Brits look forward to the coming of summer for many reasons. People may clamour for the long days and warmer weather, they may long for holidays and festivals, or, if they are anything like us, it is the spectacle of the Goodwood Festival of Speed that is awaited.
Running from 28th June to 1st of July, the FoS is a sure sign that summer has arrived. Already event organiser Lord March and his team are so well advanced in their annual plans for the event that ticket sales are underway and growing daily.
Also in preparation for the thrills and spectacle are the plethora of drivers, marques, exhibitors and stallholders who come together to make this a true celebration of the past, present and future of the internal combustion engine. Someone caught on camera in early practice sessions for the Hillclimb segment of the Festival recently was one of the supercars of Bentley. Given that the Festival of Speed owes a lot of its reason for being to the legendary machines of Bentley, it is fitting that today’s ‘Bentley Boys’ and their cars devote an appropriate amount of time and energy to preparations for the illustrious occasion. It is important that these cars not only show the event the respect it commands, but also steal the show with their winning looks and power.
The Bentley Continental GT V8 was just spotted getting ready for the Goodwood hillclimb. Its 4.0 litre V8 engine was recently unveiled at Detroit’s Auto Show and offers 500bhp of torque. It is a true successor to the Bentleys of the Belle Epoque. In the first few decades of the Twentieth Century, it was this single inclined sprint, held in the grounds of the Goodwood estate, which was one of the highlights of the sporting circuit that spawned much of the race-bred development of high performance cars, including the legendary Bentley Blowers, amongst others. A desire to recognise the contribution of these men and their marvellous machines, and the heady days when cars were pushed to, and beyond, their boundaries has led to the contemporary celebration that is the Festival of Speed.
The Bentley Continental V8 has been practising already, taking in the hillclimb circuit in readiness for the Goodwood sprint. Joining their sibling, was the Continental Supersports Convertible ISR, which Bentley is promising to be the ‘world’s fastest luxury convertible’ and the magnificent 6.75 Mulsanne.
Steven Egan, Bentley’s Marketing Operations Manager said of the testing that ‘the team had an excellent day at Goodwood with the new Continental V8 and we’re now looking forward to returning in the summer as one of the Festival’s official partners and with our leading ‘Bentley Boy’ drivers behind the wheel’.