Every year an automaker is chosen to be celebrated at the Goodwood Festival of Speed with an artistic installation directly in front of the historic Goodwood house in West Sussex, England, and a host of classic and shiny new cars on display. For 2012 it will be the iconic English brand Lotus.

This acknowledgement comes at important time in Lotus’ history, both when looking into the future and consulting the past. In 2012 Lotus will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Elan sportscar, the 40th anniversary of the Espirit supercar concept unveiling, the 35th anniversary of the 78 ground effect Lotus F1 car competing for the first time and the 20th anniversary of cyclist Chris Boardman winning a gold medal at the Barcelona summer Olympics while riding the type 108 bicycle developed by Lotus. Next year will mark a big year in the company’s history as well, when the new 2013 Espirit supercar is finally unleashed.

The Goodwood festival’s chosen Marque is always an honor that is bestowed upon a company the organizers feel have had a major influence on car culture and automotive history. Some of the companies that have been celebrated include Jaguar, Audi, Alfa Romeo, and Land Rover just to name a few.

The 2012 Goodwood Festival of Speed begins on June 28 and should be a great celebration of Lotus’ past accomplishments and future endeavors.

It is a tradition at the Goodwood Festival of Speed to run up the hill of this famous estate. Just about every type of road and racing car make this trek, and the Bentley ice racer is no exception.

Earlier this year, Bentley set a new record of the highest speed achieved by a car on ice when it hit 205.48 with their 631-horsepower Continental Supersports convertible. The record run took place on a section of the Baltic Sea on a 10-mile track, just off the coast of Finland, and the car was driven by rallying superstar Juha Kankunnen.

The weather at Goodwood was a lot warmer and the crowd was much bigger for the run up the hill, but Kankunnen delighted the crowd with some quick runs. He said; “Driving this very special Bentley Continental in front of the packed Goodwood grandstands was a special experience for me. Driving on a frozen sea was a unique challenge and only a few Bentley engineers and my support crew were there to witness the new world record. So it was a pleasure to provide a glimpse of the capabilities of this Bentley to a huge audience of motorsport enthusiasts on a beautiful summer’s day.”

However, Kankunnen wasn’t the only celebrity on the Bentley grand stand, as five-time Le Mans winner Derek Bell was also in attendance. Bell, who now works as a driving consultant for Bentley also made the run, choosing to drive the new Continental GT coupe up the hill. Bell who was part of the winning 2003 Bentley Le Mans team said; “Driving the GT at Goodwood was a lot of fun. The new car maintains all the luxury and refinement for which Bentley is renowned, but is even quicker, dynamically sharper and more powerful than its predecessor.”

What makes the Goodwood Festival of Speed a bucket-list event isn’t the tremendous gathering of exotic sports cars, but the fact that they’re driven – hard!

The highlight of the event is the hill climb, where drivers (often professionals) take everything from a Rolls-Royce to the original Audi Quattro rally car to exotics to modern Formula 1 machines, and blast up the technical hill. This display of speed is what gives the event its well-deserved name.

If you couldn’t make it this year, mark your calendar for 2012. In the mean time, it’s well worth clicking through every photo in the gallery below, with all the aforementioned machines plus rare concept cars, modern and classic race cars, and even some true rarities like Moslers, Paganis, Bristols and the Caparo T1.

Enjoy!

GALLERY: Goodwood Festival of Speed Hill Climb

In commemoration of the Jaguar E-type’s 50th anniversary, a 91.9-foot tall sculpture has taken center stage for this years Goodwood Festival of Speed.

This gigantic steel structure constitutes nearly half a kilometer of steel pipes, which were originally intended for use as a gas pipeline. The material for this structure was donated by Tata Steel, a subsidiary of Tata Motors, which currently owns Jaguar. It looks massive and with a curb weight of 336,000 lbs. it is heavy too.

This structure is the work of Gerry Judah, who has been working on it since January. It took 10-days to erect it and the work was undertaken by a firm that usually builds bridges.

Typically the annual monument at the Goodwood Festival of Speed incorporates cars on it, but Judah didn’t want that, saying; “The E-type is famous for its shape but too small and delicate to hoist into the air. I thought I would like to express the form of the car itself without any embellishments. Everyone recognizes the E-type, the shape speaks for itself. You can’t compete with it, you can’t digress from it.”

The festival starts today and will run until July 3rd.

The famous 1991 24-Hours of Le Mans winner, the Mazda 787B will be featured at this weekend’s Goodwood Festival of Speed. Ex-Formula 1 driver and Le Mans veteran Mike Wilds and current Mazda works driver Mark Ticehurst will be racing the 787B up the hallowed Goodwood hill for the festival this weekend. The race car returns to mark the 20th anniversary of its famous victory in the demanding 24-Hours of Le Mans.

The 787B will race brands like Aston Martin, Porsche, Lotus and BMW in this year’s Britcar Dunlop Production GTN Championship.

