Goodwood Festival of Speed: Cartier concours

Alongside the race cars zooming up and down the hill, glamorous supercar debuts, and future technology on display, the Goodwood Festival of Speed is also host to one of the world’s most prestigious concourses d’elegance, the Cartier Style et Luxe. Competing in this year’s classes were several timeless beauties, judged by the likes of former Apple chief designer Jonny Ive, Land Rover’s Gerry McGovern, industrial designer Marc Newson, and former Fiat marketing chief Lapo Elkann, among others. Here’s what caught our eye…

Cent Ans d’Avant Garde

In 1919, Gabriel B. Voisin started producing cars outside of Paris. Voisin, a fine art student and aviation engineer, was one of the first to use a monocoque chassis construction and made extensive use of lightweight materials such as aluminum. He dubbed his creation the Avions Voisin (Voison’s airplanes) and produced several variants. Early models were powered by sleeve-valve Knight engines that ranged from inline-fours to V-12s, but were later replaced by 3.5-litre Graham motors.

A Sting in the Tail: 70 Years of Abarth

The marque known by the scorpion on a red and yellow background was founded in 1949 in Bologna by Carlo Abarth when he took over the assets of Cisitalia, a racing and sports car maker, after its founder ran out of money and left for Argentina. The famous logo was an homage to Abarth’s astrological sign, Scorpio. The first Abarths were built from acquired Cisitalia chassis, dubbed the 204 A. In 1952, Abarth began what would become a longstanding relationship with Fiat, beginning with the 1500 Biposto. Abarth was successful during the 1960s in sports car racing and hillclimbing, and also produced exhaust pipes and tuning kits for Fiat and other brands. In 1971, Abarth sold his company to Fiat, which filed the marque under the company’s racing division. The class winner at Style et Luxe is the 1957 Abarth 750 Goccia Vignale, one of three experimental prototypes built that were heralded for their highly aerodynamic design. It never went into production, however, losing out to a Zagato body style.

Like Father, Like Son: The Genius of Jean Bugatti

Ettore Bugatti’s eldest son followed in his father’s footsteps, by some accounts designing cars as early as his teenage years. At age 23, he did the bulk of the design work on the Bugatti Type 41 Royale, one of the largest luxury cars in the world at 6.4 metres long. Jean went on to design several Bugatti bodies, and also worked on developing independent suspension systems to replace the solid front axles of the time. Tragically, the younger Bugatti was killed in 1939 while testing the Type 57 which had just won that year’s 24 Hours de Le Mans. The Style et Luxe winner in this class is the 1937 Type 57 SC Atalante, with its riveted body panels and swooping roofline and fenders. Powered by a supercharged 3.3-litre inline-8-cylinder engine, only 12 SCs were made, and none is exactly alike.

Continental Drift: Bentley’s Beguiling R-Type

Built from 1952 to 1955, the R-Type was the replacement to the Bentley Mk VI and shared nearly every detail, save the radiator grilles and carburetors, with the Rolls Royce Silver Dawn. Also known as the Bentley Type 7, the R-Type had nearly double the boot capacity as its predecessor. Although the car wasn’t exactly rare (2,250 units were built), many owners opted for coachbuilt versions done by Mulliner, Park Ward, Carrosserie Worblaufen, and other prestigious firms of the time. All used a 4,566 cc straight-six engine with a four-speed manual transmission (and the last manual gearbox to ever be offered by Bentley). The winning car at Style et Luxe is the 1954 R-Type Continental.

Tea for Two: Volkswagen’s Versatile Van

Volkswagen vans may be an unusual class for a concourse d’elegance, but the quirky, practical vehicles no doubt have their place in automotive history. Officially known as the Type 2, the cab-over-engine (or forward control) panel van was known by many names: The Transporter, Bus, Microbus, Hippie Bus, and Camper. The first-generation Type two was made from 1950 to 1967 and was characterized by its split window. Early models used the same 1100 air-cool engine found in the Volkswagen Beetle. The second generation got a larger, single-pane windshield and was nicknamed the “Bread and Bay,” after its breadloaf shape and big bay window. The class winner at Goodwood is the 1956 Volkswagen Type 261 Single Cab, a pickup truck variant of the Type 2 owned by Barney Dines, the managing director of the VW Heritage Parts Centre in Brighton.

Milanese Maestros: 100 Years of Zagato

Coachbuilder Ugo Zagato transformed countless sports and racecars with lightweight materials and aerodynamic shapes. Over the course of a career spanning more than 40 years, Zagato bodied his cars with innovative and competitive technology, such as inclined windscreens, convex, boot lids, and perforated disc wheels. Known for his large greenhouses, Zagato invented the Panoramica body, featuring large glazed areas made of Plexiglass. His designs were fitted to nearly every European manufacturer of the day: Alfa Romeo, Aston Martin, Ferrari, Maserati, Jaguar, and many more. Winning the Style et Luxe class at Goodwood is the 1959 Lancia Flaminia 2500 Sport Zagato Pre-Series, a short-wheelbase version of Lancia’s Flamina with signature Zagato design cues including covered headlamps, double-bubble roof, and central bonnet scoop.