All the archived entries to the 2014 Geneva liveblog here, reading top to bottom in chronological order. Click here to return to the current blog and comments page.
So, I’ve arrived in Geneva and first night is already a late one. I’m here as a guest of JLR, which scores me a rather nice hotel (actually IN Geneva, which is a novelty) and a bike ride. Yes, I’m here on the eve of a major international motor show, preparing to go cycling. Preparing to cycling quite possibly in the nude.
See, with Jaguar sponsoring Team Sky and all there’s a strong bond between the brand and the Tour de France and cycling in general. And as part of that we’re supposed to be joining a ride tomorrow with some other hacks and some representatives from clothing sponsor Rapha. Yes, you may have seen some other motoring ‘pundits’ on bikes last night but, believe me, this is not the wheezing fish out of water stuff contrived for your Sunday night viewing pleasure. Henry from Evo is A Proper Cyclist, as is Ollie from Top Gear and, likewise, former Car editor Gavin Green. And they’re all coming too. A gentle potter testing out some £10K Team Sky Pinarellos around Lake Geneva this is not.
Worrying enough but I appear to have arrived somewhat underequipped. The email before we came out asked for measurements for some Rapha shorts and a jersey (fancy stuff to the uninitiated) so I didn’t think to bring any of my own. Greeting me in my hotel room was a rather meagre Team Sky jersey which, even size Medium, leaves little to the imagination and I’m hardly what you’d describe as powerfully built.
So I’ve got my shoes, my pedals, my helmet (all as instructed) and I also packed gloves and various other bits and bobs. But no shorts. And no shirt, bar this Sky branded crop top. Leaving me facing a ride in Switzerland in early March in … not much. This could be awkward.
Modesty prevailed and Jaguar was able to cover my ass, and those of the other slightly panicked looking hacks who'd also followed their joining instructions a little too closely. A local bike shop had a very good day, let's put it that way.
A massed bike ride is an unusual way to kick off attendance of an international motor show but it certainly gets the blood pumping. Especially when there's national pride at stake, and Belgians to beat.
Organised through the travel arm of Team Sky clothing sponsor Rapha, this was rightly sold as a ride for the reasonably bike savvy and we arrived at the Societe Nautique to find a fleet of Pinarello Dogmas (c. £10K a piece and, no, that doesn't come with an engine) and a selection of a have-a-go hero car hacks of all nationalities fancying themselves as fast as Froome. The idea was to get a taste of the Tour, with Jaguar support cars whizzing this way and that, traffic held to aid our passing and a pace that started gently enough but quickly picked up as a couple of Belgians decided the rainy conditions were very much to their liking. No surprise to find the Brits similarly at home and keeping tabs all the way until a last-mile sprint alongside Lake Geneva saw Henry from Evo put the manners on everyone bar our Rapha guide.
If all this talk of lycra and road bikes has you scratching your head about its place on PH then bear with me. We'll get to the cars in due course. But chatting with Rapha boss Simon Mottram confirmed the kinship that exists between a good number of cyclists and petrolheads. One and the same in many cases, he agreed. Blog to that effect here from a little while back.
And, bring it back on-topic, what's not to like about Team Sky equipping their team manager with a 550hp XFR-S Sportbrake as his lead recce vehicle. Festooned with Pinarellos of a combined value far exceeding the car (correctly observing Rule #25) that's a pretty compelling expression of a shared love of horsepower and pedal power. I mentioned as much in a response to the drive story but I think we should campaign for Jaguar to equip this car with a 'TV' exhaust like the one AMG fits to the F1 safety car.
Ach, it's just boys with (expensive) toys. What's the harm, eh?
Speaking of which, those Pinarellos aren't the only exotic carbon fibre things poncing about Geneva today. As evidenced by the McLaren P1 currently parked outside our hotel. Best of all you wouldn't, necessarily, have to dress in lycra to enjoy that one either.
Next job? Swot up for the VW group evening to follow later on.
On the basis it was probably bad form to ask my hosts JLR to provide me with transport to the VW group night a little down the way I elected to walk instead ; a mile or so on foot in Geneva is often quicker than driving anyway.
Funny old bashes these group nights. The concentration of corporate firepower is quite formidable, various familiar faces from launches wandering past vaguely familiar but the name escapes me types all suited and booted for the appearance in front of Dr Piech and his lovely wife. Wasn't that thingummy from the Golf launch? And that was that dude from the Lambo production line tour the other day wasn't it? Ooh look, here comes the Segway Steadicam dude again!
