Shaking off the dust and securing victory at Goodwood.

For Florent Moulin, owner of Art & Revs, this 2026 edition of the Goodwood Festival of Speed was particularly significant.

Celebrating his 20th year at the festival and his 10th participation, it had to be something special. Having already driven almost everything at Goodwood, from touring cars to Formula 1 cars, this marked the return of the Viper GTS-R chassis C51. Four times F1 World Champion Alain Prost raced this car in the French GT Championship in 2005 to celebrate his 50th anniversary.

Despite an impressive line-up of competitors this year (F1, Le Mans, BTCC, Hill Climb, WRX champions, etc.), and having finished in the top ten in all the last editions, the target this year was clearly to reach the fastest cars classification again. The dry weather conditions in England in recent weeks turned Goodwood into a dusty event. We have never seen the grass as yellow as it was this year, and racing on such a dusty track would be a real challenge. After securing the first runs on rain tyres, we fitted slicks on Saturday and immediately found our pace, but grip was an issue. We had to work hard to improve traction for easier starts and exits from low-speed curves. Driving up the hill had to be done very cautiously as turn 2 was extremely dusty, just like the infamous and sinister Molecomb LH corner which has seen many cars crash, even this year. 

To achieve a fast time at Goodwood requires immediate and total commitment, perfect control of the car, ... and a high level of confidence! The runs need to be perfect; losing even slightly control of the front or rear would result in tenths being lost. Florent qualified steadily in 49.07 seconds at the Saturday Shoutout, but he and the car had more in them. On Sunday morning, after making slight adjustments to the setup and benefiting from a cleaner track, especially in sector 1 and at the start, Florent achieved his fastest time ever of 48.00 seconds. 

In the Sunday Shootout, the track unfortunately was dustier. Despite not having traction control or four-wheel drive, like most of the other competitors, the 21-year-old Viper achieved a respectable time of 48.69 seconds. This was slower than the morning run, of course, but not at all disappointing, considering we lost exactly six tenths of a second only, in the first 100 metres due to very poor grip at the start. This placed us 8th OA in the Shootout, an outstanding result as we actually placed first gentleman among the pro drivers, and we won the GT 1990/2000s class! 

It was an immense joy to receive the Winners Medal and Veuve Clicquot’s Magnum from the hands of the Lord and Lady of Richmond. Florent was also honoured to receive the Lord’s personal congratulations on his 20th year at the FOS and 10th participation.

The Goodwood FOS is a very special event, probably the most entertaining and thrilling that we participate in. Competing there is a unique experience, thanks to the amazing hospitality and attention to detail provided by Goodwood's organisers. We have a deep respect for them and would like to express our friendship to Lord and Lady of Richmond for inviting us again and raising the Goodwood colours so high.