We have just returned from this year's Goodwood Festival of Speed and are working hard to create our most comprehensive report on the annual event yet. For a first impression, we have now taken a closer look at three supercars that particularly grabbed our attention. Making a surprise appearance was the new, one-off Ferrari F12 TRS. This has allowed us to replace the remarkably poor image released by Ferrari last week with a a set of 12 images of the unique machine in action on the hill. In related Ferrari news, we can also report that the 375 Plus Pinin Farina Spyder we featured last week has sold for over GBP 10 million during the official Festival of Speed auction.
One of the most potent road cars at Goodwood during the weekend was undoubtedly the Koenigsegg One:1, which was originally launched in Geneva earlier this year. The name refers to the power to weight ratio of one hp for every one of the V8-engined machine's 1,360 kg. That means that the bespoke engine is good for 1,000 KW or 1 MW. We captured the Koenigsegg One:1 from every angle at speed.
McLaren had a very strong presence at the Goodwood Festival of Speed with one eye on the past and the other on the future with the introduction of the 650S GT3. Replacing the MP4-12C GT3 in 2015, it is an evolution of that successful racer with further refinements and a revised bodykit to match the 650S road car. McLaren will deliver 15 650S GT3s early next year while existing McLaren GT3 owners can upgrade their cars to the latest specification.

In 1947 wealthy industrialist David Brown answered a 'For Sale' ad in the newspaper, which simply read 'car company for sale'. The car company in question was Aston Martin and the only real asset was the Atom development car. This hugely sophisticated machine featured a tubular spaceframe chassis and a 'superleggera' style bodywork. It had been completed just before the War and was extensively driven on the road although only rarely shown in public. David Brown sampled the Atom and was so impressed that he immediately bought Aston Martin. The subsequent DB2 production model incorporated many of the Atom's technically advanced features. So it is safe to say that Aston Martin would probably not have existed today if not for the Atom. Although its influence was felt for many years, the Atom was actually sold before the end of the decade. Since then it only has had a handful of owners. The most recent acquired it in 1986 and has now decided to consign this unique piece of Aston Martin to tomorrow's Bonhams Goodwood Festival of Speed auction. The pre-sale estimate of the Atom is a relatively modest GBP 600,000 - 1 million.
Already highlighted last week, we have now added some additional images of the Ferrari 375 Plus Pinin Farina Spyder straight from the auction room floor. It will also cross the block tomorrow and should be the top lot in the sale.

While the more modern sports racers and supercars often draw the most attention, the Goodwood Festival of Speed also always features an eclectic mix of early machinery. This year one the absolute stars will be Duncan Pittaway's freshly restored Fiat S.76. This behemoth boats a 28.5 litre four cylinder and was built as a record breaker in 1911. To get in the mood, we have today taken a closer look at its 'little' brother, the Fiat S.74. Powered by a 14.3 litre version of the same engine, it is only slightly more modest but was certainly more successful. The featured example was raced in period by Caleb Bragg, who most notably drove it to victory in the 1912 American Grand Prix at Milwaukee. Today, it is part of the most impressive collection of early competition cars and as can be seen in our 33-shot gallery, it is regularly demonstrated and raced on both sides of the Atlantic.
One of last year's big stars was the meticulously restored Bugatti Type 59 Grand Prix. Created immediately before the arrival of the German teams, it was the last Bugatti to win a Grand Prix. The featured example has benefited from a recent restoration and is owned by the former president of the current Volkswagen owned Bugatti Automobiles.
Among the new cars certain to draw attention will definitely be the Jaguar F-Type Project 7. Shown in concept form last year, this limited edition model is based on the F-Type and features a cut-down roof with a 575hp version of the supercharged V8 engine. The Project 7 name is a reference to the seven outright Le Mans wins scored by Jaguar.
Sister company Land Rover will offer a first glimpse of a new high performance model by demonstrating the thinly disguised Range Rover Sport SVR. Powered by a 550hp V8, this is the first Land Rover to wear the SVR badge, which will be used on all range topping models in the future.

