Toyota Celica fastest car at Goodwood

Last weekend's Goodwood Festival of Speed was graced by all manner of new exotica (Bugatti Veyron Super Sport, McLaren MP4-12C, Porsche 911 GT3 RS 4.0, Hulme CanAm Spyder, etc) -- not to mention an array of contemporary and historic F1, Le Mans and Indy racers -- but the fastest car in the event's signature hillclimb was a humble Toyota Celica.

Taking just 48.07 seconds to blast up the 1.87km driveway of Goodwood House, the heavily bewinged orange demon was specially built for the assault on the tricky and technically demanding hillclimb.

Propelled by a WRC Corolla-derived 2.0-litre rally motor with a Garrett GT35/42 turbocharger and Rotrex belt-driven supercharger, it also packed a nitrous oxide boost for a 588+kW punch off the start line.

Taking care of steering duties was former British Rally Champion, Jonny Milner, who had narrowly missed out in previous years and returned in 2011 with an extra 100bhp (75kW) to clinch the FTD (fastest time of the day) in front of a massive crowd swelled by the presence of stars such as F1 champion Lewis Hamilton.

Rising over 90m from the start line to the finish, the course opens with a series of sweeping grass-lined corners, but the wall and hay-bale-lined latter half affords no margin for error.

A small mistake by Milner meant he narrowly missed winning the televised ‘shootout' on Sunday afternoon (watch the video here), but his time set earlier in the day was the fastest of all 200 cars over the iconic three-day event.

Based on the sixth generation Celica, Milner's car is super-light, tipping the scales at just 1050kg, and the driving position is shifted back 30cm for better weight distribution. The car's centre of gravity is also lowered thanks to raised wheel arches and upper suspension mounts, while a flat floor and rear diffuser are meant to add a degree of ground effect.

The nitrous oxide injection system was conceived to reduce turbo-lag for quicker acceleration off the line, while super soft rallycross specification Michelin slick tyres played their part in relaying the massive grunt to the tarmac.

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