For a while, it looked as though new cars might have to take a back seat at the 2017 Geneva motor show.
When Peugeot let it be known over the weekend that it would be officially announcing the purchase of Opel a day before the show's traditional Tuesday preview, it seemed we were in for a lot of corporate guff that would take focus from what, going in, looked a bumper crop of new metal in all departments. But it's amazing how quickly things move on.
By Tuesday, we were back to cars: the car community had 'banked' the PSA-Opel knowledge and had also digested reassuring statements from PSA chief Carlos Tavares – who even managed to sound bullish about the prospects for the UK component supply business if there were a hard Brexit.
Various bosses of companies that sell or make cars in the UK queued up to reiterate how important a zero-tariff post-Brexit situation was going to be, but that has become no more than slightly annoying mood music. Cars were soon back in the spotlight.
Of course, there was a power race. McLaren's new 720S (710bhp) does much more than merely up the power of the Woking company's new core model. It also introduces a new look for McLaren, with interesting new answers to mid-engined supercar aerodynamics and revolutionised driver visibility.
But its engine output was nevertheless quickly compared by headline-hungry hacks with that of the new Ferrari 812 Superfast (new V12) and with a collection of newcomers such as Aston Martin's hypercar, now dubbed Valkyrie, the Techrules Ren (1287bhp from a jet-propelled range-extender) and Singapore's all-electric Dendrobrium, built by Williams Advanced Engineering, a company relatively fresh, let it never be forgotten, from creating the stillborn but brilliant hybrid Jaguar C-X75.
Further down the price scale was the new Honda Civic Type R, all wings and vents as usual, which, despite talk of a calmer character, will still have an even higher engine output of 316bhp and a 0-60mph time in the mid-five-second bracket when it starts production in the UK this summer and reaches showrooms in the autumn. Even Tata had a supercar, the neat and compact-looking Racemo, which said good things about the scale of its ambitions.
Geneva always provides an outing for traditional Italian concept car builders, and Volkswagen-owned Italdesign (which showed its super-exclusive £2m Zerouno) and Mahindra-owned Pininfarina (with the spectacular but plausible Fittipaldi EF7) both staged heartening returns to the real world.
Amazing what a bit of big-company backing can do. Alongside other concepts, Bentley had the EXP12, the second iteration of a roadster that now looks nailed on eventually to be its fifth model line, and at the other end of the scale, Citroën extended its new look with C-Aircross, a pretty accurate view of the forthcoming C3 Picasso.
Join the debate
Add your comment
VW Polo
Revised Qashqai
New Jaguar XF Sportsback
New Jaguar XF Sportsback