No.1 Alfa Romeo 4C
It’s renaissance time for Alfa Romeo. The 4C is arguably the most important car in the sexy Italian firm’s impressively long history. Its one aim: to re-establish Alfa Romeo as a marque with a genuine sports-car pedigree. And, yes, it's coming to America.The 4C is a “compact supercar” we will all aspire to own. With the promise of a rear-wheel driven, mid-engined, ultra-lightweight sports car with DNA inextricably linked to the automotive pornography that is the 8C Competizione, our palms are already beginning to sweat with the news that it’s confirmed to be hitting Alfa’s showrooms in 2012.
This is what Alfa needed. This is what we need. And this is AskMen's star car of Geneva 2011.
No.2 Jaguar XKR-S
Put simply, this is the most powerful production Jaguar ever, and that’s no small feat given the stable of shockingly quick cars Jaguar has in its arsenal right now.
The XKR-S also looks the quickest, too, and has been treated to a raft of tech and aerodynamic tweaks to befit the performance pedestal it assumes. Huge new vents dominate the epically proportioned hood, as well as entirely new front headlights, side skirts and bumper assembly, complete with carbon-fiber inserts and more brake-cooling vents for good measure.
This hardcore XKR-S now packs a staggering 542bhp from its remapped, supercharged V8 heart, making it capable of hitting 60 mph from a standing start in 4.2 seconds. And it won’t stop until 186 mph, given the chance.
This Jag looks set to terrorize roads around the world. And would you challenge it? Thought not.
No.3 BMW Vision Connecteddrive Concept Car
The most futuristic and technologically advanced concept car to debut in Geneva also has the longest name of any other car at the motor show -- so we’ll be calling it the BMW Roadster.If Facebook and Twitter turn you off, then this car will put you off for life. Its whole raison d’être is to present itself as a fully integrated part of the networked world. BMW has even tried to visualize this concept of data flow with the colored light that streams around the sweetly layered bodywork.
With “heads-up” technology, everything gets displayed three-dimensionally on the windshield and in the driver’s line of sight. Even passengers gets their own box of tricks, allowing them to communicate with the driver without even talking.
As a real-world reference, however, BMW’s Roadster is here to show the design cues that will be filtering into our beloved Beemers in the coming years. The retro-inspired shark nose will make a welcome comeback, and the sexy new layered look is bang on trend -- for 2015. Whether we’ll see the uber-cool retracting doors that slip discreetly inside the front wings, however, is another matter. But with that said, Mercedes-Benz brought back gull-wing doors, so who knows.
No.4 Toyota FT-86 II
Toyota has been without a proper sports car for far too long, but, thankfully, Geneva signals the merciful end to this performance drought with the awesome FT-86 II.
In a joint effort with Subaru, the FT-86 II concept looks like a dangerously real proposition to us, with more than a nod toward the edgy and angular styling of Lexus' LFA supercar.
Sadly, even though it’s looking primed and ready right now, the compact, lightweight, rear-wheel-driven production car won’t hit the road until 2012. But from our Geneva teaser, rest assured the wait will be worth it.
No.5 MINI Rocketman
Finally, it’s a mini MINI -- but it’s still not quite as diminutive as the original 10-foot British icon. The Rocketman may be just a concept in Geneva, but MINI is developing quite a reputation for putting its concepts straight through to production with the Countryman, Coupe, Convertible, Paceman, and so on.But more than just a chopped down MINI with some makeup, the Rocketman is a pretty radical little motor. Built around a carbon spaceframe monocoque that exposes itself externally, the doors are double hinged, all the seats slide and what can only be described as a drawer can be pulled out of the back to store your bike, surfboard or inner tube. The hooped rear lights are actually LED projectors that bounce the light off the car's body, and the transparent roof has an illuminated fiber-optic Union Jack set within it. Nice touches.
Unfortunately, with no official line on the engine at this “study” stage, we’ll just have to wait and see if it’ll be rocket powered.
