All the Big Reveals at the 2026 Goodwood Festival of Speed

The 2026 edition of the Goodwood Festival of Speed is well underway, as thousands of people congregate on the Duke of Richmond’s very posh front garden and work their way through all of southern England’s supply of SPF 50 and branded baseball caps.

As always, there’s plenty to see, both new and old, if you’re heading there this year, but with day one of the four-day festival done and dusted, the major new model reveals are largely out of the way. Here’s your roundup of all the new cars that made their debut at the 2026 event.

McLaren 788HS

Besides a Le Mans racer, things have been pretty quiet at McLaren for the last couple of years while it’s been busy merging with luxury startup Forseven and planning a whole slew of new models. FoS, though, has finally seen the debut of something new from Woking: the McLaren 788HS.

‘HS’, McLaren aficionados will note, stands for ‘High Sport’, and denotes particularly extreme (and usually very rare) versions of the company’s supercars. The 788HS is no different: the final evolution of the platform that started life back in 2017 as the 720S, its 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 is now making 777bhp (788ps, hence the name). 

Free of fluids, it weighs 1,265kg, and it wears a new aero kit that increases downforce by 10 per cent over the previous most extreme version of this platform, the 765LT. Top speed is 205mph, and 0-62mph takes just 2.8 seconds. Only 200 will be built (split 50/50 between coupes and Spiders) as a swansong for McLaren’s second-generation Super Series family.

Mercedes-AMG CLA 45

The most junior four-door model in the Mercedes-AMG stable is back for a third generation, and it’s gone electric. Wait, come back! Based on the latest CLA, which comes with full EV or hybrid options, it’s electricity or nowt for the AMG CLA 45, but that electricity powers three compact, power-dense axial flux motors (two on the rear axle, one up front), which develop a total of 671bhp.

Six hundred and seventy one brake horsepower. In the smallest saloon car Mercedes makes. Not to mention an even more unhinged 1,297lb ft of torque. You’ll be hitting 62mph in a quoted 3.0 seconds, a full second quicker than the old combustion CLA 45, and maxing out at a very Germanic 155mph.

This is all well and good, of course, but with other big-power EVs proving that raw numbers aren’t everything to enthusiasts, Mercedes is offering an olive branch to those disappointed that the CLA 45 has abandoned its angry four-cylinder roots. That means going down the increasingly common route of simulated gearshifts and engine noise, in this case a direct recreation of the old car’s 2.0-litre turbo four. As before, it comes as a saloon or a Shooting Brake (read: a swoopy, not-that-practical estate).

Apollo Evo

Five years after it was first unveiled, the production version of the Apollo Evo – the latest creation of the outfit previously known as Gumpert – made its debut at FoS. ‘Production’ is a stretch, though: only 10 Evos will be made, and they’ll be track-only.

Still, a track’s probably the only sensible place to fully exercise its 6.3-litre, 789bhp naturally aspirated V12, which began life as Ferrari’s wonderful F140 unit and has been massaged by HWA, creators of the wonderful Evo Mercedes 190E restomod. Priced at around £2.6 million a piece, other highlights include a new 3D-printed titanium exhaust system that Apollo calls ‘Dragon Skin’.

Zenvo Aurora

The Apollo isn’t the only long-teased V12 hypercar to finally arrive in production form at FoS this year. Three years after we first saw the concept version of the Aurora, from low-volume Danish outfit Zenvo, this is a final validation prototype that represents the car in its near-finished form.

This one, you will be able to drive on the road. The working prototypes, of which two appeared at Goodwood, are in road-biased Tur spec (there’s also a more hardcore, track-focused Agil model in the works). Just because they’re set up more for road driving, though, doesn’t meant they’re not almost comically fast. The Aurora features a new 6.6-litre quad-turbo V12, for which Zenvo is targeting 1,250bhp, which would make it the most powerful V12 ever fitted to a road car. Paired with three e-motors to make it a hybrid, 1,850bhp is the projected combined output.

Hennessey Venom F5-M Evolution

2026 really has been a vintage Goodwood for boutique hypercars with truly silly power figures. Having previously created a six-speed manual version of the insane Venom F5, the Texas-based speed enthusiasts at Hennessey have now given it a series of ‘Evolution’ upgrades.

They involve improving the aero, fitting active suspension and turning up its 6.6-litre twin-turbo V8 from a not-insubstantial 1,817bhp to a completely unhinged 2,031bhp. That further establishes the F5-M as the most powerful manual production car ever by a vast margin over the previous record holder, the 1,385bhp Koenigsegg CC850, although ‘production’ is once again doing some heavy lifting: just 12 will be built, at around £2.25 million each.

Ruf B8 prototype

Not bored of hypercars with silly power figures yet? Thought not. Ruf – the company you probably know best for standing in for Porsche in old Gran Turismo games – has been doing some increasingly unique things in recent years, but the B8 might just be the most unique yet.

It’s pretty clearly based on the long-lived CTR3 mid-engined sports car, but while that car’s always used a modified version of a Porsche 911 Turbo’s flat-six, the B8 prototype has something totally new: a bespoke 4.8-litre twin-turbo flat-eight, a configuration never before seen in a roadgoing production car. Now undergoing testing, Ruf aims for the engine to be in production within a couple of years, and says it’ll produce north of 1,000bhp.

Maserati Project GT4

Maserati’s most recent racing efforts have been in Formula E and the new-ish, amateur- and semi-pro-geared GT2 series, neither of them categories that have many traditional car or motorsport enthusiast eyes on them.

Arguably, the entry-level GT4 class isn’t the most prestigious either, but it is a step on the ladder towards the ubiquitous GT3 category, and from 2028, it’ll be where Maserati’s next racing model competes. Previewed at Goodwood with the Project GT4 show car, it’s essentially a racing version of the new GranTurismo, powered by the same 3.0-litre twin-turbo V6 and featuring the usual raft of race-ready modifications.

Cupra Leon e-Hybrid Racer

Described as a “testbench for a new, more accessible motorsport architecture,” this Cupra Leon-based prototype racing car is a sort of greatest hits compilation of the sporty Seat spinoff’s current range. It combines the 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder from the Leon VZ road car, the motor from the electric Raval supermini and battery tech from the plug-in hybrid Leon to create a new hybrid-powered touring car.

It’s not too clear at this point what Cupra has planned for it, but with a peak combined output of 493bhp, we hope it’s something we’ll see hammering around the world’s racetracks before too long.

Mini Cooper Oxford Edition

Mini unveils new special edition Cooper. In other news, sky remains blue. The latest in a long line, this one celebrates 25 years since the first of the BMW-developed cars rolled off the production line at Plant Oxford, a former Morris factory repurposed specifically to build the reborn Mini.

Available as a 154bhp Cooper C or 201bhp Cooper S, it’s not shy about where it’s from, marking the return of the Union Jack roof graphic to the Mini as well as scattering a series of Union Jack motifs throughout the interior. 

MG Go!

Unveiled alongside an electric SUV concept which, frankly, we couldn’t be less interested in if we tried, the shouty MG Go! concept previews an upcoming entry-level EV from the Anglo-Chinese marque, designed to take on the new wave of style-led retro electric superminis like the Renault 5 and Fiat Grande Panda.

Expect a production version to be here before long, minus some of the chunkier show-car styling cues found on the concept. We’re all for MG bringing back the Metro name for the finished version.