This weekend, the Goodwood estate will once again host the Festival of Speed. The annual celebration of motorsport history also doubles as the British Motor Show and is one of our favourite events of the year. To get you in the mood, we have today highlighted a few cars that starred at Goodwood in the past, some of which will run up the hill again this year.
One of the absolute highlights in 2013 was the demonstration of current Honda works driver Gabriele Tarquini with the Honda RA272. Used back in 1965, this was the first Japanese car to score a Grand Prix victory. Powered by a gem of an engine, the diminutive RA272 clearly showed Honda's roots as a motorcycle manufacturer.
Peugeot will feature very strongly this as the 2013 Pikes Peak winning 208 T16 will return to Goodwood. This time, Sebastien Loeb himself will be behind the wheel and he will attempt to break the hill climb record held by Nick Heidfeld since 1998. Another Peugeot Pikes Peak racer in attendance will be one of the legendary 405 T16s used during the late 1980s. The featured example was originally used by Juha Kankunen in 1988 and is a Goodwood regular.
Another highly significant machine in action this weekend will be the Porsche 917 PA Spyder, which was the German manufacturer's very first Can-Am car. Brought by the Collier Collection, it will be reunited with one of the car's original drivers, Brian Redman. Our 24-shot gallery already shows Redman in action with the one-off Porsche back in 2009.
As always tickets for the Festival of Speed are in high demand but you can pick up the final tickets for select days on the Goodwood website.
Ferrari meanwhile has released a picture and some details of the F12 TRS. Based on the F12Berlinetta, this one-off roadster has been specifically commissioned by one of the Italian manufacturer's loyal clients.

After last year's record breaking edition, next weeks Bonhams Goodwood Festival of Speed auction is again highly anticipated. One of the absolute highlights in the inch-thick catalog is the Lotus 49B Cosworth from the estate of the Honourable John Dawson-Damer. The example on offer was one of the original Gold Leaf liveried Team Lotus Grand Prix cars and was raced in both the Tasman Series and the World Championship. In addition to the chassis due to cross the block, we have also expanded our in-depth article with images and history of six of the seven examples produced.
One of the most talked about lots is the Ferrari 375 Plus Pinin Farina Spyder, which most recently had been the subject of much controversy with regards to the ownership. These issues have been settled by Bonhams with both parties sharing the proceeds of the no-reserve sale. The car itself is one of just eight 375 Plus Ferraris, one of which was driven to victory at Le Mans sixty years ago. It is powered by a mighty five-litre V12 and was most recently campaigned at the 2004 Le Mans Classic where we captured it.
Another Le Mans racer on the lot list is this Nissan R88C, which we believe to be the only one of these works cars to be in private hands. It combined a March chassis with a twin-turbo Nissan V8 engine. It was raced at Le Mans in 1988 but an engine failure brought a premature ending to that outing. In more recent years, it was completely restored to full racing order as can be seen in our 25-shot gallery.

The big story of this weekend's 24 Hours of Le Mans was Porsche's return as a top flight contender for the first time since 1998. Facing the strong and experienced Audi and Toyota squads, the 'newcomers' were in with a fighting chance until the final hours of the race. Following tumultuous practice and qualifying sessions, the race fortunately did not have any major accidents but was certainly very eventful. Our man on the ground this weekend Bob van der Wolf, who has returned with a 180-shot gallery, which illustrates our concise report.
Meanwhile, Bentley has introduced the company's most potent road car yet. Inspired by the manufacturer's return to motorsport, it is dubbed the Continental GT3-R. Production of this 580 hp steam-roller is limited to just 300 examples, so you have to be quick to snap up 'the most dynamic, responsive and involving Bentley road car ever.'
At the upcoming Moscow International Auto Show, Renault will reveal the next generation Renault Sport Trophy racing car. It is built around a monocoque constructed from carbon-fibre by Dallara and a 500 bhp engine supplied by sister company Nissan's subsidiary Nismo.

