So it's a slight change from the normal
timetable for us this week.
We're at the Geneva Motor Show.
Now I know it's normally about me smoking cars around and
reviewing them.
But the Geneva Motor Show is the best one of the year.
It's huge, yet it's quite contained.
And it's got everything.
And this year, there is-- wait for it-- a new
Ferrari hyper car.
A new McLaren hyper car.
There's a new Alfa Romeo rear wheel drive sports car.
There's a new Lamborghini limited run hyper car.
Everything's here.
So we'll have a look around, meet some people,
look at some cars.
Oh, and there's a new GT3.
And in the middle of it, we might do a bit of driving as
well, just to keep people interested.
So here we are-- the Geneva 2013 show report.
This has to be one of the stars of the show, doesn't it?
The amazing new McLaren P1.
It's a number fest for junkies like me.
903 horsepower, 727 of which comes from a 3.8 liter twin
turbo V8 that was first largely seen in the 12C a
couple of years ago.
The numbers are outrageous.
0 to 60 miles an hour in less than three seconds.
Wait for this.
0 to 125 miles an hour in less than seven seconds.
And this is the number that totally fries my brain--
0 to 186 in less than 17 seconds, which is, I think,
six seconds faster than the McLaren F1.
It's absolute lunacy.
It's sitting in track mode at the moment.
Looks like it's sucking the floor up.
It actually is 50 millimeters lower on that ride height.
This car will sustain two Gs during cornering and braking.
I could just go on and on and on.
But the result is surely one of the most
impressive cars in the show.
Stunning.
Look at this beautiful caliper here.
This is the first time the Akebono-- which is the company
that supplies McLaren's F1 braking systems--
has been working on a road car.
It's a layered carbon ceramic disk.
So it's a different process to a normal one.
That allows it to run 150 degrees hotter than a normal
carbon ceramic, so just more performance everywhere.
While we're here, this is a Pirelli P0 core.
So this one's got no markings on it at all.
Looks suspiciously development spec.
The tire is bespoke to McLaren.
They worked on it completely.
And this tire is the one that will pull two Gs in brakes and
in cornering.
So just look at this thing.
Look at the work going on at the back of it.
Look at the diffuser.
Look what's going on with the rear wing.
It's just amazing.
Absolutely amazing.
A feast for the eyes.
And I have to say, standing here right now, or rather,
crouching here right now, that sort of Lamborghini concept
bull [BLEEP]
over there is starting to look a bit stupid next to this
pucker new style hybrid super car.
I can't believe I'm saying this.
Lamborghini's built three or four of these Veneno special
concept car.
740 horsepower, amazing body works.
I don't want to spend too much time on it, because I think it
looks like an absolute dog's dinner.
I'm really worried about Lamborghini.
At this show, you've got McLaren and Ferrari unveiling
landmark hybrid hyper cars, and these guys are still
cocking about strapping bits of carbon fiber
onto a vented chassis.
And I just don't get it.
It just looks like they're trying too hard, and they
haven't got a clear direction.
The warning bells are out there.
The event is always performing, I know.
But the Gallardo is now 10 years old.
And this is what they're doing at the top.
And I mean, look at the back of it.
It looks like I got some LSD wedged down my neck, and
decided to draw my own super car.
Not good.
OK, OK, OK.
The music has stopped.
This is the new GT3, probably the most talked about car on
forums that hasn't been released in a
long, long, long time.
And all the conjecture was mostly wrong.
There's going to be a Metzger engine.
It's going to have a manual gear box.
No, no, no.
It has a development of the DFI engine that
revs to 9,000 RPM.
It is PDK only, but with all sorts of trickery.
Pull the paddles together, and you can clutch kick it.
All sorts of stuff like that.
But there's no manual gearbox, and it has 475 horsepower.
Earlier, Mr. Poeninga said to me that he's doing preseason
testing with the thing, OK.
Driving it back to back with four liter RS, they were
swapping the whole time.
And after a while, he didn't want to get back
into the four liter.
He wanted to stay in the new car.
But he would say that, wouldn't he?
He would say that.
We'll have a look around it now.
Center lock halves, some pretty awesome styling.
It's a lovely interpretation on the standard 991.
No longer the narrow body.
This is based on the wide body Carrera 4 shell, massive
performance.
Sub 730 at the ring, not that that really
matters to most people.
Do you like it?
I think it looks fantastic.
Is there a manual gearbox option, or
should there be one?
That will be an issue that rolls on forever.
At the moment, I'm not quite sure actually.
I wish there was a manual GT3, but I suppose, does this leave
space for a manual RS?
