BMW Brings M Power to Goodwood Festival of Speed

Goodwood is more of a celebration than a contest, but that didn’t stop BMW from showing up with some of its M Competition models.

Being a kid is fun, but in certain ways, being an adult is even more fun, especially if you’re into cars. Children get to play with Hot Wheels cars and have their birthday parties at Chuck E. Cheese. Adults get to drive real cars and enjoy the attractions at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

YouTuber Sam Moores attended the high-octane event as a guest of BMW and gets an absolute eyeful of its latest models in the video above. Those range from the new 1 Series hatch to the Z4. BMW even brought a classic M1 road car.

Moores also gets a chance to ride shotgun for a run up Goodwood’s famous hillclimb. After meeting up with Tom Oliphant, a BMW racecar driver in the British Touring Car Championship series, he jumps into the shotgun seat of a UKDM X4 M Competition model so Oliphant can take the cranked-up crossover to the top of the route. Before they make their run to the finish line, they discuss the new 3 Series BTCC racecar that Oliphant competes in. Like the 330i production car, Oliphant’s 3 packs a turbocharged 2.0-liter I4 under its hood. Of course, there are key differences. The engine is “sent away to a different engine manufacturer and slightly increased on the tuning side and a lot of components are changed for racing, but apart from that, it’s exactly fundamentally the same thing as you’ll get in a 3 Series.”

At the end of the 1.16-mile course, Moores finds himself surrounded by high-dollar metal from various manufacturers, including Bentley and McLaren. A little later, he catches up with Oliphant and gets his take on the X4 M Competition. Oliphant says, “It’s got a lot of grunt, it’s nice and comfy to drive, cornered well”…and handled having a wheel or two off of the track well.

In the ///M Town section of Goodwood, Moores gets up close to an M8 Competition coupe. With 617 horsepower and 553 lb-ft of torque, the M8 Competition is already a special machine, but this particular one features various carbon fiber exterior parts, including its entire twin-kidney grille and its side mirrors and vents, as well as a raucous racing exhaust. Next to it is a couple of optional wheels with squares punched out of the spokes to keep them as light as possible. “These are going to be two kilos (4.4 pounds) lighter than the normal Competition wheels,” according to Moores.

Aside from its hillclimb, the Goodwood Festival of Speed is not really a win-lose kind of event. But if it was, we’d say BMW brought its all-stars and got a big W at this year’s supercar party.

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Derek Shiekhi

Derek Shiekhi's father raised him on cars. As a boy, Derek accompanied his dad as he bought classics such as post-WWII GM trucks and early Ford Mustang convertibles.

After loving cars for years and getting a bachelor's degree in Business Management, Derek decided to get an associate degree in journalism. His networking put him in contact with the editor of the Austin-American Statesman newspaper, who hired him to write freelance about automotive culture and events in Austin, Texas in 2013. One particular story led to him getting a certificate for learning the foundations of road racing.

While watching TV with his parents one fateful evening, he saw a commercial that changed his life. In it, Jeep touted the Wrangler as the Texas Auto Writers Association's "SUV of Texas." Derek knew he had to join the organization if he was going to advance as an automotive writer. He joined the Texas Auto Writers Association (TAWA) in 2014 and was fortunate to meet several nice people who connected him to the representatives of several automakers and the people who could give him access to press vehicles (the first one he ever got the keys to was a Lexus LX 570). He's now a regular at TAWA's two main events: the Texas Auto Roundup in the spring and the Texas Truck Rodeo in the fall.

Over the past several years, Derek has learned how to drive off-road in various four-wheel-drive SUVs (he even camped out for two nights in a Land Rover), and driven around various tracks in hot hatches, muscle cars, and exotics. Several of his pieces, including his article about the 2015 Ford F-150 being crowned TAWA's 2014 "Truck of Texas" and his review of the Alfa Romeo 4C Spider, have won awards in TAWA's annual Excellence in Craft Competition. Last year, his JK Forum profile of Wagonmaster, a business that restores Jeep Wagoneers, won prizes in TAWA’s signature writing contest and its pickup- and SUV-focused Texas Truck Invitational.

In addition to writing for a variety of Internet Brands sites, including JK Forum, H-D Forums, The Mustang Source, Mustang Forums, LS1Tech, HondaTech, Jaguar Forums, YotaTech, and Ford Truck Enthusiasts. Derek also started There Will Be Cars on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.