International Motor Show Geneva, Switzerland

Fioravanti showed the 2001 prototype, based on an Alfa Romeo, and a new crossover concept car.

The Pagani got some modifications.
Now showing a 7.3 litre engine, instead of 7.0 litres.
Power is all you need...

From Italy to France:
Citroën showed again the C-Crosser, next to the new C3 and C8.

Peugeot, showing an interesting sportscar, the RC.

The new Espace, coming soon.

Also a Renault, the Talisman, shown at Frankfurt, too.

The Rinspeed Presto, a roadster.
Press a button, and you will get a 4-seater, instead of a short 2-seater.

Geneva without Sbarro? Never!

Also made by Sbarro, this BMW X-5 variation.

My personal highlight wasn't shown at the Motor Show, this year.
But the Ital Design Structura was shown some years before, this time it made the journey on the road. I saw it first in the city, the next morning I was able to take some pictures.
The pictures will be shown soon.

After the show, just a short visit to the car-museum, a very dark one...

An impressing concept-car, called Carcerano, made in 2001.

And, as every year, the show was also a location for an auction of interesting collector-cars, like this beautiful Lamborghini Miura.

Fioravanti LF1

Presented at the 2009 Geneva Motor Show, the Fioravanti LF1 is a futuristic vision for a Formula 1 oriented towards cost reduction, semplicity and efficiency. Among the features is the compact aerodynamic body with integrated wings.

The Fioravanti LF1 was designed thinking about a future Formula 1 regulation, based on more general simplicity.

"Since we think that in a period of heavy economic crisis, in particular for the automotive world, also the Formula 1 has to be reviewed in its principle.

"Creating more connection between the F.1 research the road cars production, making the races more interesting with more overtaking manoeuvres still maintaining the Grand Prix a the top of the media global events."

The vehicle has been designed referring to the next 1.800 cc. turbo engines as recently proposed for the 2012 regulations.

With this has been possible to define a very compact bodywork with less aerodynamic drag and turbulences.

Radiators and intercoolers are designed with forced air using fans in order to reduce the front wheels drag.

18” rims and tyres with dimensions are more similar to the road and racing GT cars, allowing the use of braking systems similar to the ones utilized in the high performance road cars.

Eco-oriented solutions for fuel consumption savings include the of K.E.R.S. (Kinetic Energy Recovery System).

Technical partners of the project are Magneti Marelli, Brembo, Pirelli, Ansys, Coggiola.

Aerodynamics

The inspiring principle of the project has been the reduction of the aerodynamic drag and turbulences. This goal has been reached taking advantage of the ground effect in an innovative manner, removing the wings as not integrated bodywork elements.

The shape of the central body is characterized from lift-down force ratio close to zero.

The front wing is integrated in the front end and contributes at the same time for the down force and for the reduction of the front wheels drag thanks to the side fairings.

The large rear wing is integrated in the bottom of the vehicle generating consistent down force.

In order to give an optimal ground effect and to keep the vehicle with a constant distance from the ground , we propose a return of the active suspensions use, widely utilized in the production cars.

"The C.F.D. (Computer Fluid Dynamic) study has confirmed that, with a measurement done at 10 meters from the back of the car, the degree of the turbulences generated by the aerodynamic drag is very low.

The Fioravanti LF1 at the 2009 Geneva Motor Show (Source: Autoblog.com)

"Considering the above it could be possible to suggest, at regulation level, the check of the drag energy and degree of turbulence in a transversal section positioned 10 meters from the rear of the car.

"This could allow drivers to do more overtaking in all the circuits, giving them the possibility to decide, more than today, when and how to overtake, allowing battles between several cars and driving tactics that emphasize the driver talent."

Dimensions:

• Length 4.200 mm
• Height 950 mm
• Width 1.820 mm
• Wheelbase 2.800 mm

International Motor Show Geneva, Switzerl Images

This time, there were a lot of concept cars, and prototypes at Geneva, but some of them were also shown at the International Motor Show of Frankfurt, Germany, in 2001.

