Impreza WRX STI Hatchback

Make
Subaru
Segment
Hatchback

Since its inception in 1993, the Goodwood Festival of Speed has long been defined by the hill climb event. While plenty of other displays are worthy of your attention, the narrow, 1.16-mile-long slither of asphalt that runs in front of Goodwood House is the place to see the best of the best at full chat, with just a barricade of straw bales separating onlookers from the cars that roar up the hill. No surprise, then, that many want to set the fastest time here, but Roger Clark Motorsport is confident it'll win the timed shootout in 2016.

Even if this was the first time the Leicester-based rally car builder was taking on the Goodwood Hill, we'd have no qualms with Roger Clark Motorsport's confidence.

After all, when RCM's fielding the 'Gobstopper II' (a 780-hp Subaru Impreza with countless UK time attack titles to its name), it would probably be more surprising if the company founded by the late great British rally driver was feeling reserved about its Goodwood shootout chances. But 2016 isn't the first time the Gobstopper has been at Goodwood. Last year, the time attack Impreza went on to win the shootout with a run of 44.91 seconds - more than half a second faster than the next quickest car in 2015, and a time RCM is confident it can smash this time around. It's highly unlikely that Gobstopper II will get close to the monumental record run of 41.6 seconds set by Nick Heidfeld in a McLaren MP4/13 F1 car.

That said, we're confident that RCM's Olly Clark will be able to shave a good chunk of time off. Not only would the 2015 run have been even faster if Clark didn't scuff the straw bales in the final corner, but RCM now has a far greater understanding of the route and how best to set the car up for the bumpy, at times off-camber surface. Whether that'll be enough to guarantee a slam dunk victory in the 2016 timed shootout remains to be seen (we have no idea what other mad machines will be entered yet), but you'd be foolish to think the Gobstopper II didn't have a shot at securing back-to-back victories.