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Apart from these stands, the show also featured a Tag Heuer exhibition, a display of earlier concept cars
presented in Geneva, called “Le Retour du Futur” and another promoting the Concours d’Elegance Suisse,
thus providing not only the latest offerings to hit the market and future concepts, but a step back in time to
what has gone before. A look over the shoulder is always a welcome respite from the glitter of the main
displays, but equally shows how progress has been made in virtually every aspect of car design, whether it is
safety, efficiency, performance, comfort or level of standard equipment provided. This aspect was highlighted
by two Swiss Concept cars in the “Le Retour du Futur” display from 1956, a Soletta 750 and a Belcar, both
minimalists in the extreme, but that was the norm for the period, but totally unthinkable today.
Although many of the major manufacturers have new models and concepts, particularly in the alternative
energy fields, one of the joys of the Geneva show are always the more specialist high performance and niche
manufacturer offerings, which always seem to be in abundance. As could be seen in the “Le Retour du Futur”
display not all of them make production, and some die almost without trace, but they frequently provide some
spectacular designs and futuristic ideas, even if they are only living for the moment. Examples in the
aforementioned display included the Bizzarrini Manta from 1968, and the Ghepardo from 2006, together with
the “Chocolate” Lancia Stratos Based Sibilo, and the amazing Lamborghini Marzal from 1967, a study in
silver, including the upholstery. Renowned former Lamborghini chief test driver Valentino Balboni was at the
show, and commented to me that the Marzal was only a six cylinder car because there wasn’t space for the
cylinder head of the other bank of their 12 cylinder engine! The Concours d’Elegance Suisse display included
a Miura that had been restored by him, so he is still very active in the world of Lamborghini.
Close to this display was the stand of American company Hennessy, with a lurid yellow offering called the
Venom F5, which had shades of Corvette in its lines, or maybe that’s just me thinking about the racing
versions, albeit with a mid mounted V8 twin turbo power train of their own construction, pumping out a
claimed 1600 bhp, of which only 24 examples are slated for production. If this sounds extreme, then how
about the offering from an Italian concern called Corbellati, aptly named the Missile, a matt silver machine,
which claims 1800bhp from its twin turbo 9 litre V8 engine, and a possible 500kph top speed! If you are into
extreme OTT with regard to body styling, then you needed to go no further than the Mansory stand, which as
always had an array of bespoke offerings. These included a Bugatti Veyron with an all-over grey marble effect
paint finish, a pale yellow and black Rolls Royce Phantom with matching yellow interior, slightly more subtle
examples of an Aston Martin Vantage and a McLaren, plus a Ferrari 812 Superfast, called the Stallone,
finished in metallic red and a similar, but darker, grey marble effect to various elements, together with a
massive rear wing. In a slightly different vein, but equally outrageous in their own way, were the offerings on
the Liberty Walk stand, including a Lamborghini Aventador and a Nissan GT-R, both featuring bulbous wheel
arch extensions, and so low to the ground that you wouldn’t dream of going near the slightest speed hump.
Away from the “refinement” specialists there were plenty of offerings from design houses and supercar
manufacturers. Amongst the design houses Touring Superleggera displayed the third Disco Volante Spider
that they have produced, together with a new coupé on a Maserati Gran Turismo base, called the Scia di
Persia (Shah of Persia), elegantly finished in deep metallic blue, as a tribute to the trio of bespoke Maserati
5000 GTs owned by the Shah of Persia 60 years ago. On the Pininfarina stand there were two new offerings,
the HK GT, the HK in the model name refers to Hybrid Kinetic, and is a 2+2 model with massive “gull-wing”
doors, and is their fourth collaboration with the Hybrid Kinetic Group. The second offering was the hydrogen
powered H2 Speed track only car, which was shown in its production form, and is a joint venture with the
French-Swiss Green GT organisation, a zero emissions vehicle producing a claimed 645bhp.
The Aston Martin stand was relocated from its usual location to afford more space, and featured the new
Vantage amongst their offerings, together with the GTE race version and the spectacular Valkyrie, both of
which were finished in a bright lemon yellow. The stand also featured the presentation of the company’s new
Lagonda Vision Concept, and a Red Bull F1 car which will carry Aston Martin sponsorship for the 2018
season. Not far away was the McLaren stand, where there a Senna GTR concept centre stage, and the new
Senna model on which it is based, a limited series of 100 examples, which is dubbed “the most extreme road
car it has ever produced”, with a production run of 500 examples, all of which have been sold at a cool
£750,000! Over at Pagani there was a Huayra Roadster with a bare carbon fibre finish, and the 1 of 3 Zonda
GP Barchetta, featuring an elongated “snorkel” air intake and bare carbon fibre spats over the rear wheels.
The Lamborghini stand featured a pair of Urus SUVs, an Aventador S and the debut of the Huracan
Performante Spyder, looking very attractive in a matt metallic blue. The Ferrari stand is always the centre of
attention, and although images of their latest offering, the 488 Pista, had been released prior to the show, the
stand was mobbed on press day for the official unveiling to the public, and no doubt for the remainder of the
show. There were two examples on display, one in metallic red with white and blue stripes, and the other in
silver with dark blue stripes, the latter featuring carbon fibre wheels. These are 40% lighter than the standard
alloy ones, and have an alloy-ceramic coating to the inner rim to aid heat dissipation under heavy braking. The
stand also featured a selection of the other current production models, comprising of a 488 GTB “Tailor
Made”, a 488 Spider, a Portofino, a GTC4 Lusso and a 812 Superfast.
The foregoing is really only the tip of the iceberg of a wide ranging show, which once again featured a diverse
array of exciting and new offerings of all genres of the motoring spectrum from electric town cars to track only
hyper cars.
Ferrari Stand
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