I think we'll talk to Andreas in a minute, and find out what
he has to say.
Possibly the last thing the E63 needed was more power, but
Mercedes has given it more power.
It now has 585 horsepower from its twin
turbocharged V8 motor.
It also now has, in most markets, four wheel drive,
although in the UK, we remain two wheel drive only, because
we're right hand drive luddites.
Now, I'd love to tell you about this car for hours, and
I could, and we could pore over it.
But it would be more fun if you watched me try and wrestle
it up a Spanish hillside, wouldn't it?
Yes, yes, yes, it's another new AMG.
But hang on a minute.
They've made it look a bit different.
They've given it more power.
They've added four wheel drive, if you live in certain
countries, and it sounds fantastic.
That's alone the fact that if you look at the throttle
pedal, it will go sideways.
It was made for video, so why wouldn't I review it?
Exactly.
The new E63 looks better than the old E63, doesn't it?
I'm not sure.
I think it does.
I think on the whole, this is a very successful facelift.
That front sort of big gapey chin bit, that looks much
better in the flesh than it does in the pictures.
Interestingly, I always thought the old E63 was the
best way of showing that sort of hip crease that you had on
this E class, or rather, the previous E class that
actually, on the lesser cars, with a narrower track and
smaller wheels, that kink wasn't that impressive,
although it was better on the estate car.
So it's lost some of its identity.
It's not so obviously an E class now, and it does look
more homogenized, more of 5 series, I
suppose, down the side.
But then, quite clearly, Mercedes Benz felt the need to
restyle the car.
As an E63, well, it's a mighty weapon.
There's some quite complex spec differentiation going on
here, though.
From now on, in America, you buy your E63 as four wheel
drive, so you lose the chance to just do skids everywhere.
But in terms of all weather ability, you now have a car
that rivals an RS6, which is pretty exciting.
And as an estate, wow.
That's quite a package.
In the UK, you still buy the car in right hand drive as two
wheel drive, and-- this is where it gets more
complicated--
this left hand drive two wheel drive car I'm driving now
doesn't have the S pack, which gives the
extra power and torque.
But in the UK, you can order a right hand drive car with the
S pack, so 580-something horsepower
and all that torque.
Very complicated.
But the upshot is, this thing is an absolute hooligan.
You can light the tires up at pretty much
any speed, any gear.
It feels monumentally fast.
I mean, palpably faster than an M5 in many circumstances.
It's a great, great car.
They put a bit more weight in the steering than
the last E63 I drove.
The ride is very simple in normal damper mode.
We've got two options, medium sport and full sport, and
don't tend to use those.
But this is a really nice balance of everyday comfort
and quite a lot of control.
The car's on eeny weeny 18 inch wheels, which I know
won't be to everyone's taste, but for me, gives a bit more
flex in the side wall.
And those tires are, I see, Michelin Pilot Sport 3s, and
the tread design looks quite new to me.
I've not seen a tire that looks like that.
So clearly Mercedes and AMG have been developing new tires
with new partners.
The key thing about this car for me is that of all the
stupidly fast saloon cars--
so I mean Jaguar, Mercedes, Audi, and the others--
I reckon this is the nicest one to drive slowly.
And let's face it, that's how, most of the
time, it will be driven.
If you get right up it, this MCT gear box is slower to
shift in manual mode than the N5 DCT.
I'll give you that.
And it is kind of lacking some of that absolute precision.
The motor is just less responsive to small throttle
inputs than the BMWs.
But really, in everyday driving, leave it in sport and
just put your foot down, and--
I mean, that's nuts.
That's faster than the very, very fastest super cars that I
used to test 10 years ago, and we have it in an E class body.
Neil thinks it looks, quote, boring.
But I don't.
I just think it looks very subtle, quite taut, and ready
to go and literally chomp through M cars.
Adding four wheel drive to the E63 makes some quite profound
changes to it.
To start with, the traction is astonishing, as you'd expect.
You come out of second gear turns now, and you give it the
whole lot, and it just goes.
It's extraordinary.
Because it's an E63, you're waiting for the over-steer,
but it never comes.
OK, on a very damp surface, if you give it everything, it
will over-steer.
The other thing that's interesting is the gear box.
I've defended the MCT gear change for a while now,
because it isn't as quick as the DSG, but it's actually a
nicer automatic gear box.
But this thing is now so quick at getting out of a corner.
You find yourself rowing up the manual gears, and the gear
box doesn't feel quick enough.
That's interesting.
It's put demands on the gear box as a driver that weren't
there before.
The question for me is does this four wheel drive nature
alter the fundamental character of the car?
I think it does.
This feels more Audi RS product now.
