It’s a third time I went to Geneva and it’s always been worth the effort. Waking up early in the morning, flying and jumping straight into action, just moments after landing in Switzerland. It’s good to be one of the very first people too see everything before it gets busy. This time I decided to visit the show for two days, not one, so I knew I didn’t have to rush and I can take my time. Two days is more than enough to see everything four times, believe me.
A lot of new cars, a lot of old (refreshed) models, but it’s a shame Lotus didn’t come to show something new, like Evora Roadster, maybe? I’m sure they had their reasons. Before I left, I planned to to have a closer look at a few cars like Honda Civic Type-R, Gemballa Avalanche, Infiniti Project Black S, Lamborghini Huracan Performante, BMW ACL2s and Mansory collection. Fortunately I had a chance to see much more and I’m going to show you all of the above and more on my photos (in order of appearance).
Cadillac
I started my trip from Hall 1. Cadillac is not a brand for me, I’m probably not their target audience. I would need to grow up to find cars like these appealing enough to buy one. That doesn’t mean there was nothing to look at. I really liked ATS and CTS with “V”. The highlight of Cadillac’s collection was Cadillac Escala Concept – huge thing on wheels with living room inside. I skipped most SUVs and 4×4 as I was never interested in cars like these (hence no photos of Escalade).
Chevrolet
Chevy showed a few Camaros and Corvettes, including Grand Sport model. Track concept of Camaro had a lovely colour and looked really mean (the green one, if you haven’t noticed). I wasn’t that excited with the “regular” version, especially when I jumped in and found out there was no headroom. I would expect this from a typical Japanese car (I had same problem in R34 Skyline), but not from a large, American muscle… but maybe in this case it was caused by an extra sunroof? I would love to take one of these on road & track and see how they drive!
Lamborghini
There were two things I couldn’t wait to see at Geneva and one of them was Lamborghini! They always had only a few cars displayed, a lot of space, perfect light and usually bright coloured bodies. This year we could see Huracan Performante, Huracan Spider and Aventador S in yellow. I’ve always been drawn to yellow and orange cars, so this year it was one of my favourite spots. I was never sure about Huracan but I think I just found beauty in these supercars. Automotive industry should go and learn from Lambo how to present cars during shows!
Porsche
It was a world premiere of the new GT3, which looks to me like any other 911, but it has a big wing. I’m probably not the best person to comment on those cars, but I do like Targa flavour and I think it’s the best looking car from 911 series. No roof and big glass at the back gives an impression of lightness and I love it. Overall, the most interesting were Porsches presented by tuners like Gemballa or TechArt. Plus, it was really busy around their displays, so I guess Internet is now full of new Porsche photos anyway.
Audi
I love how their cars look and their interior is nothing less but awesome, especially in S/RS/R series. Attention to details, great materials, great finish… even little “tt” in rear lights. I’ve tried a few Audis myself in the past, but I always ended up with something else. I guess I just don’t need 300BHP and really, those poor horses would be just wasting their time under the hood of my car. My recent favourite from Audi is the S3 Saloon which looks so much better than the hatchback model. ps. Here I sneaked in a photo of a R8 from ABT!
Bentley
Massive and powerful with very interesting styling. I love the details but the final form does not appeal to me that much. Ohh well, I can’t like absolutely everything, right?
Pininfarina
There is something special about cars from Pininfarina. They know how to bring emotion to a car and except a few exceptions (like Hyundai Matrix), they know what they do. One of the most beautiful cars in the world is coming from their studio. World would be boring without their icons such as 288 GTO and F50.
Bugatti
Bugatti Chiron is a work of art, hard to call it ‘a car’ any more. Exceeding all expectations especially those performance related. An army of people spent their time designing every single bit of it which looks fantastic. The truth is the car has to beat all records which in this case brings a side effect in the form of a shape of its exterior. The front-end is beautiful, fluid lines and aggressive lights meet simple, straight and not that exciting back of the car. Previous Bugatti had to sacrifice some of its look for top-speed reasons, I’m sure with 50% more power it could only get worse. Where are the times when 300BPH were enough for a supercar?
Koenigsegg
They always reminded me of Pagani in some way. They both started to be visible in the world of super- and hipercars around the same time. Both coming up with more ridiculous and crazy ferrari-challenging machines. Pagani is definitely Italian and you can see it just by looking inside, but Swedish design is what really gets my attention. Agera RS ‘Gryphon’ looks amazing in flesh and 24-carat gold works really well with a carbon body. Rare car has just become even rarer.
Ford
Ford came with their “new” Ford GT 66 Heritage Edition, which is almost a year old now. New Fiesta with new interior (finally!) looks much better, but I’m wondering if it’s still fun to drive. I hope they didn’t change a lot around the engine or suspension and if they did, it’s only to be better.
Honda
New Civic Type-R is one of the reasons why I have decided to visit Geneva this year. I’m a long time fan of Honda cars and I really wanted to see new FK8 in flesh. It looks better than current FK2 model but I’m not sure about the back. Honda really should invest some time to do some ergonomics and interior design. It looks nice in black & red, but there is simply too many buttons shouting for attention and material quality really needs some improving. Most important question is – how does it drive? I would like it to be just a faster, newer version of Japanese Type-R FD2. I’m sure one day I will have my chance to give it a go and tell you how it compares.
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Infiniti
I was a little bit surprised to see Infinity’s best car being displayed at the side of their space, pretending to be a KIA and trying to not draw any attention. Project Black S looks impressive and that’s the best looking Infiniti ever. I hope this is not just a random concept and that all the work put in this car will find it’s way to production car.
Tamo
I was surprised to see something so small, yet so cute from Tata Motors (it reminded me of the awesomeness of an Elise). I really love the idea of a small race car – a pocket rocket. This project comes from a company known to make very cheap looking cars, but I’m very positive about it and I hope it will go into production in its current, or very similar form. 1.2 litre engine, 3 cylinders and almost 190BHP. This could be an interesting, exciting and very affordable track toy.
Mansory
Mansory was a ‘must visit’ display at Geneva Motorshow. Siracusa 4xx looked even better this year with forged composite elements and black matt body. Some crazy orange interior in Maserati-based car is hard to miss, believe me.
Ferrari
Ferrari stole the show with their new Ferrari 812 Superfast. Which also meant, it was super busy around there and almost impossible to take some nice, clean shots. I love how they called this car and did not come up with another weird name like “quadrofromaggio”, “margarino” or “calzone picante” ;)
I hope you enjoyed this post as much as I enjoyed preparing it for you. It took a week of work to put the whole gallery together and I hope you liked it. Please share and let others see those beautiful cars too. Thanks guys!
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Motorsport and event photography
We covered a various motorsport events around the UK and Europe. From MotoGP at Silverstone, through Lotus Cup Series, GT Series, BTCC racing and even truck racing. We know how to stay safe, where the sweet spots around the track are, and how to get to them to take the best shot. You can always find us where cars are even on events like launch of Lotus Exige LF1 with Pastor Maldonado & Charles Pic at Silverstone, Rally Legends with Didier Auriol or Lotus Festival at Brands Hatch. If that’s not enough, every year we are obsesively covering Geneva International Motor Show.
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