Anyway, as I type I've managed to sharp elbow my way to a seat right at the front, ducked down between the legs of tripods and tut-tutting snappers. And am preparing myself for the VW uber alles ceremonials to begin. It's a businesslike presentation too, each brand head given his 30 seconds in the spotlight before the next one is brought on to do the same. A proper conveyor belt and a pretty awe inspiring display of the breadth of brands and vehicles within the group.
I'll report in from the other side...
So a return walk alongside Lake Geneva was a good way to clear my head after the relentless tub thumping of the VW group preview night.
Any surprises? Erm, not really.
In order of presentation we had Lamborghini taking centre stage with a procession of three Huracans including one in bright yellow on black wheels that did a much more convincing impression of, well, being a Lamborghini than the white ones we saw last week. Pity the bloke driving the grey one at the back couldn't get it into gear and drive off on cue - for a heart stopping moment I thought they were actually going to have to push it off the stage.
Skoda's Vision C concept looked like a halfway house product of a five-minute design meeting between SEAT and Audi, hurriedly painted green and punted down the hall and given a Skoda badge. Audi brought out its - cough - brand new TT which looked exactly like the last one. In S form it does, however, promise 310hp, 280lb ft, 0-62mph in 4.7 seconds and boast the fancy new Matrix headlights as tested recently on the A8. It also gets that fancy multi configurable dash display previewed at the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas which is rather more exciting than the exterior. 'Evolutionary' would be the tactful way of describing it.
SEAT showed the Leon Cupra, teased the 'historic feat' of a Nurburgring lap time ... and then told us we'd have to wait until tomorrow to actually find out what it is. Pah. We had a gold Bentley GT Speed on stage and were told its 635hp and 605lb ft were 'adequate for every situation in life' (nice to know) before ItalDesign Giugiaro brought on a concept. It was obvious it was a concept because it had ridiculous gullwing doors that'll clearly never make it into production and the presentation was a whitewash of buzzwords like 'sporty', 'dynamic' and 'practical'.
The Porsche GT1 that followed it out clearly wasn't a concept but instead at a tease for the 919 LMP1 racer which will be formally unveiled tomorrow; Porsche also showed a 918 Spyder to highlight the genetic link in a rather fetching reversal of the red and white of the 1970 Le Mans winning 917.
I was joking about the colour of this year's special edition Bugatti Veyron but, truth stranger than, it's actually brown. Or rather bronze, officially, and the fourth in the Editions series. This one celebrates sculptor Rembrandt, brother of founder Ettore.
Highlights? Apart from the stalled Lamborghini I did see a German cameraman resignedly shrug, put his camera down, walk 10 metres over to the Chinese photographer who was continually blocking his shot and casually flatten him to the floor before dusting off his hands and returning to his video camera. Slap down!
Another early start but no bike ride this time; straight into an XJ to be wafted, via the tradesman’s, directly into the show hall and onto Jaguar Land Rover’s glitzy new stand. It’s 30 per cent lighter and 80 per cent more efficient donchaknow. It’s also got – praise be! – internet on a wire. The PH beach towel is down. I’m going nowhere. If they could just sort IV coffee we’d really be sorted but happy to call this home for the day.
Getting in before the official opening has been a real gift too. It meant I got to have a quick lap of the show with my camera, shooting many of the main protagonists before the crowds of less fortunate hacks and snappers descend. Smug? Go on, a little.
A little gallery of my initial sweep below; with the help of our team of contributors we’ll be bringing you more in-depth stories on the ones that matter as we go.
Personal highlights on this initial run round? The Twingo looks fab and worthy of the interest shown here on PH already. Greedy perhaps but a Renaultsport version in due course really appeals. At the other end of the scale the mad looking Lexus RC F GT3 looks like it’ll start eating people if it doesn’t get fed regularly. Subaru’s WRX STI looks a little heavy in the overhangs and underwheeled – let’s hope it drives better than it looks (launch coming up soon). Having literally passed me by last night at the VW group evening I finally got a proper look at the TT and, as discussed last night, it’s a TT. A spread of photos for you below to enjoy; that out of the way I’d best go hunting some stories…
Another early start but no bike ride this time; straight into an XJ to be wafted, via the tradesman’s, directly into the show hall and onto Jaguar Land Rover’s glitzy new stand. It’s 30 per cent lighter and 80 per cent more efficient donchaknow. It’s also got – praise be! – internet on a wire. The PH beach towel is down. I’m going nowhere. If they could just sort IV coffee we’d really be sorted but happy to call this home for the day.
Getting in before the official opening has been a real gift too. It meant I got to have a quick lap of the show with my camera, shooting many of the main protagonists before the crowds of less fortunate hacks and snappers descend. Smug? Go on, a little.
A little gallery of my initial sweep below; with the help of our team of contributors we’ll be bringing you more in-depth stories on the ones that matter as we go.
