The stars of the 2013 Geneva Motor Show

This year’s Geneva Motor Show opened its doors today and as red-hot unveilings of so-cool cars goes, this year is a bit of a belter. New supercars, hot hatches, GTs and drop-tops, there’s plenty of recession-defying new metal (and carbon and leather!) at Geneva this year. Here’s our Motor-Vision round-up of the stars of the show.

Supercars
Do we call them hypercars now? Well, when it comes to the new models from Ferrari, Lamborghini, McLaren and Koenigsegg, the answer is powerfully positive. All of these new big-dollar hypers bring the potent performance to match their mega money pricetags.

 

Ferrari LaFerrari

The Enzo replacement and top of the range Ferrari gets a silly name and £1,000,000+ price. It’s directly rivalling the new McLaren P1 with its 900bhp+ power output and petrol / electric hybrid powertrain, and while the McLaren will hit 218mph, the LaFerrari doesn’t field a quoted top speed as yet. The Ferrari gets a 6.3-litre naturally aspirated V12 for its petrol grunt, the McLaren a 3.8-litre twin-turbo V8. So far it seems that the Ferrari may be quicker to 186mph – 15.5 seconds to the P1’s 17 seconds. But, there’s only one way to really find out. Fight!

 

Lamborghini Veneno

The new uber-Lambo smashes everything else, in terms of price at least. Only three Venenos will be built, at a cost of £3.12 million each. What? All three have already been sold, so this 50th anniversary car for Lambo will probably be one of the very most exclusive production cars ever. It’s all carbon, based on the loopy Aventador – that now looks a right Plain Jane next to it – and will enjoy a full 740bhp and 221mph top end, thanks to a 6.5-litre V12 motor.

 

McLaren P1


We’ve already seen plenty of the new P1, and it’s an impressive beast. But, these are the first unaltered images, directly from a cameraman, directly from the Geneva show floor. Bright yellow, 903bhp, and ready to rock the new Ferrari. But, it looks like Ferrari might have done it again – remember how the 458 Italia kinda whopped the MP4-12C? – with a bit more howling-power, passion and prettiness than the McLaren. Still, the P1 is f1-sexy-for-the-road, alright.

 

Koenigsegg Agera S Hunda


This is a very special one-off version of the new Koenigsegg Agera S, called the Hundra, or the hundredth car built since the company opened in 2002, priced at about £1.3 million. The Agera S gets 1016bhp and can hit 62mph in 2.8 seconds, and well over 200mph.

 

Hot hatches
Just like the supercar market, the hot hatch market is getting faster and more efficient, oh, and hotter. Some special new cars from Peugeot and Renault go head-to-head in an old school French fist fight, while SEAT bring their pretty Leon SC 2-door.

 

Peugeot 208 GTI


The new Peugeot GTI should get hot hatch fans sweating and drooling at the same time, as many will agree that the old Pug 205 (1.9-litre) GTI is the king of hatches hot. Of course, the 208 GTI will have to be a different car, but we’re all hoping that some of the fun, seat-of-your-pants and lift-off-oversteer of the old car will have trickled through to the new 200bhp, turbocharged, ultra-modern new little Pug.

 

Renault Clio Renaultsport 200 Turbo


Most mainstream hot hatches will soon be powered by small-cc (around 1600cc) turbocharged petrol engines, that do their best for pure bhp (around 200bhp is about right), some useable torque, and an eyebrow-raising top speed knocking on the door of 140mph. In a Clio! Mixed in with the serious performance is a new age of economy, powered by a new age of turbocharged petrol motors. The Clio promises much, and in recent years has been seen by many as the hatch to beat.

 

SEAT Leon SC


The new SEAT Leon SC (Sports Coupe) is shorter, lower and wider than the five-door Leon on which it’s based, but aims to keep most of the practical good stuff of the 5-door car, including a juicy 380 litres of boot space. Kind of a family car for families that haven’t quite given up yet. Looks neat.

 

The show stealers
We’ve got our eye on a few of the stunners from the Geneva show floor, including the car that might even deserve a car show all its own, such is its fat-bottomed-beauty – the new Porsche 911 (991) GT3. Say hello to the fattest car of the 2013 Geneva Motor Show. Someone’s been woofing all the Toblerone choc!

 

Porsche 911 GT3


Well, well, no manual gearbox in a GT3 for the first time, but a Porsche PDK (double-clutch), 7-speed auto that you can, they say, use like a manual. For example, if you want to drift through your favourite bend, simply hit both shift paddles at once to engage the clutch, rev the engine to the speed you want, and hit the paddles again to dump the clutch out. It’s called a clutch-kick and it’ll send the 468bhp new Porker sideways quicker than Bambi on ice.

The rear-driving GT3 will use a new 3.8-litre flat-6 engine that’s full of trickness, like titanium con-rods and cleaner, better-power-making direct injection. This fatty will smash 196mph and 0-62mph in 3.5 seconds. Lashings of carbon? Yes, of course, including the monster rear wing.

 

Hyundai i20 WRC


Hyundai are getting stuck into the World Rally Championship next year, and this naughty little i20 is their official WRC car. Love it! They’re still faffing around with the full tune of the car, but they’ve already hit the rally-car-handsome-nail squarely on the head.

 

BMW M6 Gran Coupe by Schnitzer


The new BMW M6 Gran Coupe is already a badass beast in its own right, but this bronze and carbon-black Schnitzer variant rocks it up to the next level. Bigger wheels (of course!), some carbon fibre bits ‘n’ bobs and no doubt a bit more brawl from the tailpipes, and we’ve got a new classy big Beemer by Schnitzer.

 

By Dan Anslow