Very interesting, and the first time in Europe, an engineering company from India:
Dilip Chhabria Design
The Infidel is based on a Toyota MR2.

Also placed in the basement of the show:
Laraki Fulgura

Coming from Spain, Mazel showed the HS21-GTS race-car.
In 2000, they showed the HS21, a concept of a supersportscar.
In 2001, they presented the K8, a luxury Sedan.

Not made for races, but for world records.
The evolution of the Volkswagen W12 Syncro.

Ital Design showed the evolution of the world-record car, the Nardò.
It looks quite better, showing this color, isn't it?

Also presented by Volkswagen, the Phaeton.

The premiere of the Skoda Tudor.
The car is based on the Skoda Superb, that is based on the VW Passat, so the Tudor is something like a PassatCoupé.
It won't be a production model.

Audi showed a polished version of an aluminium A2.
The plastic parts were chromed or replaced by aluminium parts.

Another car of the Volkswagen family.
Bentley showed this R Continental.
You have to show historic cars, if you don't have a history anymore...
Rolls-Royce was missing at Geneva in 2002...

BMW, coming soon as producer of the new Rolls-Royce, showed the CS1.
It's a convertible concept car, showing design-elements of the coming series 1 car.
We will see...

Mercedes showed the all new Maybach.
Well, it was hidden, behind black panes of glass. Super idea!
Instead they showed a model of 1938, a SW38. This car was shown at Geneva before, in 1938...

BMW GROUP CLASSIC COLLECTION Gallry

As I've never seen documentation of the BMW Group Classic Collection, I wasn't really sure what to expect. It's hard to imagine what a warehouse of 400 cars and motorcycles is going to look like, but we sure weren't disappointed... It anything, it was a bit overwhelming to have open access to such a big collection of priceless machinery.

We got to tour three of the floors in the building. One is for all the race machines, the next houses all the production cars & bikes and the last is a reception area, banquet hall and restoration shop.

So let's start the tour! I don't have enough space here to show you all the cars, but instead will feature the ones which I think you'll be interested in... and the one's which caught my eye.

Andy Priaulx hasn't been driving for BMW that long, but he certainly has helped create some valuable chassis since he started! Here we have two ETCC and WTCC winning cars lined up together.

Every era of touring car is present in the collection including this old DTM Schnitzer racer from the time when the series was based on production cars.

Here's the reason we have the M3 --it was originally designed to be a homologation special for Group A touring car racing around the world. Race car first, production car second!

I've previously shown you a picture of the original CSL race car prototype, but there's no hurt in showing another is there?

This picture shows just how low and wide ALMS M3 GTR is.

BMW also have their own street McLaren F1 in the collection...

... as well as my personal favourite version of the car...

.. The F1 GTR Long Tail. For me this is perfection on wheels, especially when you factor in the wailing sound which bellows from its powerful V12 engine.

Speaking of wailing V12s here's the winner of the 1999 Le Mans 24 Hours.... complete with mini-me edition.

Close by we also have a large scale model of the 1998 V12 LM

I was curious about this model as it looks like a late Group C 3.5L mockup. Obviously this race program was still-born. Does anyone know what this it? Our host at the BMW Group Classic wasn't sure.

BMW GROUP CLASSIC COLLECTION

A couple of Group 4 M1s sit close by. This one was sponsored by the city of Munich.

Hey another racer that I used to have as an A/FX slot car!

Speaking of miniatures. There were cabinet after cabinet filled with all manner of die casts.

Some of the models also appear to be one-off custom items too. There was practically a miniature of every single race car from the collection present.

The next hall over was mostly devoted to open wheel race cars. There were plenty of Formula 2 cars on one side of the room...

... With an assortment of F1 cars facing them.

BMW's collaboration with Williams is well presented...

... Including the LMR sports car. On an aside... for the last ten years I've always thought the words on this Art Car were done in Blue, not Chrome. We modeled this car for several PC game mods back in my Virtual_LM days and each time incorrectly coloured the letters as blue.... they must have been reflecting the sky on the reference photos I was using. Odd.