Geneva 2015: Saying that this Motor Show was just plain crazy might be a risk of using the same cliché that has been used over and over again, after each time a major motor show kicks the press out of the door for the past two decades. “It was the best so far”.

But how are we supposed to react when we have so many brand new sports-cars thrown in our faces at the same time? I mean just look at the premieres here: Audi R8, Ferrari 488GTB, Aston Martin Vulcan and Vantage GT3, Porsche 911 GT3 RS and Cayman GT4, McLaren P1 GTR and McLaren 675LT, Lamborghini Aventador SV and so on. It is as if this Motor Show happened to lure the privileged only.

This year’s Geneva featured several concepts that signified big changes for the brand they represented. Bentley brought the EXP 10 Speed 6, a two-seat study to sit beneath or next to the Continental GT, which breathes much needed fresh air to the company’s future. Bentley deserves more than a tired-looking line-up and its future expansion needs an extra member to play its traditional strengths and look forward at the same time, and of course to draw attention away from its inevitable upcoming SUV.


Aston Martin’s DBX Concept left everybody in shock, and not only because it was such a well-kept secret until the reveal. Aston has examined its options carefully for the future and apparently decided that a sports crossover is the best way forward. Expect it to reach production as a four-door though.

What is no secret are Lexus’ intentions to produce a premium compact model, but this LF-SA Concept looks like a very angry robot with its mouth open, ready to feast on pedestrians. Infiniti on the other hand had a really good-looking SUV Concept that looked ready to jump into production and offer a promising alternative to the Audi Q3 and the BMW X1.

Nissan wants the next Micra to be more fun and the Sway is definitely a good omen, while Seat seems finally mature enough to get its own SUV within the Group VW, showing us the Vision 20V20.

But enough with the concepts, let’s get to the production stuff. Supercars may grab the headlines but it’s the everyday heroes that really matter in the end; heroes like the new Honda Civic Type-R that generated so much buzz with its reveal, splitting opinions with its styling and impressing everyone at the same time with its figures, which include a new ‘Ring record by the way. The Ford Focus RS makes it look like a bit immature though, hiding some exciting tricks up its sleeve. Renault wants to cover the lost ground presenting a more hardcore Clio RS Trophy, the same time Opel shows the Corsa OPC and Peugeot decides to keep the 208 GTi 30th Anniversary in production with the irritating name ‘GTi by PEUGEOT Sport’. The temperature is already reaching unprecedented levels in the hot hatch segment and we love it.

And we come to the exotic corner of the Motor Show. Let’s start with the ones we had already seen. Honda’s NSX is a much loved machine around the Internet, generating even more hype than its hot-hatch sibling. Times have changed though since the first NSX was around and Honda needs its halo car to convince more than ever among the crazy competition it goes against, which now includes an upcoming baby McLaren.


Ford brought the impressive GT overseas and aimed it directly at Ferrari and Lamborghini but I can’t help but feel like -and as much as I love the shape of it- that the traditional power-hungry clientele of these exotic machines will need much more pushing into putting their signatures down on the orders book than the claimed “over 600hp” figure. It’s all about the bragging rights. Maybe Ford already knows that and stepped forward, announcing a limited, more “exclusive” 250-unit yearly production.

250 units seem really many when you think the production figures of Aston Martin’s Vulcan. Just 24 of these spaceships will be made for the incredible $2.77 million price. You start to wonder in what kind of world we are living when someone actually spends so much money on a car that can’t be even registered for the road and then McLaren slaps you in the face with its also road-illegal P1 GTR. 40 units sold to existing P1 owners exclusively with McLaren giving the owners the same treatment with its racing drivers, all in for the nice price of $3 million.

McLaren also brought the 675 Long Tail, a much more heavily reworked 650S. Britain’s answer to the latest Ferrari looks faster on paper but Maranello is not an easy rival. The 488GTB is the first turbocharged mid-engined Ferrari since the F40 and represents a new era for the Italian brand, an era where the great normally aspirated V8s are dead and well gone. No doubt though, the 488 will be quicker from the 458 it replaces and better in every performance criteria you throw at it.

So the natural aspirated engines are dead and now we can all mourn silently in front of our screens. But wait, no, there are still some of them left. Porsche still makes some, with the Germans placing them in some of the most desired cars of the planet. The 911 GT3 RS was unleashed in Geneva, impressing in every way possible with its specs, from the 493hp 4.0-litre atmospheric flat-six to its scary quick lap time around the ‘Ring. This has to be the winner of Geneva – I mean, it’s Porsche’s crown jewel, right? Well, not when a small, mid-engined perfection with three pedals sits a few feet away, the car that I was waiting for years to come. The Cayman GT4 is my personal hero of Geneva, sharing brakes and suspension bits from the 911 GT3, with 380hp ready to kick you in the back and three pedals to play with. Easily the most desirable car there, with unicorn-like specs nowhere to be found.


And we arrive at the Koenigsegg stand. I’m out of adjectives when it comes to describe the Regera. The small, Swedish company has beaten the big boys in their own game on paper, presenting a mind-blowing 1,500hp supercar with a really innovative approach on how the electric motors and an internal combustion engine can work together. With a fixed final ratio and what Koenigsegg calls Direct Drive, the single-speed Regera goes for zero to 250mph (402 km/h) in under 20 seconds! Koenigsegg has to prove though if his innovative engineering is really that clever out there, in the real world.

I almost forgot the Audi R8, the other naturally aspirated supercar which shares the same V10 with the Lamborghini Huracan and the…same design pattern with its predecessor. I understand that Audi is all about the design evolution in its passenger cars, but this is the R8 we are talking about. We can still remember our brains being exploded when the original came out.

I love Lamborghinis and the whole theater that surrounds them. I was the biggest fan of the Murcielago SV and I can’t help but drool a bit when I see images of the Aventador SV. But even I was thinking that Lamborghini has to step up its game. And that’s exactly the moment you realize that if a screaming 750hp V12 Lamborghini doesn’t impress you enough, then this year’s Geneva Motor Show was truly awesome.

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