The Geneva Motor Show offered a welcome relief from global gloom and doom with a showcase of some the most powerful supercars ever built.
The most outrageous is the lemon-yellow Lamborghini Murcielago LP 670-4 SuperVeloce. The 6.5-litre V12 engine delivers a ferocious 670bhp, 0-100 km/h in 3.2 seconds and a top speed of 342 km/h.
As Lamborghini poetically explains of this limited edition of 350, “from the heavy rumble of a stormy night, through the trumpeting of mighty elephants to the roar of a raging lion, the SuperVeloce performs the grand opera for 12 cylinders, 48 valves and 8000 revs.”
Meanwhile, the 700bhp Ferrari 599XX is an experimental prototype based on the 599 GTB Fiorano. Despite the 1.1 million Euro price tag you can’t race it or drive it on the road; it will be offered to a selected group of “client test drivers” who will experience the car’s F1-inspired technologies at a series of exclusive track events.
Other mouth-watering supercars included the limited edition Bugatti Veyron Bleu Centenaire, the gorgeous Maserati GranTurismo S Automatic and the fastest-ever Bentley, the 621bhp 6.0-litre W12 flex-fuel Continental Superports.
Luxury carmaker Aston Martin truly flipped the bird to the recession with its four new models: the One-77, V12 Vantage, DBS Volante convertible and the vast Lagonda revival. As Aston’s design director, Marek Reichman pointed out, “life goes on” for their average client.
Good news for the rest of us: The show was also full of hot hatches; remember my prediction that people will downgrade to smaller fast cars?
There’s plenty to choose from, from the new Clio Renaultsport 200 and 250bhp Renaultsport Megane 250 to the Ford Focus RS, special-edition Grande Punto Abarth Supersport, the 2010 Mazdaspeed3 and the Alfa Romeo MiTo GTA concept.