Personal highlights on this initial run round? The Twingo looks fab and worthy of the interest shown here on PH already. Greedy perhaps but a Renaultsport version in due course really appeals. At the other end of the scale the mad looking Lexus RC F GT3 looks like it’ll start eating people if it doesn’t get fed regularly. Subaru’s WRX STI looks a little heavy in the overhangs and underwheeled – let’s hope it drives better than it looks (launch coming up soon). Having literally passed me by last night at the VW group evening I finally got a proper look at the TT and, as discussed last night, it’s a TT. A spread of photos for you below to enjoy; that out of the way I’d best go hunting some stories…
Argh! Kicked off the JLR stand while they prepared for their press conferences and lost in the show without my wired internet. Actually forced to go and look at cars for a bit - who'd have thought!
Having tyre-kicked at Infiniti, cruised by Merc, checked out the 4 Series Gran Coupe and front-driven whatnot (plus looked enviously at the 435i decked out with M Performance goodies) and then admired Loeb's Pikes Peak 208 T16 I ventured into the central area to see what's what.
There I found the engagingly bonkers Abarth 695 Biposto (I'll do a standalone on this) which is decked out with all sorts of titanium goodies, stripped back to sub 1,000kg and given an H-pattern dog box. Probably not quite enough to challenge the SEAT's 'ring lap with 190hp but it'd be fun trying.
Daft that I am I can't help getting distracted by the older cars some of the manufacturers have brought along to hammer home their various heritage messages. Mazda's got a tasty little NA MX-5 to see in the 25th birthday, Audi's got a lovely RS2 resplendent in RS Blue above the white goods (white goods as in their goods and they're painted white) current line-up and there's an old blower Bentley knocking about too. Chuck in a proper Disco Volante over on the Touring stand and a 1923 Targa Florio Alfa with giant cloverleaf logo and you can have an enjoyable time tyre kicking without even looking at a gullwinged concept or plug-in hybrid. I like to think this is the PH way of doing an international motor show.
Favourite so far is the 964-based Ruf RCT Evo. A narrow-body car running four-wheel drive and a 425hp 3.6-litre engine, the nearby Mrs Ruf reckoned it was all about being stripped back to the basics. And power. She reckoned on a kerbweight of around 1,200kg, which seems optimistic, but performance is probably adequate whatever it weighs and it's got a hearty 420lb ft of torque to complement the horsepower. In the day Ruf reckoned 199mph and it's a lovely, lovely mix of all-out performance but still beautifully trimmed and finished. And pretty understated for what it is. I did some swotting on the car and a similar one, also ex-Mr Ruf, is now in America but Mrs Ruf told me having sold it they built another for the personal connection. Well, you would, wouldn't you. A contemporary pricelist for the bits can be found here, more information here. Geek out at your leisure!
So I was locked into my laptop processing stories on the JLR stand (basically this HAS been my Geneva show) when I got a tap on the shoulder and asked if I wanted to join an interview with Chris Froome. Sure thing!
We're like kin me and him. Both born in Kenya. Both like riding bikes. Er ... maybe I could win the Tour de France too? Maybe not. But I'd have home advantage on the Yorkshire stages of this year's race - seems Froome's never ridden there before. He may be in for a shock.
Following on from the chat with Simon from Rapha I asked if there is a petrolhead contingent within the racing community. Mark Cavendish is one example and has owned a McLaren but Froome reckons there's a shared need for speed and adrenaline that unites the roadie brigade and lovers of fast cars. A few enlightened souls on Twitter begged to differ when I Tweeted as much after the chat but there we go. Is there an intimidation factor in Team Sky having all the cool gear, be it the pimpiest bikes, flashest support cars or stylish clothing? Froome's too polite to say but acknowledges Team Sky is under scrutiny to see what kit they're using. And that F-Type he was pictured in after the Tour win? He had to give it back unfortunately.
Energy levels dwindling I had a last skim around the show grabbing photos to accompany the stories coming in from the contributors in the field. Meant I caught up with the hardass Audi TT concept thing, which looks absolutely nails in the best hot Audi tradition, and the Astra VXR Extreme. Which looks ... unabashed. Yes. Unabashed. At the other end of the show I managed to grab a couple of pics of the S-Class coupe before the covers went on for the night and, Merc lover as I am, I have to say it looks rather stunning. Enormous. But rather smart - a true flagship.
Overheard on the way back to JLR? A man explaining, perhaps superfluously, to someone that the white Carlsson S-Class with gold leaf trim was 'for customers in the Gulf'. Yup, got that.
Now to sit in a Geneva traffic jam...
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