The Festival of Speed was founded in 1993 by the then Lord March (now the Duke of Richmond) as a way to bring motor racing back to the Goodwood estate without requiring the operating permit needed for circuit racing at the nearby Goodwood Motor Racing Circuit. Because the hillclimb runs over his private grounds, no such permit was required. The first driver to tackle the course at the inaugural event on 20 June 1993 was Sally Mason-Styrron, driving a Ferrari 166 MM Barchetta, in front of a crowd of 25,000. The event expanded to a two-day weekend in 1994 and a three-day event in 1996.
The hillclimb draws tens of thousands of spectators who are accorded unusually close access to the course. By 2014 the three-day event was attracting around 100,000 visitors per day, with a record attendance of 158,000 recorded in 2003 before an advance-ticket policy capped figures at 150,000.
The nine-turn layout climbs steeply from the courtyard in front of Goodwood House to a finish line near the top of the estate. Visitors can stand close to the barriers along much of the route, giving an immediacy rarely found at permanent circuits. During the main event weekend, selected drivers with the fastest times compete in a dedicated Sunday Shootout — formally called the Hillclimb Shootout — to decide the outright fastest run of the festival.
Formula One cars were regular participants and held the outright record for two decades. Nick Heidfeld set a landmark time of 41.6 seconds in 1999 driving a McLaren MP4/13, the reigning F1 World Constructors' Champion car. That mark stood until 2019, when Romain Dumas lowered it in practice to 39.90 seconds in the Volkswagen ID.R prototype electric car — though that practice run was not eligible to become the official record.
The official hill record was set in 2022 by Max Chilton in the electric McMurtry Spéirling at 39.081 seconds, breaking the long-standing benchmark set by Heidfeld. For safety reasons, F1 cars can no longer use tyre warmers or undertake official timed runs at the event, and instead perform demonstration runs. Chilton's electric car record therefore represents the current peak of competitive timing at the venue.
In 2025, the Alpine Alpenglow Hy6 hydrogen car was refuelled by Fuel Cell Systems at the event, marking a notable demonstration of hydrogen-powered vehicles in a motorsport context.
Two fatal accidents have occurred at the hillclimb during its history. At the inaugural 1993 meeting, vintage motorcyclist Chas Guy was killed in practice after the completion of his run, when his Vincent motorcycle developed a steering wobble and threw him into a tree. As a result, motorcycles have not been given timed runs at subsequent events. In 2000, driver John Dawson-Damer lost control of a Lotus 63 and crashed into the finish line gantry, killing himself and marshal Andrew Carpenter, and seriously injuring another marshal.
The Goodwood Festival of Speed hillclimb course appears in Gran Turismo 6, with both the 2014 and 2015 central display sculptures shown in the game environment. The nearby Goodwood Motor Circuit appears in Gran Turismo Sport and Gran Turismo 7. ITV provides live television coverage of the festival throughout the weekend, with Sky Sports simulcasting the Sunday programming. Since 2019, the event has also been streamed on YouTube.
The Goodwood hillclimb has grown from a small gathering of historic vehicles in 1993 into one of the most high-profile non-championship motorsport events in the world. It functions as a showcase for historic racing cars, current Formula One machinery, prototypes, and road-going supercars, with many manufacturers choosing the festival to reveal new models or set demonstration runs for their latest performance cars. The Forest Rally Stage, introduced in 2005 and designed as a complete circuit in 2006 by rally legend Hannu Mikkola, complements the hillclimb as a second competitive discipline within the grounds.