Minimal

Updated: links to photos added.

7½ hours I was there today and still I didn’t see everything. Geneva is a serious motor show. Serious enough for me to run out of space on my 128MB CompactFlash card, in fact. That’s a first. Only took me 4 hours as well.

So, live from Lausanne (hence no photos available yet), here are a few of the highlights:

BMW Z4 M Coupé

Very nice indeed, although photos on Pistonheads meant it wasn’t a surprise, like some of the other cars I saw later. Absolutely swamped with punters too, which made getting a decent pic damned difficult.

Mini Cooper S John Cooper GP edition

A very pleasant surprise, although I do vaguely remember hearing about it a month or two back. Still, they’ve done a beautiful job on it and I loved the bracing tube in place of the back seats. That car means business. :)

Peugeot 207 RCup

Suspect this was a racer rather than a proposed production model, but it just about rescued the otherwise bland new 207 range. How come Peugeot are making such uninspiring cars when Citroen and Renault are getting it so right? Speaking of which...

Citroen C1

Cute, cute, cute. It was also the most beautifully executed 5-door supermini I’ve seen, with the rear doors going right to the tailgate lights and around the wheel arch.

Volvo C30 ‘concept’

Roughly the size of an Audi A3 and sporting two-tone metallic paint, this little Volvo was great. Looks like the ideal way to break into the hatchback market. Highly desirable.

Focus Cabriolet

Had no idea such a thing was in the pipeline, but it worked really well. It’s another automatic hard-top job and looks just as good either up or down. Well, ok, maybe the trunk boot looked a bit American, but other than that, it was pretty impressive.

Honda FCX concept

Let’s face it, we only go to motor shows to see something new and exciting. Concept cars are a rich source of such “Wow!” moments. This one, it turns out, is not only beautiful, but is powered by fuel cell technology. Sweet.

Toyota 2005 F1 car

Of all the F1 cars on show—and there were quite a few—this was the best mounted for getting a good look at the details. Ferrari, on the other hand, did a crap job of showing theirs off. Guess they were concentrating more on the 2006 model this winter.

Wiesmann GT

Only on the BBS stand to show off some tasty alloys, but this car was a semi-retro delight. I don’t care how it drives, I just want one. And in the same ivory colour they had it at the show.

Speaking of colours, it really did look like white was the colour to be seen in this winter. BMW had a plethora of white cars, Aston Martin had one, there was an ivory SLK, the ivory Wiesmann, white this, white that and white the other. Have to say, they all look absolutely fabulous, darling. Hopefully, Flickr will attest to this once I get stuff uploaded.

Finally, a quick bit of nuttiness to leave you with. When you first walk into the event, you’re landed right in the Kev-Zone, full of modders and modded cars. Incredibly, one of the very first cars you see is... wait for it... a chipped Enzo. An Enzo, FFS! Does it really need it?!