 Marcos burnout in front of Goodwood House |
While anyone who attends Goodwood Festival Of Speed has the opportunity to photograph fast cars going up the famous hill from the outside, there aren’t many people who get the chance to photograph a fast car going up it from the inside.
Well I’m now privileged to count myself among them thanks to Marcos boss Tony Stelliga, who offered me the chance for a run up the hill in the new 475bhp Marcos GT2 coupe unveiled earlier in the month at Motorexpo.
Unfortunately he wasn’t foolish enough to actually let me drive it (obviously remembers watching me driving the TSO…). No, that task was left to Marcos’ newly appointed test driver Yelmer Buurman, who’s proven himself a talent to be reckoned with in this year’s British Formula Renault Championship by winning the Oulton Park round preceding Goodwood.
On this occasion Yelmer was happy to run at the back of the field, the Marcos running last of the supercars on their final run on Sunday. There are no timed runs for this group of course, so Yelmer could have some fun with the car and put on a show for the crowd.
This mainly consisted of regularly stopping the car and using all of that 475bhp to turn as much of the rear tyres as possible into rubber smoke while Yelmer either deliberately got the back end fishtailing or held the car on the steering for long, sideways burnouts.
Maybe not the fastest way up (or down) the hill, but the applause it drew from both spectators and marshalls made it obvious that they loved it.
Consequently I can’t give you a dynamic account of what it’s like doing a quick run up Goodwood’s hill (too busy trying to hold the camera steady to take notes anyway) but I can tell you that when it wasn’t burning rubber, the GT2 felt every bit as fast as you’d expect an 1150kg, 475bhp car to feel.
I can also tell you that all the indications are that this new coupe is making people sit up and take notice of Marcos in a way they haven’t done for a long time – possibly since the debut of the Dennis Adams coupe in 1963.
Needless to say, PistonHeads will be bringing you a full feature very soon.
All photos by Graham Bell.
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