Who stole the show at Geneva in 2016?

THE Geneva motor show has come and gone once again, concluding one of the automotive calendar’s most important appointments with a tidal wave of the world’s most advanced, beautiful and arresting vehicles.

The Swiss automotive epicentre is regarded as one of the most influential and exciting shows of the year, with many of the global brands reserving their most critical debuts for the event, and 2016 has been no exception.

Here are GoAuto’s top ten highlights of the 85th Geneva motor show.

All the key players were at Geneva this year, along with thousands of car fans from all over the world.

With so many magnificent machines wheeled out at the show, it is hard to definitively crown just one vehicle as the motor show monarch, but with 16 cylinders, four turbochargers, 1103kW and styling that could make a marine weep, the monstrous Bugatti Chiron is a serious contender.

One well-heeled customer has reportedly ordered six of the total 500 Chiron production run, which we think is just plain greedy.

When the extraordinary Vision Gran Turismo concept debuted at the Frankfurt motor show last year, critics said it was far too outlandish to be even slightly related to a forthcoming but unseen successor to the Veyron, but what do you know? Remit of a spoiler or two, the Chiron is its doppelganger for the road.

Of course you will need to find the €2.4 million ($A3.66m) necessary to secure one of the 500 that will be made, but that seems like a bargain when you consider the staggering Chiron statistics, which read like a space shuttle owners manual.

Its sixteen cylinders displace 8.0 litres sending a massive 1600Nm of torque to all four wheels. Stab the throttle in anger and Bugatti says the Chiron will hit 100km/h in “less than 2.5 seconds”.

Sadly, a speed limiter has been fitted so owners will only be able to cruise at 420km/h, however the clever people at Bugatti may one day decide to unscrew that fun-numbing device and have a crack at the 431km/h speed record set by the Chiron’s Veyron predecessor.

Take a sneak-peek inside the cabin and among the lavish decor, you’ll find a speedometer that reads up to 500km/h. Ladies and gentlemen, you may be looking at the world’s fastest road-legal production car.

After a lengthy teaser campaign that involved a one-off DB10 featured in a James Bond movie and spy shots that revealed the car testing in Melbourne, Aston Martin finally unveiled its DB11, but in addition to its gorgeous styling, the next chapter in the DB is just as significant under the bonnet.

With pure Brit power, the new DB11 can race from zero to 100km/h in an estimated 3.9 seconds and on to a top speed of 322km/h.

With 447kW and 700Nm on tap from its 5.2-litre twin-turbocharged V12, the new model is the most powerful Aston Martin to wear the fabled DB badge, but the company has confirmed the engine is as British as a bulldog and not Mercedes-AMG-sourced.

Aston Martin had previously flirted with the possibility of using the German car-maker's spicy hand-built, high-powered units, but with the reveal of the new model the Gaydon-based sportscar-builder has confirmed the V12 was developed and built entirely in-house.

It seems, for now, Aston will remain as patriotic as 007 himself.

Maserati chose the Geneva show as the suitable venue to introduce its offering to a growing number of ultra-luxury large SUVs – its first all-terrain vehicle in 100 years of trident-badge history.

It shares its underpinnings with the Quattroporte and Ghibli sedans, but the Levante SUV is yet to get the turbocharged V8 of the larger sedan's flagship.

With a range of turbocharged V6 engines, typical Maserati luxury, performance and coupe-like styling, the Levante will take the fight to the Porsche Cayenne, BMW X6, Mercedes-Benz GLE Coupe and Audi SQ5.

But it’s not all about petrol pump punishing power at the Geneva show and Japanese hybrid authority Lexus revealed a model that manages to be jaw-droppingly pretty with potent performance, but frugal as well.

Its LC500 sibling has a more conventional thumping V8, but the Lexus LC500h has the same good looks but with some cutting-edge hybrid tech.

The LC500h can crack 100km/h from static in under 5.0 seconds but thanks to a Multi Stage Hybrid System coupled to a 3.5-litre V6 engine, the gorgeous coupe is efficient too.

What is a Multi Stage Hybrid System? Lexus has broken new ground with its “next-generation” dual motor system, which uses an automatic transmission bolted to the electric drive motor – the first time such a union has been made in the automotive world.

Not wishing to be left out of the European automotive bonanza, British performance purveyors Jaguar and McLaren also weighed in at the show with a couple of new sportscar additions.

