If you are a fan of fender-clad racing automobiles, ones that are quicker than journeying vehicles, however now not necessarily going to preserve up with a complete-on single seater – then boy can we have a weekend for you! The choice of sportscar cuisine at this 12 months’ Members’ Meeting may be one of the best that Goodwood has ever visible. So to help you select out precisely what to look, here’s a selection of our favorites to start you off.
Panoz LMP-1 Roadster-S
You’re likely already aware of Panoz, maximum in all likelihood because of the batmobile-esque Esparante that raced in the GT1 era of sportscar racing. But you might not be quite so acquainted with the auto that followed it: the LMP-1 Roadster-S. To the untrained eye, this became merely an Esparante with the roof lopped off, but it becomes a contemporary car constructed to conform with the switch to LMP regulations that had accompanied the death of GT1 on both sides of the pond. Underneath it shared the Esparante’s powerful 6.0-liter V8 – an engine capable of shuddering the fillings from even the high-quality enamel – however, in contrast to the Esparante, the LMP-1 become capable of move toe-to-toe with the cars entered by way of the larger manufacturers. At the quiet of the primary American Le Mans Series (ALMS) season Panoz observed themselves champions of the LMP class, beating out BMW and its iconic V12 LMR via an insignificant two points. The LMP-1 turned into replaced with the aid of the attention-catching, however ultimately doomed, LMP07 in 2001, earlier than being rapidly resettled and again to motion as the LMP01 Evo halfway thru the season. The transformed automobile could take on the might of the Audi R8, beating the German to victory four instances in a season-and-a-half.
Penske Zerex Special
Not many vehicles may be said to have been pushed through the founders of-of the largest racing teams in the international. The Penske Zerex Special certainly can. Pedaled via Roger “The Captain” Penske as he battled in the USAC Road Racing Championship, the Zerex Special changed into virtually based totally on a Cooper T53 and at the beginning constructed to take part within the United States Grand Prix in 1961. Penske sold the car after it crashed out of that race with simply 14 laps inside the e-book. He could campaign in Formula Libre before the auto became rebuilt into the Zerex Special, with a re-engineered chassis and fender-shod body now masking a Coventry Climax instantly-four engine. Penske could make marketing campaign the automobile in USAC races until 1964 when it was offered by the man who constructed the auto, none-apart from Bruce McLaren. McLaren could move directly to replace the Cooper engine with an Oldsmobile motor to campaign it in the British and Canadian Sports Car Championships, to some fulfillment. While McLaren might sell the car on, he went on to apply it as the premise of the first McLaren sportscars, assisting in starting a legacy that could dominate Can-Am.
Peugeot 908x
The Peugeot 908 HDi FAP may additionally have been the car that took Peugeot’s 0.33 and (so far) final Le Mans win in 2009, but it turned into the following 908x that might become a megastar in probably the finest race that La Sarthe has ever visible. The 2011 Le Mans 24 Hours was a true epic, with none of the competitors understanding that it might now not simplest go down in legend, but also be a bookend for a generation of sportscar rivalry that had come to be increasingly bitter because the years went via. Three of Audi’s brand-new R18 TDis covered up alongside 3 of Peugeot’s brand new 908s, having been separated by a paltry 0.5 seconds over the reputable qualifying periods during the week. The Audis have been blessed with better velocity thru the sweepy bits and, crucially, a moderate average pace gain, but the French group had better directly-line velocity and an efficiency gain – crucial in patience racing. By the end of the race, the simplest one Audi remained following a chain of dramatic crashes that brought on over six hours of safety vehicle going for walks. It crossed the line simply 13 seconds clean of the first 908 (all three Peugeots made it to the quit), an automobile providing a celebrity driving force lineup of more than one Champ Car champion Sebastien Bourdais, future IndyCar champ Simon Pagenaud and former F1 ace Pedro Lamy. Little did anybody recognize that it might turn out to be being Peugeot’s final appearance on the popular enduro, as mid-way via testing for the next season the bosses in Paris shuttered the group’s coaching for the first World Endurance Championship season, and that was the end of the 908.
Jaguar XK140 ‘Gomm’ Special
Gomm? Does that need to be a typo truly? Why on this planet would a vehicle be called Gomm? Well truly due to the fact a chap referred to as Maurice Gomm set up a commercial enterprise making special bodywork for racing motors again within the 1950s, and become passed a single seater racing car inside the Fifties on which to work his magic. The original proprietor became after a car to race in events organized across England and became in ownership of a 1938 Grand Prix Alta Monoplane. Gomm’s associate Paul Emery took the Alta, bought the engine and changed it with a 2.6-liter Aston Martin engine from a DB2, and added a brand new body styled with cues from the DB2, alongside some factors of the Kieft or HWM 1. The automobile turned into campaigned from 1955 but little is know of its records until it became located in a barn inside the Nineteen Eighties. Faced with the choice of restoring the automobile has become at the Alta chassis, or finding something else, the brand new owner plumped for a mix of both. The Alta chassis become back to its original fame as an unmarried-seater, the Aston engine became offered, and the first-rate Gomm frame became attached to the chassis of a Jaguar XK140 – and this Gomm special was born. It’s now powered by using a three.4-litre Engine, set up similarly lower back than on a fashionable one hundred forty and features the lap counter from a C-Type. You can see it racing at 77MM in the Peter Collins Trophy.