Over the weekend, McLaren confirmed what has been speculated for quite some time; the track-bound P1 GTR is going to be a reality. Based on the limited-production supercar, it will be built after the 375-car run has ended. Much like Ferrari's XX program, the P1 GTR will not be built to comply with any regulations as it is intended for track-day use only with at least six international events scheduled on Formula 1 circuits. Among the changes compared to the road-legal model is a power-hike to 1,000 hp. The P1 GTR name is a reference to the Le Mans winning F1 GTR, which was under development 20 years ago.
McLaren's announcement has prompted us to also take a look back at the company's rich heritage with a look at the 91-shot gallery features four from every angle.
Hunt's third win with the M26 would also prove McLaren's last for several seasons. The team's fortunes were finally turned around after Ron Dennis acquisition and the development of the revolutionary carbon-fibre MP4/1 Cosworth. John Watson used it to score the team's first victory in four years by winning the 1981 British Grand Prix at Silverstone.
With a hardcore version of the Megane, known as the R.S. 275 Trophy-R, Renault Sport driver Laurent Hurgon smashed the eight-minute barrier at the Nurburgring Nordschleffe, clocking 7m54.36s last month. To mark the occasion Renault will produce just 250 examples of the Trophy-R.

In many ways, the 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans was very much a watershed year. It featured the last Toyota outing for over a decade, the very first Audi appearance, while BMW scored its only victory as a manufacturer. As a warm-up to this year's race, we have taken a look at the machines fielded by these manufacturers 15 years ago.
The most striking is undoubtedly the Toyota GT-One, which debuted in 1998 as a GT1 machine and ran in 1999 in the newly created LMGTP class. It dominated all sessions and the featured example looked set to clinch the long sought victory until a puncture in the final hour. Toyota is again on the pace this year and will start from the pole, so 15 years later that huge disappointment could finally be erased come Sunday afternoon.
There to pick up the scraps was the BMW V12 LMR, which was developed together with Williams and featured an evolution of the V12 engine that had powered McLaren to their debut win back in 1995. Our comprehensive gallery features every angle of the 1999 Le Mans winning machine.
In retrospect, the arrival of Audi was actually the most significant as whereas BMW and Toyota would pursue F1 efforts, the German manufacturer won all but two of the next 14 Le Mans races. With the R8R already made their mark by placing third and fourth. Our R8R gallery now features two distinct versions of the car, raced at Sebring and Le Mans respectively.
This week, two manufacturers also launched new cars. Actually expected to race this weekend, the Lotus P1/01 was shown for the first time yesterday. It is powered by a new AER twin-turbo V6 engine and should hit the track later this year. Still very much under development is the Zytek Z16S, which will not be seen in action before 2016.

This weekend, the lovely Dijon-Prenois circuit hosted the 50th annual Grand Prix de l'Age d'Or, which is one of the oldest, if not the oldest event of its kind. Throughout the three-day meeting the undulating track bathed in sunshine with the temperatures creeping up to near tropical levels. As the event was organised by Peter Auto for the first time since the 1980s, it was not surprising that the traditional single seater grids were complemented by the familiar Peter fields like the Classic Endurance Racing and Sixties' Endurance. As part of the 50th anniversary celebrations, the actual Brabham was present, which was driven by Dan Gurney to the victory in the 1964 French Grand Prix when the original Grand Prix de l'Age d'Or was one of the support acts.
Braving the heat, we hiked all around the fantastic, 3.8 km track, which is never quite flat and barely has a straight line with the exception of the main straight. The result is a class-by-class 280-shot gallery, which serves to illustrate a detailed report of the event.
Among the entries this year were both the very first and final Porsche 935 K3 built. This has prompted us to further expand the 1979 Le Mans winning machines gallery to a whopping 154 shots. Additionally, we have also expanded the image gallery of the Lola T210 we featured last week to now also include engine shots of the second example pictured.

Powered by a beautifully complicated V16 engine, the earliest Maserati on display at the Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este was this unique V4 Sport Zagato Spider. At first glimpse, it looked deceivingly similar to a Zagato spider sports car of the early 1930s. Subtle hints of what lies beneath are the off-set crank handle and the twin exhausts. Built in 1932, the car was based on the V4 Grand Prix car, which was raced with some success for several years. The sheer power of the four-litre, supercharged V16 often proved too much for the tyres and brakes. It did excel in a straight line, setting a new world record for under five-litre cars at 246 km/h over a 10 km run. The sports car version used the same engine, mated to a three-speed gearbox. The first owner was the physician to the pope and the engine survived the War in the bedroom of the then owner. Today, it is the only V16-engined Maserati in existence and has been completely restored since joining the current custodian's stable in the late 1990s. Rarely seen in public, we used this opportunity to capture the V4 Sport Zagato Spider in full detail.
Another one-off Maserati on show at Villa d'Este was the 150 GT Spider built during the second half of the 1950s. Based on a well-used competition car chassis, the lovely little machine served to explore the possibility of a four-cylinder engined production model. It combines a 150 S engine with a striking Fantuzzi Spider body, which was actually the coach-builder's first attempt at creating a body for a road car. The car was never shown at a major show but was lent to some journalists and prominent clients to sample. Sadly, it never entered production as the focus turned to the six-cylinder engined 3500 GT instead. Fortunately, it did survive not in the least because it was cherished by Maserati's employees. Villa d'Este was one of the if not the first time the Maserati 150 GT Spider was shown in public.

