The last weekend of June – a week ahead of the F1 British Grand Prix at Silverstone – sees the eyes of motorsport fans worldwide turn to two events taking place in the UK. Neither is an ‘industry’ event, in the traditional B2B sense of the word, yet there is considerable industry interest in both.
One of the two events – the Goodwood Festival of Speed – has grown in stature since its founding in the early 1990s as a private motor sports event, and it is fast becoming a fixture on the international automotive events calendar. ‘FoS’ is now revered the world over and welcomes 150,000 visitors annually.
Little wonder, then, that it is also gaining importance among the manufacturers’ top management, with OEMs opting to present products that underline their sporting credentials and join the dots between what leaves the paddock and what leaves the dealership.
Ford’s hotly-anticipated GT highlights perfectly the links between road and track, with Ford recently announcing that the EcoBoost-powered GT will compete in the 2016 Le Mans GT Endurance class
Mazda is this year’s celebrated brand, Infiniti will tease the Q30 ahead of its full unveiling at Frankfurt, and Chevrolet is bringing a car to the event that “promises agility, power and high design”. Nissan will use FoS for the global dynamic debut of the new Juke-R 2.0; Aston Martin’s new DB9 GT will debut along with the 800bhp-plus Vulcan, as will the Peugeot 308 GTi, the Morgan all-electric EV3, the new Lotus 3-Eleven and the Alpine Celebration Goodwood, fresh from its appearance at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
On the subject of Le Mans, Ford’s hotly-anticipated GT will make its UK debut at Goodwood; the car highlights perfectly the links between road and track, with Ford recently announcing that the EcoBoost-powered GT will compete in the 2016 Le Mans GT Endurance class (LM GTE Pro).
Whilst Goodwood celebrates the noise and smells of traditional motorsport, the other big event taking place this weekend is the final round of the inaugural Formula E season, a ten-city global race series which culminates in a two-day event in London.
Racing is racing, and while we leave motor sports coverage to other publications, it’s the business behind Formula E which is of interest. The competitive line-up indicates the industry’s level of interest in electro-mobility, with four of the teams run by manufacturers directly involved in the production of electrified vehicles: Audi, Renault, Mahindra and Venturi. Race series partners include DHL, Qualcomm and Michelin.
Formula E has shown that EV racing can be a success. Now it needs just needs to translate that success into EV sales
Conceived as a way of promoting electric car sales, Formula E has also been designed to promote sustainability. For example, tyres must last a whole race, and each driver is allowed just one set, plus one front and rear tyre per team from the previous race. The EV charge points used for the races will remain after the event for public EV charging. And DHL has been tasked with designing the most efficient logistics operation to ship the cars and equipment from city to city.
Six drivers are still in with a chance of winning the title in London. Whoever wins, Formula E has shown that EV racing can be a success. Now it needs just needs to translate that success into EV sales.
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Martin Kahl is Editor, Automotive World
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