The hottest new cars at the 2024 Goodwood Festival of Speed

This year’s Festival of Speed runs from Thursday 11 July to Sunday 14 July, and it’s shaping up to be a memorable weekend. Tickets for Friday, Saturday and Sunday have already sold out, and the Thursday is said to be “limited”.

The theme is ‘Horseless to Hybrid’, with exhibits celebrating 130 years of technological progress. The central sculpture will carry an electric car for the first time, as MG celebrates its centenary with the new Cyberster.

A throwback to South African artist Esther Mahlangu’s 1991 art car, the i5 Flow previews BMW’s future e-ink paint technology. It’s capable of shifting the shade of the body panels at a moment’s notice, displaying a different colour, a message or, as here, a special livery. BMW design chief Adrian van Hooydonk recently told Autocar the firm is working to ready the panels for mass production, and that it’s possible we’ll see a finished version within “the next two years”.

BMW’s entry-level family hatch was recently overhauled, gaining a smoother new look and BMW’s latest iDrive infotainment system inside. It’s making its public debut at Goodwood, where it will be shown in range-topping M135 guise.

The M2 has gained 20bhp and 37lb ft of torque as part of a wider upgrade for the 2 Series coupé. The new version of the car will be shown alongside the M135, M3 Touring and the firm’s Le Mans Daytona hypercar, the M Hybrid V8.

The M3 has gained new lighting and a 20bhp boost as part of its mid-life update. It will be displayed in Touring estate form at Goodwood.

This is a more hardcore version of the M4 coupé, with an increase in turbo boost pressure (from 1.7 bar to 2.1 bar) upping its peak power output from 523bhp to 543bhp. It’s also 20kg lighter than the regular M4, thanks in part to a new titanium exhaust silencer and various carbonfibre-reinforced plastic trim pieces.

This striking open-air sports car is a first look at a spiritual successor to the Z8, packing BMW’s most powerful road-going V8. It’s tipped for a limited production run of around “50 pieces”, according to van Hooydonk.

The Neue Klasse is our first look at the next-generation 3 Series EV, harking back to the range of saloons that established BMW as a major player in the European market. It will usher in an advanced new platform promising 30% more range, 30% faster charging and 25% better efficiency than the firm’s existing electric cars.

The fourth-generation X3 will make its global debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. It touts a radical new look inside and out, plus a heavily reworked chassis that’s promised to improve both handling and comfort.

Chinese firm BYD’s UK expansion continues with the Seal U, a plug-in hybrid family SUV majoring on refinement and economy. It will be shown alongside sibling brand Yangwang’s U8 luxury SUV in the First Glance paddock at the Festival of Speed.

This wild 800bhp road-going racer will make its dynamic debut at the Festival of Speed. Order books for the new model opened recently, with it priced from £315,000 in the UK.

MG will show its next-generation HS at Goodwood, according to Automotive News Europe. As previously reported by Autocar, it will be twinned with the Chinese-market Roewe RX5, mirroring the current HS’s offering of petrol and plug-in-hybrid powertrains.

Ineos’s new Arcane Works division promises to drastically broaden the scope of customisation available for the Grenadier off-roader. It will launch a series of limited-run specials, which customers will be able to tweak to their exacting requirements. The first of the bunch will be unveiled at the Festival of Speed.

This new addition to the Defender line-up is set to be Land Rover's most extreme 4x4 yet, packing the same twin-turbocharged mild-hybrid 4.4-litre V8 as its more road-focused sibling, the Range Rover Sport SV. It's due to be revealed imminently, ahead of its dynamic debut at the Festival of Speed.

Take a classic Porsche 911 Turbo, shove an '80s-era Formula 1 V6 into it, and you get the Lanzante Tag Championship. It packs 625bhp and weighs just 920kg, all but guaranteeing it will be an absolute rocketship on the road. It will be revealed in full at the Festival of Speed.

Red Bull’s first hypercar will be unveiled at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. With a 1250bhp V10, it is described by Red Bull Advanced Technologies CEO Christian Horner as Adrian Newey “unleashed”. Its reveal will be accompanied by a celebration of Red Bull’s 20 years in Formula 1, with demonstration runs for several of the brand’s historic racers.

BYD’s luxury arm will aim to take the production electric car record when it runs its new hypercar, the U9, up the Goodwood hillclimb. Is its 1282bhp and big rear spoiler enough to outdo the 1877bhp Rimac Nevera? Only time will tell.