial, not an EPA rating. American enthusiasts get the halo cars and the headlines. That affordable, sensible electric hatchback goes to everyone else.
Bottom Line
Goodwood 2026 captured a specific moment. Combustion staged its farewells with conviction, from the 200-unit McLaren 788HS to a 2,031-horsepower Hennessey that still asks you to work a clutch. Meanwhile an electric Ford beat the entire field up the hill, and an electric Lexus LFA turned up with a synthesized voice standing in for one of the best engine notes ever built. The record still belongs to a combustion-era fan car. The winner’s circle no longer does.
Frequently Asked Questions
When was the 2026 Goodwood Festival of Speed?
The 2026 Festival of Speed ran July 9 through 12 at the Goodwood Estate in West Sussex, England. The event centers on a timed hillclimb up the estate’s 1.16-mile driveway and closes with the Timed Shoot-Out on the final day.
What is the McLaren 788HS?
The 788HS is a limited McLaren supercar revealed at Goodwood, built around a 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 making 777 bhp. McLaren describes it as the final send-off for its non-hybrid V8 and will build 200 examples, split evenly between coupe and Spider body styles. The name comes from its 788 PS metric output, and the HS badge stands for High Sport.
How much does the McLaren 788HS cost?
McLaren had not published an official price at the car’s debut. Estimates from the specialist press start around $600,000 before options, with fully specified builds through McLaren Special Operations capable of exceeding $1 million.
Is the electric Lexus LFA real, and does it sound like the original?
The electric LFA shown at Goodwood is a concept, not a production car, and its production timing sits after the 2027 Toyota GR GT. Its engine sound is synthesized, a digital re-creation loosely based on the original LFA’s V10 and paired with simulated gear shifts, rather than a genuine mechanical note. In person, observers described it as nearly silent.
Who won the Goodwood hillclimb in 2026?
Romain Dumas won the Timed Shoot-Out driving the electric Ford Super Mustang Mach-E with a time of 41.98 seconds, clocked at 41.97 by some outlets. It was his fifth career Shoot-Out win. Electric cars took the top two spots for the first time, with a Formula E prototype second.
Did anyone break the Goodwood hillclimb record in 2026?
No. The outright record still belongs to Max Chilton, who ran the McMurtry Spéirling fan car up the hill in 39.08 seconds in 2022. The 2026 winning time was several seconds slower than that mark.
Why was Singer chosen as the 2026 Central Feature?
Singer Vehicle Design, the California company that reimagines classic Porsche 911s, became the first boutique builder selected for the Central Feature sculpture in front of Goodwood House. Sculptor Gerry Judah suspended three Singer 911s on a triple arch. The honor had previously gone only to established manufacturers such as Ferrari, Porsche, and Mercedes-Benz.
Is the Hyundai Ioniq 3 coming to the United States?
No. The Ioniq 3, the compact electric hatchback Hyundai showed under its “Aero Hatch” design label, is confirmed for Europe and Australia only. Hyundai has not planned a US launch for it. The high-performance Ioniq 6 N that also debuted at Goodwood is the more US-relevant Hyundai from the event.
What is the Audi Nuvolari?
The Nuvolari is Audi’s successor to the discontinued R8. It uses a twin-turbo V8 paired with three electric motors for a combined 987 hp, wears a carbon-fiber body, and is limited to 499 examples with orders opening in the first half of 2027. It is named for pre-war racing driver Tazio Nuvolari.
What was the most powerful car at Goodwood 2026?
Among production-bound reveals, the Hennessey Venom F5-M led with 2,031 bhp, which Hennessey says makes it the world’s most powerful manual-transmission car. Several electric and hybrid hypercars, including the Zenvo Aurora at 1,850 hp and the Denza Z Coupe at a claimed 1,500 hp, also topped the McLaren and Audi figures.
Which Goodwood 2026 debuts are coming to the US?
The McLaren 788HS is expected to reach US buyers, and the Hennessey Venom F5-M is American-built. The Audi Nuvolari, Zenvo Aurora, and Toyota GR GT had no confirmed US plans at the show. The Hyundai Ioniq 3 is confirmed not to be sold in the United States.
Michael Kahn
Michael Kahn is the writer, photographer, and publisher behind The Weekly Driver. He cares about how cars drive and what they're like to own. He covers automobile industry news, car shows and events, and new car reviews. The reviews come from behind the wheel: day trips that favor back routes, treating a good meal as half the reason to go. He directs and produces the visual media, matching each car to a setting and mood that fit it. When he's not reviewing new cars, Michael races paddleboards, camels, and ostriches, along with the occasional exotic car on the racetrack, and has driven in every state and country visited.
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