Traditionally at this time of year, the automotive industry congregates in Geneva for the world’s most important motor show – but to our great sadness, last year’s event was the last there will ever be.
A sad corollary of this is that we won’t get to enjoy our semi-regular laughs at concepts unveiled by Swiss design houses – or should we say mad houses? – Sbarro and Rinspeed.
Italian-born Franco Sbarro began his career as a mechanic, then set up his eponymous firm in 1968 – with zero interest in conventionality.
Sbarro first caught our attention at Geneva in 1973 with the SV1, an attractive sports coupé composed of NSU, Porsche and Volkswagen components – most prominently, two Ro80 rotary engines mounted side by side behind the rear seats!
In 1978, it combined a Fiat four-wheel drive system with a BMW engine in the shell of an “avant-garde cross-country vehicle” – then two years later took this format to a wild extreme, matching a G-Wagen chassis with the 450SE’s V8 engine and adding a third axle.
The Wind Hawk was, unsurprisingly, destined for the Middle East – just like the AMG G63 6x6 that Mercedes itself would produce 35 years later.
That 1980 show also introduced Autocar to Frank Rinderknecht’s Rinspeed, starting fairly sensibly with a small car for disabled drivers featuring a mechanism that hoisted one’s wheelchair out, up and into a roof-mounted box.
Perhaps the coolest thing at the 1982 show was Sbarro’s Super Twelve, a straight-12 hot hatch. Yes, really: the engine was two Kawasaki motorcycle sixes conjoined, making 240bhp. With a tubular chassis and a fibreglass body, it weighed 800kg – resulting in a better power-to-weight ratio than Lamborghini’s Countach.
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Really sad to see the end of the Geneva Motor Show - the last truly International Motor Show - and one that was a really accessible day trip for those of us close enough to Gatwick. Just a short walk from Arrivals into the exhibition halls maximised a full day to wander around the stands. Even before the Pandemic a few motor manufacturers were pulling out but the show was still an interesting window on new cars that would or might be coming to the UK. Sadly, no opportunity for us petrolheads and EV evangelists to continue an love since boyhood to gloat, admire and fantasise as to what the future of the motor car will bring. Even seeing pictures in Autocar and reading their reports just doesn't measure up to seeing the real metal.