With a 423kW shot in the arm, Jaguar’s Special Vehicle Operations skunk-works has turned the beautiful F-Type sportscar into a snarling wildcat, capable of cracking the legendary 200mph (322km/h) barrier.

Missed out on a Project 7? Jaguar can provide you with a less exclusive F-Type SVR, which is kinder on your wallet but has claws just as sharp.

Unlike some other Geneva revelations that tease the Australian market, Jaguar’s F-Type SVR will be coming Down Under, with both coupe and convertible variants on offer from $289,590 before on-road costs.

A handful of lucky customers will get a supercharged 5.0-litre V8, zero to 100km/h acceleration in 3.7 seconds and bragging rights that they own an example of the company’s most powerful model to date.

McLaren also set a new company benchmark with its Geneva showcase, but instead of a performance placard, the other English marque says its 570GT is the “most refined and road-biased McLaren yet” and is “designed with a focus on day-to-day usability and long-distance comfort”.

McLaren’s 570GT is the third member of the most “attainable” Sports Series family but has more comfort kit that the 570S.

While the fantasy of perhaps one day owning any of the new production models is exciting, no motor show would be complete without the more tantalising concept cars that you can’t yet buy and, here too, Geneva delivered.

To celebrate the one-year anniversary of its divorce from the Citroen brand, newly-formed marque DS revealed a stunning concept dubbed the E-Tense, which debuts a 300kW/516Nm pure-electric powertrain and styling that would certainly steal any motor show, if it were given the production green light.

DS is celebrating the brake-up from Citroen with a concept that is green in more than the way it is painted.

Opel’s baby GT sportscar concept is another fantasy vehicle to have its covers torn off at the show, but its development story holds arguably as much substance as the car itself.

Under its Aussie-made facade, the Opel GT has just 107kW and 205Nm from a 1.0-litre three-cylinder engine, but it doesn’t need a monster motor with a sub-1000kg kerb weight.

As one of only two centres in the world capable of producing rolling General Motors prototypes from scratch, Holden’s Fishermans Bend factory in Melbourne was the birthplace for this little two-plus-two concept with a big global presence.

Quite whether the coupe will evolve into a production car remains to be seen, but one thing is certain: the Opel GT is not the V8-powered rear-wheel-drive sportscar promised to Holden fans by GM International president Stefan Jacoby.

Lion-badged car fans will have to keep waiting for a competitor to Ford’s successful Mustang.

Hard to believe, we know, but Lamborghini’s Centenario is not a far-fetched prototype that will never make it off the drawing board and on to a road. If you were quick enough to write a cheque for €1.75 million ($A2.65m) you could have secured your own piece of raging bull history.

Just 20 Centenario coupes and 20 Roadsters will be made but all have already been promised to owners before the first production model has rolled off the Sant’Agata production line/

Created to celebrate the centenary of the birth of Lamborghini founder Ferrucio Lamborghini, the limited-edition 566kW V12 Lamborghini Centenario can blast from zero to 100km/h in 2.8 seconds and top out at 350km/h. Braking from 100km/h takes just 30 metres.

The monster Lambo is based on the not-exactly-inconspicuous Aventador, but with acres of bare carbon-fibre and more vents and spoilers than the Summernats lost property bin, the Centenario couldn’t look more different.

But it’s not just complete vehicles on display at Geneva each year, and in 2016 tyre giant Goodyear used the event to debut a concept of its own, in addition to the hundreds of vehicles on display.

For the Eagle-360 tread pattern, Goodyear drew inspiration from brain coral, and its magnetic levitation requires no mechanical connection to the car for a super-smooth and quiet ride.

Do not adjust your internet settings, the Eagle-360 really is a spherical tyre, and while such a notion may at first seem ridiculous, the bizarre idea does have some compelling features.

With a tyre that can turn through infinite degrees of rotation, the Eagle-360 would allow a car to change lanes without rotating on its axis, turn a complete 360-degrees in its own length, drive sideways and even adjust the tyre for wear and different tractive surfaces while rolling.

The tyre has no wheel or axle as such, and is held in place by magnetic levitation says Goodyear. Sounds unbelievable? Well the electromagnetic force is the same being used to contain a 100 million-degree ball of plasma gas in the world’s experimental fusion reactors.

With that kind of technology under discussion, the Geneva auto show is still one of the most impressive and important each year. Who knows what 2017 will bring?

Daniel Gardner GoAuto.com.au

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