Ten cars you won't want to miss

With so many exciting cars on display at the 2012 Goodwood Festival of Speed, ft’s hard to pc K just 10 highlights

FERRARI 250GT0

{1} Who can resist the Ferrari GTO? It’s the 50th anniversary of this gorgeous racing car from Maranello. In the Goodwood paddock you will find the ex-UDT Laystall car in which Inns Ireland won the Tourist Trophy in 1962. A jewel, but you’d need to win the EuroMillions lottery to think about owning one.

LOLA-FORD T70 MKII SPYDER

{2} The car that gave Ford its one and only win in the Can-Am series when Dan Gurney drove this to victory at Bridgehampton in 1966. There will be many more Gurney cars at the Revival, where Dan will be honoured with a special tribute to this ever-popular American racer. The Can-Am Lola will be a handful on the narrow hillclimb course.

BRM P261

{3} Compare the McLaren MP4-26 with the way they did things in 1965. This is the BRM in which Jackie Stewart won at Monza in his first season of Grand Prix racing. The BRMs have a special place in the hearts of British fans, since both the engine and the chassis were designed and built in Bourne. No gathering of significant Fl cars is complete without a BRM.

LOTUS 49

{4} The first Grand Prix car to use the engine as a fully stressed chassis member. A winner first time out at Zandvoort, the Lotus 49 took Jim Clark to third in the World Championship in 1967. One of Colin Chapman’s genius ideas coupled with the legendary V8 Cosworth engine from Keith Duckworth and Mike Costin.

BIRKIN BLOWER BENTLEY

{5} There are few things more British than the racing green supercharged Bentley from the 1920s, when the ‘Bentley Boys’ took Le Mans by storm. This is the car in which Sir Henry Ralph ‘Tim’ Birkin, a British Baronet, competed at Le Mans in 1930 as a private entry. A fierce battle between Rudi Caracciola’s Mercedes and the Bentleys of Birkin and Dudley Benjafield ended with all three cars in retirement.

PEUGEOT 905

{6} This car dominated 3.5-litre sports car racing in 1992 and ’93, winning at Le Mans in both years and giving Peugeot the headlines it wanted. The 905 will be a spectacular sight, and sound, on the Goodwood hillclimb. Let’s hope Peugeot comes back to racing in the future.

McLAREN-MERCEDES MP4-26

{7} There is something special about getting so close to a modern Grand Prix car, especially if you’ve been unable to get inside the Fl paddock in recent years. This is the 2011 car and will be driven at Goodwood by Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton. Take a close look and admire the technology, the detail of the aerodynamics and the sheer pinpoint precision of it all.

AUTO UNION C-TYPE

{8} Here is the mighty Auto Union in which Bernd Rosemeyer won the European Championship in 1936. We are still in awe of these silver cars, which will take part in a ‘demo’ race at the Goodwood Revival in September. Always worth another look to admire the courage of the men who raced them.

LEYTON HOUSE-JUDD

{9} Designed by a young man called Adrian Newey before he joined Williams and went on to sculpt World Championship-winning cars for them — and then for McLaren and Red Bull. Note the ultra-slim chassis, a signature feature of Newey’s cars. Not a single centimetre of space is wasted; driver comfort is sacrificed to his beloved aerodynamics.

BRABHAM BT42-COSWORTH

{10} One of the early Gordon Murray cars, which made its World Championship debut at the Spanish Grand Prix in 1973 and carried Carlos Reutemann to fourth in that year’s drivers table. A taste of things to come from Murray, whose BT44 took Reutemann to three wins in 74. All his cars were aesthetically outstanding and a pleasure to behold.