2024 Goodwood Revival is racing exclusively with sustainable fuel

It means that every car and bike you see in competitive action over the next three days will be running on fuel with a minimum of 70 per cent sustainable components, in what is the latest initiative as part of Goodwood’s Revive & Thrive ethos.

It’s a change that has been carefully considered and researched, and implemented in such a way that cars will require no modifications in order to run on the new fuel. We’ve witnessed initial testing that showed sustainable fuel will have no effect on engine performance, either, dyno results have proved consistent with standard race fuel so the historic racing we’ve come to love at the Revival will be as intense as ever.

A fully sustainable Revival meeting is a logical but ambitious next step following on from the 2023 edition of the Fordwater Trophy, which saw 30 sustainably-fuelled pre-1966 Porsche 911s put on a great show with drivers including Jenson Button, Tom Kristensen and Mark Webber. Button said: “It was great to be a part of the Fordwater Trophy which brought together classic cars and the very latest in sustainable fuel technology. What’s so exciting about these fuels is that they can guarantee the future of historic racing, enabling us to enjoy combustion engine cars for years to come.”

We’ve already seen success for sustainably fuelled cars at the Revival, too; the first ever sustainably-fuelled winner at the Revival was the 1925 Bentley Speed Model, which Ben Collings and Gareth Graham drove to victory ahead of other cars running on standard fuel.

It’s an exciting moment for Goodwood at the beginning of a new sustainably-fuelled era, with a Revival meeting that’s set to offer a different sensory experience as the distinct smells of these new fuels fill the air around the Motor Circuit. But above all, the feeling around the paddocks is one of confidence that the future of historic motorsport is secure.

Will Nuthall, who’s preparing and racing a Cooper T53 in the Richmond & Gordon Trophies at the 2024 Revival said: “We haven’t had any problems with the fuel, we build all our own engines and gearboxes, and we’ve had a brand-new engine on the dyno with very different fuels.

“We’ve run every car we’ve got here on sustainable fuels on the rolling road just to make sure things are alright and we haven’t had any problems. I think everybody’s going to have a good time this weekend.”

And it’s not just the drivers racing here this weekend who are enthused by the new fuels. Sebastian Vettel, who headlined the Festival in 2023 with his Williams FW14B and McLaren MP4/8, said: “It was clear to me at the Festival of Speed that the team at Goodwood share my love of motor racing. I enjoyed sharing my ‘Race Without Trace’ initiative with the fans at the Festival of Speed and having the opportunity to show that sustainable fuels are a fantastic way to ensure a possible future pathway for the sport that we love. It’s great that Goodwood is leading the way in promoting the use of sustainable fuels at historic racing events.”

The Duke of Richmond, founder of the Festival of Speed and Goodwood Revival, said: “Goodwood has an illustrious motorsport history and one which we are delighted to continue with the announcement that at next year’s Revival, all of our races will run on sustainable fuel. I am proud that we are the first to be mandating the use of sustainable fuels at the event, and would like to thank all of the participating owners, drivers and preparers for their support.”

The 2024 Goodwood Revival takes place on 6^th-8^th September. You can watch every moment of the historic motorsport action right here on our live stream!

Photography by Jordan Butters and Joe Harding.