It’s one thing to watch the Goodwood Festival of Speed from a third-person perspective. The course is certainly narrow in spots but there’s still plenty of room to run, right? Switch to first-person view, however, and the perspective is very different. Add an element of speed to the mix, and one gains a new appreciation for the courage needed to set a quick time over the tight 1.1-mile ascent.
Fortunately for us, Koenigsegg saw fit to have a camera inside the blue Jesko that tackled the hill last weekend. Factory development driver Markus Lundh was behind the wheel, with YouTuber Mr. JWW (James William Walker) in the passenger seat. Clearly he’s impressed by the Jesko’s power, laughing and generally having a great time during the first half of the run. We glimpse 213 kph on the digital speedometer down the open straight past the large spectator area, which translates to just over 130 mph. That’s a mighty impressive figure for such a short stretch of asphalt.
The second half of the run is where things get really interesting. The hay bales and trees effectively turn the hill climb into a tunnel blast at times, closing in to leave no shoulder or run-off area. As such, there’s no room for error and Lundh keeps the Jesko on boil through it all. Speeds generally stay above 100 mph from the tight left-hander to the finish, with the highest observed speed of 218 kph (135 mph) clocked at the line. Curiously, Mr. JWW isn’t quite as vocal during this stretch. With hay bales becoming blurs on either side of the course, we don’t blame him one tiny bit.
There isn’t an official time mentioned for the run, but our unofficial calculations show this pass taking approximately 52 seconds. Provided the video is accurate, that’s nearly quick enough to make the top 10 fastest cars at this year’s hill climb. A Porsche 911 GT2 Clubsport clocked a 51.45-second run to claim the 10th spot, but from there, everything else was under 50 seconds. Top honors went to a McLaren Solus GT driven by Marvin Kirchöfer, finishing with a time of 45.34 seconds.
The Jesko runs a twin-turbocharged 5.0-liter V8 capable of producing 1,600 horsepower on E85 fuel, but in terms of flat-out speed, this isn’t the fastest version. The Jesko Absolut is being fine-tuned with an eye on breaking the 300-mph barrier. It will be a lighter version with reduced aero for speed, though on a short course like Goodwood, the changes would likely make it a tad slower and a lot scarier from inside the cockpit.
