These 8 fun cars debuted at the 2023 Goodwood Festival of Speed

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Britain’s annual celebration of motorsport and automotive history wrapped up at the grounds of Goodwood House in West Sussex this weekend. A number of automotive brands used the gathering to showcase their new wares, including French newcomer Ineos, which debuted its Defender-based Grenadier Quartermaster pickup truck. 

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Other brands to climb the hill and try to avoid the hay bales – some more successfully than others – included Polestar with its Polestar 5 prototype; Porsche with its Vision 357 Speedster, and Hyundai with its Ioniq 5 N and Ioniq 6 RN22e concept.

But there were many more notable debuts and reveals at the show. Here are eight of them, each  exciting in their own right, even if most of them will not make it to the Canadian market.  

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Caterham Project V

Britain’s own Caterham took the home court advantage to introduce a new lightweight electric sports car called “Project V.” Expected in production form late 2025 or 2026 with a price around the $135,000 mark, Project V has three seats, a range upwards of 380 km, an expected curb weight of 2,623 lbs, and – a novelty for Caterham – a roof and doors. 

“A Caterham Seven’s design is simple and minimalist, it’s designed for its intended function, to be lightweight and fun to drive,” said Caterham chief designer Anthony Jannarelly. “With Project V, we’re applying this philosophy to the sports coupé architecture to create a seducing and timeless silhouette. Every single feature has to justify itself from a weight perspective to maintain lightness and optimize driver engagement.”

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If the Caterham Project V does come to North America, expect it to arrive as a kit car. 

Lotus Emira i4

Small and mighty is something Lotus does very well, so some excitement is warranted over the arrival of the Emira i4, the brand’s most powerful four-cylinder car ever. With two fewer cylinders than the Emira V6 that dropped two years ago – a downsizing Lotus also pulled with the Elise and Esprit – the Emira’s 2.0L turbo engine (borrowed from Mercedes-AMG) makes 355 horsepower and 317 lb-ft of torque from its placement in the middle of the car, and motivates the two-seater to 100 km/h from zero in 4.4 seconds. The car also weighs 26.5 lb less than the larger-displacement version. 

And the Lotus Emira is Lotus’ final mainstream combustion-engine product, to boot. Prices start at US$105,900. 

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Ferrari KC23

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Ferrari’s Special Projects team took a 488 GT3 Evo race car, styling inspiration from historic Ferrari models, and combined them to create this, the track-only one-off KC23. According to the brand, “the KC23 was destined to be radical and untethered from homologation constraints,” so though we don’t know what it did to the V8, expect it to to offer more output, perhaps up over 700 hp. Not that we’ll ever get to drive it—or even go near it.  

The KC23 was designed by a team led by Flavio Mazoni, and built for “one very imaginative, passionate, and exacting customer” who will use it non-competitively on a track. The interior is appropriately motorsport-flavoured, as is the exterior, featuring active aerodynamics, a large rear diffuser, and butterfly doors. 

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Big ups to whoever the owner is for allowing us peasants to check it out this weekend; and at the Ferrari Museum in Maranello, where it will live for a short stint following Goodwood. 

Ford Mustang Mach-E Rally

Not everything presented so tantalizingly at 2023 Goodwood was off the menu for North Americans. Ford unveiled a new twist on one of its more worldly models, the electric Mustang Mach-E. 

The Mach-E Rally represents the first time Ford has instructed its half-century-old Mustang nameplate to go and play in the dirt. It’s got a tow hook on the front bumper, a spoiler out back, and a few other novel details visible under the wraps, but otherwise it visually appears much the same as the Mach-E GT. 

Performance, trim, and pricing details haven’t been shared, but orders for the off-road-oriented SUV are set to open “first” in Europe and the U.S. this fall. 

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Pininfarina Battista Edizione Nino Farina

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To celebrate the half-decade it’s been on the scene, Italian coachbuilder Pininfarina is minting a limited run of five special-edition electric hypercars. The Battista Edizione Nino Farina also pays homage to the founder’s nephew and F1 champion, Giuseppe “Nino” Farina, who won the inaugural F1 championship in 1950.

Presented in red, white, and blue paint with gold wheels and carbon-fibre exterior trim, each of the special Battistas come with a door plate highlighting a different motorsport milestone from Nino’s life. The car is rated for 1,874 horsepower – the same as in the ‘standard’ model limited to 150 examples – which is sent to all four wheels and allows it to get up to 100 km/h from nada in just 1.89 seconds. The price for that standard Battista? Over US$2 million. 

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Maserati Special Edition Ghibli and Levante

Maserati is discontinuing its V8 engines and bidding adieu with a pair of limited edition machines: the Ghibli 334 Ultima and the Levante V8 Ultima, both of which will feature the 3.8-litre 572-hp twin-turbo V8. The Ghibli can climb to 334 km/h—which is where it gets the “334” in its badge from—making it the world’s fastest sedan, according to Maserati. There are just 103 being produced, so that’s one way to go out in style.

The Levante shares the same engine and is outfitted with an armour of carbon fibre on the front and rear bumpers, as well as on the side skirts. It’s a handsome machine with 22-inch Orione wheels and two paint options, including Nero Assoluto and Blu Royale. There will be 206 Levante examples to roll off the production line, 103 in each hue.

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Lamborghini SC63 LMDh V8

Lambo Squadra Corse used the Goodwood grounds as a red carpet, rolling out its latest LMDh V8 supercar. It’s going by the name “SC63,” and it’s as bad (good bad) as it sounds. The machine is scheduled to compete at a number of noteworthy events, like Le Mans, Sebring, and the 24 Hours of Daytona, so we’ll see its true endurance capabilities then. 

Under the hood, there’s a twin-turbo 3.8-liter V8 engine with a cold-V configuration, which means the turbochargers are mounted outside of the V angle of the engine.

“Our LMDh car, the Lamborghini SC63, is an exciting challenge from both a technical and a human standpoint,” said Rouven Mohr, Lamborghini Chief Technical Officer in a press release. “The development of our internal-combustion engine, aerodynamically efficient bodywork, and the overall technical package is a process that has pushed us to constantly raise our own standards.”