The Goodwood Festival of Speed, held in West Sussex, England every summer, should be on every automotive enthusiast’s bucket list. The famous hill climb always gathers some of motoring's most historic vehicles. This year, as part of the continuing 70th anniversary celebrations, Land Rover used their festival partnership to showcase some of the best of the company’s past and present.
Now, plenty of cool cars climbed the hill this year, and there were some new records. The all-electric Volkswagen I.D. R set the third fastest time in the event’s history, and broke the electric record. The Roborace Racecar was the first fully autonomous car to do the course without a driver.
However, these vehicles had one thing in common on their record-breaking runs: they did them on all four wheels. Land Rover, as usual deciding to be a bit different, set a record of their own this year: the Guinness World Record for driving a four-wheeled car on two wheels, in the Range Rover Sport SVR -- the fastest Land Rover ever produced.
The most experienced person for task like this was stunt driver Terry Grant, who had already set the previous two-wheel record in 2011 in a Nissan Juke. The Range Rover Sport SVR smashed that 2:55 record, coming in at 2:24.5.
If it makes you feel better about your inferior askew driving skills, he did drive the truck into a wall on the practice run, though being on two wheels already, he didn’t “crash into it” as much as he “drove along it with the other two wheels.”
Land Rover also celebrated the 70th anniversary with another celebratory parade, gathering 70 significant trucks from the corporate collection, the British Motor Museum, the Dunsfold Collection, and private owners. All sorts of Land Rovers did the hill climb, from the first Series I, to various specialty Series trucks, a variety of Range Rovers including many exciting Range Rover Classics, and a smattering of historic Discoverys; the newest models took up the rear. This parade did not break any speed records up the hill, but the sight of so much history driving past was just as exciting.
There's no guarantees of this much thrilling Land Rover content at Goodwood next year, but they're always a significant participant in what's become a quintessential British motoring experience. I'm sure they'll have something up their sleeve in 2019 to add to the many exciting non-Land Rover feats...
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