Geneva without the coachbuilders

• 

The Geneva Motor Show is the favourite amongst journalists. Well, European motoring journalists at least. The reason is simple: while the show is relatively small, the amount of news has always been overwhelming. And this was mainly due to the Italian coachbuilders who continued to bring ingenious, gorgeous, extreme or just plain wacky cars to the Swiss show. They did so for decades and they gave Geneva an atmosphere that was incomparible to any other show. But they appear to have stopped doing it for now.

This year you’ll not find Bertone’s daring display in Geneva. Giugiaro is not there with some pretty girls, Castagna isn’t, nor is Fioravanti, not even Zagato for heaven’s sake, which always managed to make some waves. Only Carrozzeria Touring can be found this weekend in Switzerland, with a beheaded version of the Alfa Disco Volante on a tiny little display and Pininfarina brought over a hydrogen fuel cell powered racer. The lasts in line?

Hang on, it’s not that the show has become a drag. Where the carrozzerias once proudly showed their highlight of a year’s hard work, it are now the big motor manufacturers that unveil the prototypes and concepts, while tuners like Hamman, Mansory, MTM, Brabus and Kahn come up with souped-up versions of existing models. It’s just not the same.

(Words Jeroen Booij, picture courtesy Giugiaro)

Kommentar abgeben...