The month started in familiar fashion, with well deserved praise from all who were at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Over a blazing weekend on Charles March’s ample front lawn, Autocar regulars took rare opportunities to drive classic competition Jaguar E-types and 1980s rally Vauxhalls, as well as brand-new production metal like the Honda CR-Z Mugen and Morgan 3 Wheeler.
It was one of the highlights of the motorsport season. And it was followed, seven days later, by another: a British F1 grand prix to savour, with Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso reminding us of the talents that made him a world champion.The month started in familiar fashion, with well deserved praise from all who were at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Over a blazing weekend on Charles March’s ample front lawn, Autocar regulars took rare opportunities to drive classic competition Jaguar E-types and 1980s rally Vauxhalls, as well as brand-new production metal like the Honda CR-Z Mugen and Morgan 3 Wheeler.
It was one of the highlights of the motorsport season. And it was followed, seven days later, by another: a British F1 grand prix to savour, with Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso reminding us of the talents that made him a world champion.
Kicking off our ‘Goodwood FOS’ report issue was a news story of tantalising appeal: Royal College of Art design student Julliana Cho’s vision of a new and striking Porsche 928. Produced with the guidance of Porsche’s own design boss, Michael Mauer, it promised that front-engined V8 coupés – even low-slung shooting brakes – could soon be on Weissach’s menu.
In the same issue, Porsche devotees read about Andrew Frankel’s full-throttle ride in an almost finished version of the new 991 generation of the 911. It’s longer and wider than the outgoing car, with a longer wheelbase and a lightweight aluminium-rich construction. Frankel’s sentiments, for those who don’t remember them, were compelling: “I have little doubt that this will be a great Porsche,” he wrote, “but a different kind of 911. Even more capable, usable, spacious, comfortable and quiet. Will it make you feel hardwired to the road surface? That’s impossible to say without a steering wheel in your hands.” And it would be another four months until that particular moment arrived.
Later in the month came our chance to drive the latest version of a car with an even longer and more widely known legend than the perennial 911 – albeit a considerably less meaningful relationship to it. VW’s new Beetle arrived with a more masculine attitude than its forebear and styling more reminiscent of the original Volkswagen. And although it didn’t handle with the well judged aplomb of a Golf, Steve Cropley could see a place for the car: “The Beetle is and will remain Volkswagen’s icon. A cool 22.5 million have found homes, and there will be many more.”
Our cover story on 27 July featured an in-house rendering (in the picture gallery) of one of the most talked-about Jaguars of the year. We called it the firm’s modern-day E-type. Jaguar has been designing and engineering it as a £40k rival to the popular Porsche Boxster. And the details in that story – of a car with V6 engines, based on a cut-down, next-generation XK platform and intended for production by late 2012 – would be confirmed almost to the letter when, two months later, Jaguar began to talk about the substance behind the C-X16 concept at the Frankfurt motor show in September.
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