Geneva Motor Show – the best & the rest
Ed Legge
Suffering from Geneva Motor Show media fatigue? Here’s our quick rundown of the great, the good and the must-do-better at the world’s best auto show.
The best – Magnitude’s Top 10 cars of the show
10. Chelsea Truck Company 6×6 Civilian Carrier
Completely ridiculous but cool at the same time. The £250,000 price tag shouldn’t put off the target audience but you probably wouldn’t want to spend too much time as a passenger in the back.
9. Aston Martin Vantage
Aston Martin’s designers can do no wrong at the moment. The new Vantage is drop-dead gorgeous (in car journo speak “achingly beautiful” ) has tons of interesting personalisation options and a stonking AMG V8. No wonder Aston Martin is back in profit.
8. Pagani Zonda HP Barchetta
This design will undoubtedly be too fussy for some, but the Zonda was an instant classic when it arrived on the scene in 1999. Weighing just over 1200 kg, the HP has 789 bhp on tap, so with that lowered, wraparound windscreen, you’ll really need to hang on to your toupe! The HP stands for Horacio Pagani – if it’s good enough for the Argentine design genius…
7. Koenigsegg Regera
Just 80 Regeras will be built and all 80 are already sold with the two on the stand due to be delivered immediately after the Geneva show. The top-line performance figures are almost secondary to the technical touches and Christian Koenigsegg’s “mad-scientist” approach to problem-solving and car building. This car – the Regera d’Elegance – was finished in Swedish Blue which looked remarkably similar to Bugatti’s signature colour…
6. Polestar 1
Although they certainly wouldn’t describe themselves this way, Polestar is Volvo’s electrified/ performance brand. The Polestar 1 is their first car – a 600 hp hybrid with a 150 km electric-only range. This is a typically well-executed Swedish design package which covers both supercar and electric car bases in one design. Coming to a Polestar showroom near you soon.
5. Rimac Concept 2
Ridiculous – that’s the only way to describe the claimed figures for this car, and we’re not suggesting they are exaggerated – 1,887 bhp, 1,700 ft/lb of torque, 0-60 in 1.9 seconds, 0-100 in 4.3.
It looks great and only 20 will be built, but can we take a Croatian supercar company seriously? Koenigsegg and Aston Martin certainly do – Rimac produces the battery for the Koenigsegg Regera and upcoming Aston Martin Valkyrie…
4. BMW M8 Gran Coupe
Sometimes there are cars that make you think “They need to build this!” – this is one of them. Predicted to be a Bentley Continental/ Aston Martin DB11 Competitor.
3. Jaguar I-PACE
Pretty much everything about this car impresses and in many respects, the I-PACE is the future of transport. Good looks – somewhere between an SUV and a sports car – great packaging (one of the benefits of electric vehicles), strong performance, decent range and a good price. These will sell like hotcakes.
2. Ferrari 488 Pista
There’s not much to say about the Pista that hasn’t already been said, and no one outside Ferrari has yet driven it so we’ll have to wait to see how good it really is, but it drew the biggest crowds at the show and looks incredible.
1. Lagonda Vision Concept
“A new kind of luxury mobility”, as Aston Martin put it. If we’re all going to be driven around in the future, this is definitely the car that you want to do it in. Electric, autonomous and beautiful.
….and the rest…
McLaren Senna
We felt we should include this in our Top 10 but didn’t. The singularity of purpose, performance and attention to detail are inspiring and the aero so outrageous that you felt like you could have fallen into some of the ducts, louvres and flaps. The problem with it is simple, and McLaren aren’t apologetic; it’s no looker – and anyone who tells you it looks better in the flesh hasn’t seen it in the flesh… McLaren Senna – a new niche?
Range Rover SV Coupe
We wanted to like it, but the wow factor just wasn’t there for £240.000
Corbellati Missile
Oh dear, what can we say? Looked worse in the flesh than it does in this rather poor photograph, although the fact that the stand was so poorly lit was probably a good thing.
Mansory
Loathe them or love them (someone obviously does), the Mansory stand is always worth a visit. This Carbon & Swarovski crystal Veyron stood out for all the wrong reasons, but at least it won’t mark if you put a hot cup of tea on it…
W Motors Fenyr Supersport
There was much to like about the Dubai-based supercar company’s second sports car – the pronounced proboscis on the front wasn’t one of them.
Ford Mustang Bullitt
What makes the Bullitt stand out is not the 14 more horses, extra kit and Highland Green paint, but the fact that Ford is still milking the Steve McQueen connection 50 years on.