Mazda’s 787B made history in 1991 at the 24 Hours of Le Mans by becoming the first Japanese car to win the event. It’s victory lap was also its last as after 1991, rotary engines could not participate in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Mazda is still the only Japanese car manufacturer to win Le Mans.

The 787B is powered by a 700-hp rotary engine which has a top speed of 210mph.

The 787B will also join the MX-5 GT race car which is powered by a 275-hp 2.0-liter naturally-aspirated engine featuring a six-speed sequential paddle-shift gearbox, carbonfibre doors and polycarbonate windows. The car has a kerb weight of just 850kg and can accelerate from 0-60mph in just three seconds.

Gallery: Mazda 787B

Ever driven on two wheels? Nissan, apparently having just watched that one scene from Diamonds Are Forever, is planning to set some goofy records at the hallowed grounds of Goodwood—including driving up the entire course while balanced on two wheels.

Hey, if you can’t beat them, distract them. Nissan plans to drive a Juke up the 1.16-mile hill balanced entirely on one side, presumably to practice escaping from Wint and Kidd, as well as an attempt to drive the Nissan Leaf up the hill—in reverse.

On paper, this sounds even slower than the Leaf already is. But the Leaf’s electric motor is capable of going just as fast backwards as it is the regular way: all the way up to 90mph. On production models reverse speed is restricted for rather obvious reasons, but on this attempt Nissan is pulling out all the stops.

Both vehicles will be driven by professional stunt driver Terry Grant, though not at the same time. The festivities begin July 1st to the 3rd at the Goodwood Festival Of Speed in Britain, where Nissan will prove that just because you’re not the fastest doesn’t mean you can’t be the most flamboyant. Hey, isn’t that how drifting got started?

Less than a day after releasing their GRMN Sport Hybrid Concept, Toyota has announced specs for their sporty new concept, the first vehicle we’ve seen from the brand since the MR2 sports car bowed out earlier in the decade.

Using a 3.5-liter Type 2GR-FXE V6 engine that produces 249 horsepower, the front-mounted electric motor adds another 50 horsepower for a total of 299 horsepower. Torque figures weren’t announced, but curb weight is said to be 3300lbs or less. While the GRMN is no featherweight, the power-to-weight ratio is roughly equivalent to a BMW 135i, which is certainly no slouch.

The GRMN will make its debut at this weekend’s 24 Hours of Nurburgring race, and will also appear at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

GALLERY: Toyota GRMN Sport Hybrid

What better way to spend more time on the trace track than to build one in your own back yard. Or better still, your front yard, as your driveway, tempting you to set a new record lap every time you return home.

That’s exactly what former Pikes Peak record holder Rod Millen has done at his New Zealand ranch.

The track itself is over a mile long, although definitely not up to FIA regulations when it comes to the width. It took several years to complete, and incorporates several traits from other Hillclimb events, including the treacherous Pikes Peak and the Goodwood Festival of Speed – where he reportedly came up with the idea in 2002.

Recently completed, Millen invited friends and fellow racers to his “Leadfoot Ranch,” where he hosted the first ever running up his driveway (the Leadfoot Festival) in celebration of his 60th birthday.

Wish you could have been there? We do too. So it’s a good thing Millen videotaped his run in his 800-hp Toyota Celica race car.

[Source: Jalopnik]

Watch the video after the jump:

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Toyota will be bringing an interesting blend of past, present and future cars to this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed. Climbing up the famous hill this year featuring Toyota’s moniker includes their GT One sports car, Dynojet Racing’s Avensis, a rare MR2-based Group S rally car, the famous “King of Africa” Celica Twin Cam TA64, WRC Corolla and this year’s Dakar Rally class-winning Land Cruiser. In the factory cars department, Toyota will be showing off its Yaris Hybrid concept, Auris Hybrid and Prius Plug-in Hybrid.

The Toyota GT One sports car is the same car seen at the 1999 Le Mans and will be reunited with its driver from that race, Thierry Boutsen. The Belgian F1 grand prix winner will be back behind the wheel of the GT One as it climbs up the hill. The Dynojet Racing Avensis is one of Toyota’s current racers in the 2011 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship. It will be driven by Frank Wrathall.

A rare sighting will include a MR2-based Group S rally car, which was once codenamed 222D. This rally car was a prototype car made in the 1980s that never saw competition due to championship regulations being changed. Only two of these are left and one of them will be campaigned up the hill!

Lastly, Toyota will have a strong World Rally Championship presence with their King of Africa Celica Twin Cam TA64, and the WRC Corolla that claimed 25 podiums between 1997-1999. The Land Cruiser from this year’s Dakar Rally (that claimed the win in its class) will also be present.

GALLERY: Toyota’s 2011 Goodwood Festival of Speed Cars

[Source: Toyota UK Blog]