Part 3 of 5 is ready – and it starts in the same secluded corner of the show where you'd find the Fisker Karma and the Fornasari cars.
Hidden behind just about every other car on display was a dimly lit stand that featured two of the biggest surprises of the entire show, cars that I'd never heard of before. Apparently, Mr. Ken Okuyama, the designer responsible for the Enzo Ferrari and Maserati Quattroporte, among other wonderful things, decided that after designing furniture and eyewear in his own name, it was time to put the
Ken Okuyama Design label on some cars. On display was not one, but two sports cars: The
k.o7 Spider, a bare-bones Lotus Seven-like design with wheels standing free of the body and no roof (or windscreen); and the
k.o8 Coupé, which was essentially the same car, but with a more conventional body, roof and windscreen. The power source was different in each car; the k.o7 has a four-cylinder 2-litre engine (250 hp), whereas the k.o8 features an electric engine with Lithium-Ion batteries producing 100 kW (equivalent to 136 hp). Both cars are meant for production, and both engines will be available in both cars.
One of the world's real hypercar manufacturers is
Koenigsegg, which is now owned 50/50 by Swedish and Norwegian investors. On Koenigsegg's stand a shiny carbon fibre
CCXR 'Edition' with red interior was on display, one that was actually owned by a Norwegian in his thirties – who was present himself. He said he would be receiving the keys after the show and was planning to take the 1018 hp car to Spain, where he could drive it on toll licence plates and wouldn't have to pay the hefty Norwegian import tax. It's still a very expensive car, but that move just about halves the price of it. I wished him the best of luck, and told him not to "do a Sharif" - a Norwegian millionaire who has made his fortune on selling car tires famously went off a race track in his Koenigsegg on his second day of ownership, you can see the video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xo11XmjKq10 - it's about 40 seconds into the clip.
The
KTM X-Bow is no longer a new concept, it was also at last year's show, but this year KTM showed the production version. Its rear-mounted engine originates from Audi, a 2-litre four-cylinder unit that puts out 240 hp. Eventually, the car will be offered with even more power, and the idea is to produce a pure trackday car that is more or less a four-wheeled motorcycle.
A new
Lancia Delta may not be big news in most parts of the world, but for the traditional Italian marque it's make or break. There's been one Delta since the successful rally car of the 80s, but it didn't really make an impact anywhere but in Italy, and since then things have been going from bad to worse for the once-great Italians. With the revitalisation of Alfa Romeo and now Fiat, the time has come for Lancia, and the new Delta has to be a strong seller. It certainly looks the part, but in that segment of the market it needs to be, with rivals like the Golf, the Audi A3 and even Fiat's own Alfa 147. Time will show if Lancia will return to former glory or be killed off by its owners.
The
Lexus LF-A has been shown on numerous occasions, I saw it both in Geneva and New York last year, and it looks very good – even more so in the metal than in pictures. Now it was time to show off the convertible version, the
LF-A Roadster, with a sleek design and the same 5-litre V10 engine that sits in the coupé. Lexus calls the engine configuration "front-mid", as the engine is placed in the front of the car but behind the front axle – hence the long bonnet. Notably, the car has cameras instead of wing mirrors, which in my opinion makes the car looks like it's missing something.
And then to what many people considered to be the most extravagant display of bad taste at the entire show. Last year German tuning company
Mansory presented a Rolls Royce Phantom worthy of making the cover of any car magazine that features just as many girls as it features cars. The aptly named Conquistador was finished in matte black paint and had jacked-up suspension, no doubt making C.S. Rolls and H. Royce turn in their graves. This year, the company that won't touch anything less exclusive than Aston Martins had gone to work on a Ferrari 599, changing the car's front design and adding air intakes wherever possible, and just to finish it off, the creation's name was...
Stallone. But the craziness didn't stop there: Matte paint was a big hit at this year's show, and naturally Mansory went all the way by applying a matte gold finish to their pumped-up Mercedes SLR McLaren, which has undergone what the Germans call a facelift. They call it the
Renovatio.
To be honest, I actually think it works... (I'll take a break here to receive some well-deserved remarks on how crazy I am) ...on some strange, bespoilered level. I never really liked the SLR's nose in the first place, and as for the Ferrari... well, the 599 is originally a fabulous car, but Mansory's version is
different. And I like different. But then again, I didn't even think the last version of the Ford Scorpio looked so terrible, and I also like neo-classic cars, so there can be no doubt that I have bad taste.
Part four coming soon, featuring cars from Mercedes to Sbarro!