Video: Smith and Sniff's guided tour of First Glance at the 2024 Festival of Speed

To pick out a handful from the many on show, the launch of the Jaecoo J7 earlier today was particularly exciting, as well as the debut of the BMW M5. Speaking of BMW, they had three cars go up the Hill for timed runs – the XM Label, M4 CS, as well as the M5. Joining them for a timed test was the Bentley Continental GT and the Genesis GV60 High Performance.

All of the cars in this Batch 5 made their way up the Hill, too, demonstrating their prowess in front of a keen audience, as did the 2024 BMW R20 Concept bike, flying the flag for the Road Bikes class, ridden by Markus Flasch and Sebastian Gutsch.

A word for those shiny new models not dirtying their tyres; several bikes were on static display, including a handful of Aprilia’s, the RS 125 and RS 457. A couple of limited edition Triumphs: the Bonneville T120 Elvis Presley and the Speed Triple 1200 RR Breitling were on show, too.  

As for cars, and perfectly fitting our ‘Horseless to Hybrid’ theme, Honda displayed their 1980 Prelude next to their new 2024 design – a fine showcase of its evolution.

From Aston Martin and Alpine, to XPeng and Yangwang, all the marques you could think of were here, revealing the latest products of their imagination and design and we’re loving every second of First Glance here at the Festival of Speed.

The 2024 Goodwood Festival of Speed is underway, and you can watch every moment of the action on our live stream right here on GRR!

Photography by Peter Summers