No.6 Aston Martin Virage
Aston Martin is aware of the financial turmoil that has rocked and is still rocking the world -- really, it is. Thus, it's decided to plug the gap, both fiscally and visually, that existed between its $203, 325 DB9 and the $284,654 DBS. Geneva welcomes the public unveiling of the latest must-have Aston since the last one, the Virage.
We love a V12, and Aston Martin sure loves dishing them up, too. And much to the disappointment of the bovine community in Bridge of Weir, Scotland, it’ll take seven peeled cows from that neck of the woods to clad the Virage’s interior to the high standards it duly demands.
Promising to blend butt-clenching pace with butt-hugging comfort and refinement, the hand-built 6.0-liter, 12-cylinder revered British heart of the Virage generates a cool 490 horsepower and, doubtless, a feeling of unutterable smugness that will never wear off.
Another classic Aston that doesn’t stray from the company’s well-driven path of perfection, the Virage is assertive eloquence distilled, then very slightly remixed.
No.7 Maserati GranCabrio Sport
Maserati is firing on all cylinders right now with a lineup that just gets sexier and sexier. Its showpiece for Geneva 2011 isn’t an environmentalist’s wet dream or something that has just slipped off the set of Tron, but a harder, faster and redder GranCabrio Sport.
Loaded with extra firepower (not needed but welcome nonetheless) and some pleasingly subtle aero-based cosmetic surgery, this Maser will hit 177 mph should you be lucky (or insane) enough to explore what the digital wrenches have done to the 4.7-liter V8 that sounds like the devil in a particularly excitable mood.
No.8 Nissan ESFLOW
Pure electric vehicles may still provoke a simple "no" from most of us who actually enjoy driving cars and who would want one that exhibits considerably more style credentials than a food processor. But the designers at Nissan believe they may have cracked into the car-lovers niche with the strangely monikered ESFLOW. Based on the existing technology of the intelligent if drab Nissan LEAF but fused with the minds that put street-legal racers like the GT-R on our roads, this car certainly looks like progress.
Although very much still a concept at this stage, the ESFLOW sports car is rear-wheel driven and powered by two individual electric motors via laminated lithium-ion batteries buried low in the chassis. It’s also officially able to cover 150 miles on one charge while being able to hit 60 mph in under five seconds. Nissan’s conceptual future is looking up.
No.9 Range Rover Autobiography Ultimate Edition
Clearly not content with their current top-of-the-range Rangie, Range Rover has unveiled its most expensive version yet, the Autobiography Ultimate Edition, in Geneva. The Ultimate Edition, pitched at a supercar-competing $210,000, is Range Rover throwing just about every conceivable luxury at its high-rise limo.Only 500 of these superstar SUVs will be available, so we certainly don’t expect any to be lingering in a showroom for long, despite the eye-watering price tag.
But it’s the inside that packs the punches. Two epically proportioned stand-alone rear seats offer passengers their own machined aluminum laptop tables and iPads that fit snugly into the front headrests -- though they’ll have to share a single drinks cooler in the extended central console. Half a bottle of bubbly anyone?
Even the rear storage space hasn’t been overlooked in this opulent upgrade, which now boasts a super-yacht-inspired natural teak floor with leather and metal detailing.
So, can the Range extend any further? Rest assured, it'll find a way.
No.10 Fiat 500 Coupe Zagato
Ever thought the 500 was a tad too cute to be a real man’s motor? Well, the small car that resuscitated a struggling Fiat back in 2007 has taken a testosterone boost at the hands of the legendary Italian styling house Zagato.
Although the current 500 could nearly be labeled a coupe in its own right, this official coupe gets a steeply raked rear end and Zagato’s trademark double-hump roof. Leathered up to the max inside, the 500 Coupe Zagato assumes retro diamond-stitched sporty seats and comes, naturally, color-coordinated to the nth degree.
It won’t have a performance to rival the 500 Abarth -- at least not initially -- but it will pack 124 hp per liter with Fiat’s all-new 105 HP TwinAir engine.