Of course it does.
It steers better.
It still will over-steer if you give it the lot.
So there's a rear blast to the four wheel drive, which is
great, but it's lost that hooligan element.
And suddenly, you're traveling a whole lot faster point to
point, which, as I've said, puts those demands on the gear
box, because in manual mode, it now does feel too slow.
But an estate one of these with the four wheel drive
system and the S pack, I mean, that is a weapon, isn't it?
Is that the ultimate go anywhere, do
anything family car?
But personally, and this is where I'm going to sound like
a flat earther, I like the two wheel drive car.
I think in the UK, we're quite lucky, because
it remains a hotrod.
It doesn't have that ability on wet roads, and it won't be
as quick in the middle of December, but it's just so
exciting managing all that over-steer.
But I can see that when the four wheel drive does
eventually come to the UK-- maybe in the next model, it
won't in this one, although Mercedes is saying it will
import you a left hand drive car if you
really, really want one.
It's going to be an absolute weapon.
How much faster can these cars get?
Impressive.
Anyone that takes on the Porche Cayman had better be
absolutely committed to the task, because
that is a great car.
But Alpha has launched the 4C here.
This is the production version.
I'm not too sure about these headlights here.
But, but, but, it sets a very, very important set of
questions for us.
Is it worth having a more affordable engine in an exotic
chassis, a carbon chassis in the case of this car, for
ultimate handling and the stiffest structure possible?
Or should you have a steel structure like a Cayman, and
end up with a more exotic six cylinder engine?
This car will have 240 horsepower from a 1.75 liter
four cylinder turbocharged motor, but it will be very,
very light.
We're looking at a price of maybe $50 grand with some
extras on it, I think, is what I'm hearing.
So it's going to be an expensive car.
But the Cayman's not going to have it all its own way.
I think it's an exciting addition to the marketplace.
I just want to drive one now.
One note of caution.
I had a look around the interior.
We'll show you some shots now.
Some of the materials are quite basic.
Can they make a virtue of that as a lightweight thing?
I'm not sure.
But it worried me initially.
Somehow, the new Golf GTI looks very
familiar, doesn't it?
Because the Golf theory is evolution rather than
revolution.
The GTI now is 220 PS as a non-performance car.
I say that because there's a special person with another 10
horsepower that's called the Performance.
The GTI Performance.
So that must make that the non-performance, I suppose.
I think the Golf GTI has always been the best all
around performance car, but it's coming under real
pressure at the moment.
By the time this thing lands in the UK, and you've added a
smattering of extras, it's going to be,
what, late 20,000 pounds?
That's going to put it squarely in line with the BMW
M135, a car which I crow on about too much.
But that car has over 300 horsepower, and this one, even
as a performance pack, has 230.
There's a 50 foot pounds of torque advantage over the
outgoing car, and I have to say, it looks like a quality
item inside and out.
But is the Golf GTI's marketplace shifting so
quickly around it that it can't respond?
I'm sure there'll be an R version later on.
But right now, it looks like a great car that's moving into
an increasingly tough market.
You know when you were a kid, and you had a BMX helmet, but
it didn't have a visor on it, and you got some prospects
that you had lying around the house and cut it, and then
used gaffer tape to put it on the front to sort of protect
you from stones when you're racing your mates?
That's what KTM's done with the X-Bow..
I can't look at that.
It's absolutely appalling.
Behind me in that scrum over there, there is a brand new
Ferrari hyper-car, and it's called--
this is why I have to just take control of myself--
La Ferrari.
We're not joking.
It's called La Ferrari.
So I presume in the UK, it's going to be called The
Ferrari, and maybe in German, it'll be Das Ferrari.
Let's see.
Forget about the silly name, though, because when you
actually look at this thing and scrutinize the numbers,
it's off the scale.
963 horsepower, 800 of that from a combustion engine, the
rest from electric motors.
So it's high curves, which should be extraordinary.
Now, after the P1, how is the numbers battle?
There's no claimed weight on this yet, but the 0 to 186
mile an hour time is 15 seconds, whereas the
McLaren's is 17.
Two seconds at that kind of speed is outrageous.
Think about that.
0 to 186 in 15 seconds.
A few years, a really, really fast car would do naught to
100 miles an hour in that time.
Have a look around the car now, some of the details.
I think it's pretty extraordinary looking.
Some people saying it looks a bit like a pumped up 458.
Well, the 288 GTO was a pumped up 328, and that didn't look
too bad, did it?
A great day for super cars, a great day for hyper cars.
Enjoyed my time at the show.
Hope you enjoyed it, too, and I'm going to go now.