Goodwood Festival of Speed Part Three

The Cartier Style & Luxe Concours d’élégance included a class dedicated to the French marque Alpine. This car is the second prototype built by Jean Rédélé, based on a Renault 4CV with a glass-fibre body. It was called Le Marquis and was shown at the 1954 New York Auto Show.

Based on a A110 chassis, this is the creation of a Parisian teenager, Denis Meyrignac, who in 1969 presented some sketches to Rédélé who gave him the chassis. It’s only in 1977 that the car was finished and exposed at the Geneva Auto Show.

In order to sell Alpine cars to overseas markets, Rédélé reached an agreement with Willys Overland to produce the A108 in Brazil. The car was then called the Willys Interlagos. This is a 1964 example.

This 1977 Alpine A110 SX is the last of the 7,579 French-built Alpines produced in Dieppe between 1962 and 1977.

Presented last year, the Alpine Celebration was made to mark the 60th anniversary of Alpine but also to announce the future of the brand.

Lord March, organizer of the Goodwood Festival of Speed, proudly poses alongside the 2016 Alpine Vision concept, of which 80 % will be integrated into the future Alpine which will go on sale in 2017.

Alpine is mainly famous for its results in rallying but it also achieved great results on race tracks, especially at Le Mans where the A442B won overall in 1978 with Pironi and Jaussaud.

The competition is part of the rebirth of the brand. This year’s LMP2 class win at Le Mans could not be better. The A460 is fitted with a Nissan engine, Nissan and Renault being in the same group.

“Endless pursuit of power” was the theme of the Festival. It could not be better illustrated than with the first turbo-engined F1 car, introduced by Renault at the 1977 British Grand Prix. Being unreliable at its beginnings, it was nicknamed “the yellow teapot” by its rivals.

But in 1983, this Renault RE40 almost carried Alain Prost to his first world title, only beaten at the last Grand Prix by Nelson Piquet’s Brabham-BMW.

The involvement of Renault in F1 continued after the turbo era by providing normally aspirated 3.5-litre V10 engines to Williams in the early 1990s. Here a FW13B model that scored two wins in 1990.

The involvement of Renault in the Grand Prix scene started already in 1906 when Hungarian Ferenç Szisz won the first ever Grand Prix, held at Le Mans, with a Type AK like this one.

Ninety years ago, Renault built that aerodynamic coupé to beat the 24-hour world speed record held by Bentley. Renault took the record at the Montlhéry circuit, averaging 107.5 mph.

At the same venue, eight years later, the Renault Nervasport covered a record-breaking 5000 miles. The original disappeared and Renault built that recreation.

Renault went to Bonneville in 1956 with the “Etoile Filante” (the shooting star), fitted with a turbine engine. Its 193 mph record is still unbeaten.

The 5 Maxi Turbo was Renault’s effort in rallying during the Group B era. With only two-wheel-drive, it had a hard time against the four-wheel-driven Audis, Lancias and Peugeots but this car won the 1985 Corsica rally with Jean Ragnotti.

In the mid-80’s, the Peugeot 205 Turbo 16 was the ultimate rally car with back-to-back victories in the 1985 and 1986 World Rally Championship, before the Group B cars were banned by the FIA for safety reasons.

The Lorraine-Dietrich “Vieux Charles III” was built for the 1912 French Grand Prix in Dieppe. It was later raced at Brooklands and became one of the first of Malcolm Campbell’s Bluebirds.

Coming from Peter Mullin’s museum, the 1923 C6 Laboratoire was Avions Voisin’s attempt to beat more potent cars. Despite its lightness, its aerodynamic shape and being the first monocoque car, it was not enough to win.

More successful was the 1927 Voisin LSR that took 18 world records in 1927, topping 129mph.

Nearly 100 years later, power and top speed remain the ultimate quest. The new Bugatti Chiron, here driven by Lord March, develops 1,500 hp thanks to an 8,0 liter W16 4 turbocharger engine, topping 250 mph.

Every year, a spectacular steel construction due to artist Gerry Judah is placed in front of Goodwood House. This year, the sculpture illustrates the centenary of BMW.

On top of the structure is the BMW 328 Mille Miglia coming from the Works Museum.