"A colour change does not make it a special edition"

Goodwood is perhaps the largest of automotive smelting pots around today, drawing in global production car launches, iconic classics and everything in between. 

One segment that has not quite captured the same attention is the modding community, but that has never deterred UK brand Urban Automotive from showing out. Indeed, 2025 marked its tenth year at the Festival of Speed and this time it brought its largest and most prominent stand ever. 

Founder Simon Dearn recalls the first time Urban took a spot on the paddock, nestled in the corner away from most of the crowds with not much more than an awning. It was a very different look this year with three new launches amid several existing models, flanked by big name partners in Vossen Wheels and Yokohama Tyres no less. 

We visited the stand first thing on Thursday morning and the team had already sold one of its reveals, the soft-top Defender, which had apparently been snapped up in minutes. It is the first time an Urban car has sold live at Goodwood. Perhaps the view on modified vehicles is softening; maybe this particular launch — orange seats, flared arches, ultra-rare cabrio set-up — was simply bang on trend with the modding crowd. "It's a good start for us," grins Dearn. 

Centre stage in the sun were three global reveals, all finished just in time for that morning's launch. 

As noted above, it was the Urban Widetrack Heritage Series Soft-Top that sold straightaway. Based on a Land Rover Defender 90, the team leaned on its recent acquisition of Dutch coachbuilder Heritage Customs for the soft-top conversion, while the Widetrack exterior package brings the muscle. The interior is not for shrinking violets, decked out in luminous 'Hermes Orange' leather. 

The Range Rover Sport Urban XRS (Extreme Road Series) Widetrack is based on the  Based on the Range Rover Sport SV and as such carries the  4.4-litre mild hybrid V8. 

Alongside the new carbon-fibre styling components, design tweaks include new forged alloy wheels and graphics. The centrepiece, literally, is the new central tailpipe which immediately reminded us of the Lamborghini Aventador. "People are either going to love it or hate it," says Dearn. "It's quite radical."

But it was the Rolls-Royce Cullinan (Series II) seemed to draw the most attention during our time at the stand. Alongside a new carbon-fibre bonnet, the widetrack wheel arch and sill extensions are also made from carbon fibre and team well with the huge 24-inch forged alloy wheels co-developed by Urban and Vossen. 

Wheel design, it turns out, has become a particularly satisfying task. "We've got our own wheel range which we make in our own factory, and that's normally our higher volume cast wheels. Vossen does all of our high end forged stuff, so the majority of the wheels here are collaborative designs," he explains. 

"There is an Urban x Vossen range; we've done nine wheel designs so far and we normally add one or two each year. You can break more design barriers with forged wheels because of the added strength. Usually, I'll come up with some drawings and then we'll send it to Vossen and they come back with loads of variations. It's my favourite part of the job, to be honest."

He is also a man for details and flags Guntherworks and Singer as brands that he admires on that front: "We've done some Singer-inspired interior touches, with some little brass rivets which are nice."

Speaking more broadly, Dearn is aware that not everyone is on board with modification. He does however see a distinction between generic kits for cars that 'need it' and what Urban offers: in-house design and engineering that elevates designs which are already crowd pleasers. 

"We've tried to change the minds of a lot of purists. There are things that we do that probably dip over onto the garish side, but that's because the product actually requires it, not because it's, it's exactly to my taste. I'm trying to pitch the product to a market that is between OEM standard and something that's ultra garish.

"There are people who want something individual that a special edition but more than just a colour change; a lot of manufacturers run a black edition or a so on, but to me, that's not a special edition. We've got the ability to turn things around quickly and dynamically. Four cars that we're showing here were done in the last three months."

Dearn is ultimately quite keen to grab OEM designers for a chat to understand how Urban is perceived and perhaps how the two sides might find things in common.