Geneva Salon, 8 – 18 March 2012
The 82nd running of the annual Geneva Salon took place at its
regular venue in the Palexpo exhibition complex, adjacent to
Geneva airport. This location must provide the easiest access for
visitors of all shows, as apart from being within easy walking
distance of the airport, there is a railway station, plus bus
services into town. The show attracts all the major manufacturers,
together with many niche market low volume constructors, like
Artega, Gumpert and Koenigsegg, styling concerns, tuning
houses, specialist and trade suppliers for the aftermarket and
garage industry and so on. Its prestige is notable within the motor
industry, as witnessed by the large number of world and
European premieres that it attracts each year, with 2012 being no
exception.
There were over 50 world premieres ranging from the Fiat 500L
through to the gargantuan Bentley SUV concept. There were a
multitude of new cars for the masses, like the quintet of new
Audis, Chevrolet Cruze Station Wagon, Dacia Lodgy, Ford B-
Max, Mercedes-Benz A Class and SEAT Ibizas, to name but a
few. The, relatively speaking, low volume manufacturers of high
performance cars are always a major attraction at any motor
show, as are the concept vehicles produced by the manufacturers
in house design studios, and the renowned styling houses like
Bertone, Giugiaro, Touring and Pininfarina.
Lotus had an attractive display of three black and gold racing cars
fronting their main road car display, an E20 F1 car, a LMP2 car
and an Evora GT4, plus they really stole a march on everybody
else, by having their new F1 driver signing, Kimi Raikkonen, on
the stand on the first press day, which naturally attracted a great
deal of attention. Elsewhere in the sports and GT car arena, it
was undoubtedly Ferrari that attracted the most attention with the
unveiling of the replacement for the 599 GTB Fiorano, the new,
simply named, F12 model making its world debut at midday on
the opening day. The launching of a new Ferrari always attracts a
great deal of attention, but the crowds of photographers lining the
perimeter of the stand awaiting the wraps coming off the two cars
on the stand had to be seen to be believed! Almost unnoticed,
Ferrari also presented a new lighter and more powerful version of
the California model, although visually it remains the same.
Lamborghini presented the Aventador J, a roadster version of the
original model, finished in bright candy red paintwork. Bugatti
displayed a trio of Veyrons, including a 16.4 Grand Sport Vitesse,
whilst the Porsche stand was a study in silver, apart from the new
Boxster, which was finished in pale gold. Aston Martin displayed
the “baby” of the family, the Cygnet, along with the DBS, Virage,
Vantage Rapide and limited edition Zagato model.
Pininfarina showed a four door pillarless concept with wood finish
to the floor, whilst Bertone had a grey and orange wedge shaped
concept car, with a model dressed in matching attire, making for
a great combination, but of the concepts it was the Touring Alfa
Romeo based Disco Volante 2012 coupe, that was the big hit.
Taking styling cues from the original fifties model, it was a
thoroughly modern interpretation, that looked stunning in metallic
red, with its illuminated “Disco Volante” badge on the nose. It was
not only the styling houses that came up with some great
concept cars, notable amongst the major manufacturers were
Chevrolet with their pair of 1.4 litre turbocharged Youth Concepts,
the CODE 130R and TRU 140S, whilst both Infiniti and Lexus had
beautiful designs with their EMERG-E and LF-LC respectively.
However, if you wanted wild, then you had to look no further than
Hamann with their McLaren MP4-12C based memoR and
Mercedes-Benz SLS based Hawk, or the offerings from Mansory,
including another McLaren MP4-12C based creation in a lurid
chrome orangy gold colour! There really was something for almost
every pocket and taste at Geneva in 2012.
Ferrari Models on Display
Stand Model Colour Chassis #
Ferrari
California Blue Met’/Cream 186820
458 Italia Grey Met’/Beige 184111
458 Spider Red/Black 184292
FF Pale Gold/Brown-Grey St. 180962
FF White/Red 186818 F12 Berlinetta Red Met’/Beige 186615
F12 Berlinetta Matt Silver/Blue 186617
Pininfarina
F12 Berlinetta Mock-up Black Met’ -
Sbarro
Memory (400A based) Black/Black 36639
Spider White/Black 51201***
MJC Garage Digitalprog
599 GTB Fiorano Grey Met’/Red 154015
Carex
458 Italia Red-Carbon St./Black 181987
Vulcanet
430 Spider F1 Black/Beige 146135
Amstutz
458 Italia Black Met’/Black 172099
***Fitted with carburettor 400 engine
Keith Bluemel
03/2012
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