During this weekend's Grand Prix de l'Age d'Or at Dijon over 350 historic racing cars will take to the track. Among them will be one of just three Morgan Plus 4 SLRs ever built. Created by Chris Lawrence and John Sprinzel, it combines a Morgan Plus 4 chassis, a highly tuned engine and a slippery aluminium body. The three cars were raced with considerable success in period, often hounding works machinery like Porsche 904s. All three have survived, and we captured them together some years ago at Goodwood as can be seen in our 69-shot gallery. The example on track this weekend is the third and final Morgan SLR built, which was raced in period by owner Pip Arnold and Lawrence himself. As can be seen in our gallery, it has survived in remarkably original condition.
Of a slightly newer vintage is the Lola T210, built for the 1970 European 2 Litre Sports Car Championship. Built around a sophisticated monocoque chassis, it took Lola's rivals by surprise at its Paul Ricard debut. In the hands of Jo Bonnier, the works car was driven to the championship against very stiff opposition. Our concise article features two of the 16 examples built, both of which are also on the entry for this weekend's Classic Endurance Racing 1 race at Dijon.
We will also be at the undulating circuit under what promised to be a scorching sun. A full report of the weekend's activities will follow early next week, of course illustrated by a complete gallery.

Impossible to miss at this year's Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este was the one-off Abarth 2000 Pininfarina Scorpione. Launched at the 1969 Brussels Motor Show, it was one of the first cars to adopt the angular wedge design that would become the norm in the years to come. Many of the design details were inspired by the scorpion featured on the Abarth badge. The Scorpione was not all show as underneath the striking bodywork a race-bred chassis was found, powered by a twin-cam, four-valve per cylinder engine. We made the most of the car's first appearance in Europe since 1977 with this 28-shot gallery as the result.
In 1964, Pininfarina was tasked by Mercedes-Benz to work their magic on the recently introduced 'Pagoda' Coupe. Launched at the Paris Motor Show, the result was this 230 SL Pininfarina Coupe. It combines some of the existing cues with a revised greenhouse and a more elegant tail. While a limited production run was on the books, the car ultimately remained a one-off. It disappeared from sight for many years until the family of the current owner brought it back to the limelight. The unique 230 SL Pininfarina Coupe was brought back to Europe to celebrate its 50th anniversary.
Completely lacking the design excellence of the two Pininfarina show cars is the all-business Mitsubishi MiEV Evolution III, which is due to race up Pikes Pike mountain later this month. The all-electric machine is powered by four electric motors.

At the recent Spa Classic, we were treated to aural and visual delight of a Mazda 767B driven with great verve. This was one of three examples campaigned by the factory team between 1988 and 1990. The 767 was the first Mazda Group C machine equipped with a four-rotor version of the production-based Type 13 rotary engine. Although no outright victories were scored, the 767B did score several class wins including back to back GTP victories at Le Mans in 1989 and 1990. The chassis raced at Spa won its class at Le Mans in 1990 and was raced by a privateer team until 1992. Today it is the only Mazda 767B in private hands. A second example is under restoration and should make its appearance in the hands of Mazda North America soon.
A nearly as impressive sight at Spa was the all-Sauber Mercedes C11 front row. In addition to the familiar car raced by Gareth Evans and Bob Berrigde, we were treated to an additional car fielded by its new owner for the first time. To mark the occasion, we have further expanded our gallery, which now boasts over 100 shots of four different C11s.
Also racing his car for the first time was a Greek enthusiast who acquired an ex-works Porsche 956 at RM Auctions recent Paris sale. With the addition of fresh action shots from the legendary Belgian circuit, our 956 gallery is now stocked with 175 shots of 13 different cars.