SUPERCARS are only a small part of the Festival of Speed. Hundreds of world-class collectible cars, worth hundreds of millions of pounds, will take to the road and blast, many of them at full tilt, up the 1.16-mile Goodwood Hill. It is an extraordinary sight as the machines skim past the dreaded flint Wall, past hay bales and crowds, at phenomenal speeds.

It also gives motor sport fans one of the best chances they will ever get to be close to their Formula One heroes. Seven Formula One teams will be showing off their cars.

Fernando Alonso is slated to drive the Renault R24 F1 car up the Hill, and also on hand will be David Coulthard. BAR-Honda will be at the Festival to mark 40 years of Honda Grand Prix success with Jenson Button and Takuma Sato. Cars from Ferrari, McLaren Mercedes, Williams-BMW, and Toyota will also be on display and drivers including Antonio Liuzzi and Olivier Panis will be in action.

Alongside the cars will be possibly the greatest array of racing motorcycles assembled, with machinery from Honda, Kawasaki, Yamaha and Suzuki, as well as bikes from Greeves, Norton, BSA and Triumph, and two-wheeled winners including Freddie Spencer, Mick Doohan and Giacomo Agostini lined up to ride.

Finally, new this year at the top of the Hill will be a Rally Stage where visitors can see some of the great cars of rallying reunited with some of the great drivers, and in action at speed in the special stage carved through the West Sussex forest. The mile-and-a-half track will host 30 historic rally cars including ten definitive group B rally cars, with rally stars including Hannu Mikola and Sandro Munari.

• The Goodwood Festival of Speed at Goodwood House, West Sussex, runs on June 24, 25 and 26. Gates open at 7am each day. Tickets must be booked in advance with no ticket sales on the day. Book online at www.goodwood.co.uk or telephone 01243 755055