Monday 29th June 2015

Noble fastest in Goodwood supercar shootout

Anthony Reid brings British supercar maker bragging rights at the Festival of Speed. Again.

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Even regular visitors to the Goodwood Festival of Speed can find it difficult to keep track of exactly what's going on, and with the combination of timed and untimed runs on the Hill course it's often very hard to know who has gone fastest.

Glorious noise, but a way behind the Noble

This year there was a separate timed shootout on the Saturday independent from the overall timed shootout of the very fastest cars that traditionally ends the Festival on the Sunday. This gave a good chance to gauge both the relative performance of some modern road cars, and also the size and clankiness of the trouser furniture of those charged with driving them up the narrow course.

No surprises that the name on the top of the Supercar Shootout times list was Anthony Reid. In recent years the former touring car driver has become almost as well known for his exploits on the hill at Goodwood as his other racing activities, and is as close to a specialist as the place gets. His 51.33-second time in the Noble M600 was properly impressive.

But so was Chris Ward's performance in the Lexus LFA, finishing just 0.78 seconds behind in 52.11. Matthew Becker was a further three seconds adrift in the Aston Martin GT12, here making its moving debut. And, further down the order, full credit to German touring car veteran Joerg Weidinger who managed to hustle the considerable bulk of the Rolls-Royce Wraith up the hill in just 57.21 seconds, going sixth quickest.

Fastest of fastest. Wing may have helped

Further perspective arrived on Sunday with the overall timed shootout, which saw Olly Clark set FTD in his 780hp 'Time Attack' Subaru Impreza, posting a storming 44.91-second time. Two Pikes Peak cars finished second and third: Jean-Phillipe's Dayraut's Mitijet Mini managed a 45.51-sec run and Goodwood favourite Rod Millen's Toyota Celica posted a 45.80-sec time.

All this that Nick Heidfeld's overall course record of 41.6-seconds, set in a McLaren in 1999, remains safe for at least another year...

Overall times, Michelin Supercar Shootout
1. Anthony Reid, Noble M600 - 51.33
2. Chris Ward, Lexus LFA - 52.11
3. Matt Becker, Aston Martin GT12 - 55.06
4. Henry Catchpole, Porsche Cayman GT4 - 56.86
5. Andy Meyrick, Bentley GT3-R - 56.91
6. Joerg Weidinger, Rolls-Royce Wraith - 57.21
7. Tom Mills, Maserati GranTurismo MC Stradale - 59.00
8. Stephen Kane, Bentley Continental GT - 60.65
9. Steve Mills, Maserati GranCabrio MC - 60.66
10. Gordon Robertson, Porsche 918 Spyder - 61.37

[chrisironside]

Good performance from EVO's Henry Catchpole in the Cayman.

[Reavenger]

Presume the 918 Spyder was an owner's car and was being treated carefully?

[jeremyc]

I'm not sure Porsche are going the be happy that the GT4 beat the 918 Spyder.

However, they'll be chuffed it showed the Bentley GT3-R a clean pair of heels.

[Monty Python]

What's even more impressive is the Bentley GT3 only five-hundredths behind it.

[smilo996]

Noble wins the hill climb and the Pistonheads glitterati are dribbling on about Porsche, making excuses for the 918. Amazing.

Well done Noble for winning and Noble and Aston putting Porsche firmly in their place.

Porsche 10th, "must have been a customer car". Presumably none of the absolute top 10 were customer cars presuambly or worth consierably more than the 918.

[Pablo16v]

Well done the Noble and A.R. I wonder how much it’s been tweaked, or has it always been that quick?

[Nerfbat]

I'd love to have seen the Wraith setting that time - sixth place is seriously impressive !

[Jam12321]

Well done Noble!

[ORD]

smilo996 said:

Noble wins the hill climb and the Pistonheads glitterati are dribbling on about Porsche, making excuses for the 918. Amazing.

Well done Noble for winning and Noble and Aston putting Porsche firmly in their place.

Porsche 10th, "must have been a customer car". Presumably none of the absolute top 10 were customer cars presuambly or worth consierably more than the 918.

? They were all worth a great deal less! A 918 is quite a lot faster than an Aston, but you will probably pretend not to know that.

Well done to the Noble!

[VTECBOY]

Wraith was absolutely flying up the hill! Never seen anything so big move so fast on the rather tight course!

[Bacchus]

the RR was faster than the 918

[VTECBOY]

Wraith was absolutely flying up the hill! Never seen anything so big move so fast on the rather tight course!

[HorneyMX5]

Nerfbat said:

I'd love to have seen the Wraith setting that time - sixth place is seriously impressive !

He was giving it his all.

Untitled by Nicholas Horne, on Flickr

Untitled by Nicholas Horne, on Flickr

[RobinBanks]

Are there any videos of the Wraith?
That's fantastic!

[MustardCutter]

No front wheel drive estate category? I'm disappointed.

[boxsey]

smilo996 said:

Noble wins the hill climb and the Pistonheads glitterati are dribbling on about Porsche, making excuses for the 918. Amazing.

Well done Noble for winning and Noble and Aston putting Porsche firmly in their place.

Porsche 10th, "must have been a customer car". Presumably none of the absolute top 10 were customer cars presuambly or worth consierably more than the 918.

Pistonheads smilo996 dribbling on again about his hatred for all things Porsche. Amazing.

[DonkeyApple]

Bacchus said:

the RR was faster than the 918

Small consolation but the 918 at least beat the Mike Duff.

[HorneyMX5]

DonkeyApple said:

Bacchus said:

the RR was faster than the 918

Small consolation but the 918 at least beat the Mike Duff.

The 918 looks cooler though. Love the heat haze from the exhaust.

Untitled by Nicholas Horne, on Flickr

[SlipStream77]

A totally meaningless set of times. Different drivers with varying abilities and pushing by differing amounts.

The 918 coming last should be a bit of a clue really....

[Joeguard1990]

If you were there then you would know that most of these times aren't full out because of traffic in front of the cars. If one car decides to take it easy then it affects all cars behind them.