Long post warning!
Wow. what a fabulous day yesterday. Set off from Basel pretty early in the morning and watched it get light on the train, as we were going along the shorelines of Lac Leman and Lac Neuchâtel. It's a three hour train ride either way from Basel but well worth it for the views alone. I still pinch myself - I'm living in Europe! I wish I could stay out here. It was a gorgeous morning here earlier so I hopped on the bike, through Germany into France and found a boulangerie and stopped for breakfast - a world away from the S****Y surrounding of Smelly Oak in Birmingham.
Anyhow, we digress. I arrived nice and early at the show - thank god I went on a Friday as it wasn't too busy, you could actually get pictures of cars without tonnes of people surrounding them and so on. There was so much going on - pretty much very manufacturer you could think of was there - so I thought I'd give you a short summary of some of my favourites:
We'll start with Jaguar eh? The attention was firmly focused on the Special Vehicle Operations F-Type in a gorgeous shade of red - also the first time I had seen the new XE among others, and I quite like it too. They had an F-Pace on a stand in the centre of the show too. Not what I would usually associate with Jaguar but nonetheless very well done.
Even the 1:8 scale models were so beautifully done - I am not going to be able to match that level of detail. Then again, at TEN THOUSAND SWISS FRANCS I would expect it to be as good as it could be! I may be missing a trick here, I need to bulk-buy more models, build them, mount them in display cabinet and export to Switzerland
Ford has a fairly large presence with some fabulous GTs and a new Mustang in blue - there's one regularly flying around Basel (and a red F-Type coupe just down by road incidentally)
Mercedes has some good cars on display - a fabulous concept car which was getting a fair amount of attention but also a nice display from the AMG division too.
Despite having been to a number of F1 races and met a few drivers, I don't recall ever seeing an F1 trophy up close - and then you see 4 in one go. Lovely craftsmanship involved.
The ever resplendent Rollers on display. Unusual to see the brightly coloured roofs but they looked smart with the white bodywork.
Bentley Flying Spur
Makes one wonder why the emissions stuff was on display. 1) You don't really care if you're about to buy a Bentley and 2) Fuel economy was non-existent.
A same which rings a bell in the design inspiration for the E-Tyep: The "disco volante" - a modern one featured here. Very nice indeed, the colour was lovely.
TAG-Heuer stand (yes there were also some nice watches there David
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The new Porsche 911 4 GTS looking lovely in red
I was quite intrigued to see the new Alpine having seen the odd car out-and-about at classic shows, and up close and personal I thought it looked pretty good too, even more so in the blue than the white. Nice detail and styling with the tricolore on the side. They also brought along a bare ally tub highlighting its construction. Nice job.
You could barely get to the Bugatti stand - and for a good reason - they had a Chiron on display, with its W16 engine punching out 1,500 HP and its top speed LIMITED to a mere 261 mph - they reckon it's good for 281, but not "safely"
Crazy figures really
A nice display from Audi, V10 R8 and the S1 among the display. The latter would make for a nice little run around car if I were in the UK, it'd look quite nice with my plate on too.
A fair amount of F1 and Formula E cars about which mixed things up, and a nice reminder that the new season is almost upon us (looking forward to the Austrian Grand Prix this year too!
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The championship winning eDAMS car
One of my favourite stands of the day came courtesy of the David Brown automobile company, whose stand was rather quiet but I can't work out why. Applying 21st century coachbuilding technology to the classic styles of the 60s Astons yields a superb looking motor. They even had a picnic bench built into the boot, which says a lot about the clientele they are trying to attract
So shiny that my camera obviously didn't like it!
A handful of nice classics about - presumably to entice people to the respective stands. It wouldn't be a car show without this familiar face either (so bright that I clearly didn't pay much attention to the focus of the picture either!)
Just as an indication of the size - there were several of these halls:
Having finished wandering just after lunch I elected to roam around Geneva, notwithstanding how lovely the weather was too. Excuse the odd touristy photo.
Had a walk to the other side of town to the Hotel / Restaurant Des Eaux Vives - particularly significant in the story of the E-Type. What a beautiful little setting. No Jags about today but a fleet of Koeningseggs instead! (As you do - this is Switzerland when all said and done)
Sod's law that the Jet D'eau was off today, although I did walk right out to it and had a look across the harbour. Also took a long walk up to the top of the cathedral:
United Nations HQ:
This is going to sound really bizarre but it was quite nice not to be branded as "English" for a day - I bumble my way through the German speaking parts of Switzerland having never studied the language, but I did French up until 6 years ago from the age of 3. Granted, my French nowadays is shocking in comparison to what it was but I was happily getting by without making myself look like a complete and utter burk.
A beautiful city all in all, I suspect the rest of the interns and I will be back at some point in the summer.
There were some British guys flying in for the day - I might be doing that next year with the old man!
