Honda UK is once more set to thrill visitors to the Goodwood Festival of Speed with a dazzling array of fast bikes, fast cars, famous faces and fantastic activities.
2009 Formula One World Champion Jenson Button will be piloting the heritage 1968 Honda F1 car, the RA301, up the famous hill-climb on Sunday as well as making an appearance on the Honda stand for a live Q&A at 1.30pm on the Sunday. Used throughout 1968, the RA301 was developed in partnership with Lola Cars and with Honda withdrawing from F1 at the end of that season, it was the last F1 car raced by Honda until the 2006 season, 38 years later.
As well as F1, the 2018 Honda works British Touring Car Championship Civic Type R will be taken up the hill by triple champion Matt Neal and season rookie Dan Cammish, while the NSX supercar will be driven by Nick Robinson, one of the leading engineers on the project.
Two-wheeled Honda fans are in for a treat this year with a bumper batch of bikes including the RC213V-S, Fireblade, Fireblade SP, CB1000R+, TT Fireblade and a 4RC146 which has been specially flown in from Honda’s collection hall in Motegi, Japan. Honda is also providing two brand new 2018 Gold Wings to Goodwood; both of which have been specially wrapped in silver to highlight the Festival’s 25th anniversary and will be used as course bikes.
With Honda’s stand this year drawing inspiration from its racing heritage, visitors can expect to be fully immersed in both two and four wheel pit lane experiences. At specific slots throughout the weekend, both the four-wheeled Halfords Yuasa Racing and two-wheeled Honda Racing will be deconstructing and reassembling a car and bike respectively, with each performance focused on a different element of the machine. The drivers will also be on stand for a live Q&A, with the BTCC boys on Friday at 12pm and the BSB boys on Saturday as 12.30pm.
Alongside this, the home grown Swindon-based Honda factory racing team, Synchro Motorsport, will be asking the audience to take part in a timed pit-stop challenge in taking off and putting on a wheel, using a unique tool developed by the team themselves. There will be a live leader board of scores with the fastest time winning a prize each day.
Putting the audience directly in to the seats of the British Touring Car Championship Civic Type R and the Honda Racing Fireblade, guests step into an open pit garage to face 11 screens, each showing different points of view from the same lap at Snetterton. Starting with the BTCC car the screens deconstruct the lap as the driver would experience it, along with radio conversation between driver and the pits, before switching to views from the bike perspective giving a direct comparison of the experience of the same lap.
Finally on stand, the ever-popular Power of Lean is back with guests sitting on a Fireblade and tucking around a corner against a track backdrop.
David Hodgetts, managing director at Honda UK commented: “To celebrate the 25th anniversary of Goodwood Festival of Speed, Honda UK has focused on bringing its racing heritage to life by providing unique and engaging experiences to get visitors up close and personal with our products, teams and drivers. For instance, using a tablet computer, visitors can go for a virtual spin in a Civic with BTCC stars Matt and Dan where they showcase the features of the car. Whilst those who have a passion for the Isle of Man TT have the chance to do a lap of the course while sat on a Fireblade – both experiences from the comfort of our Goodwood stand!”
The Goodwood Festival of Speed runs from Thursday 12th July to Sunday 15th July 2018.
