Aha! So that’s what Leviathan have been teasing. LMC’s new small sports car, the Tempest, is a handsomelooking machine, if a little plain round the front. It looks to be a fairly solid ~£30k sports coupe, with a decent range of engines, including a very fruit 2.6l Turbo V6 on the top-of-the-range Twinturbo R trim, offering a sub-5 seconds 0-60 time for a smidgen over $40k. The mid-range GTt rim looks more tempting, with a 257hp i6 under the bonnet and some handsome chrome detailing. Shame it just looks a bit outdated.
Cornaldie’s new Sprinter 350 Touring claim’s to be “The All-Weather Premium Sport Wagon you never knew you wanted”. I’m not so sure about that when the front appears to have one too many vents on and the rear looks tall enough for it to be almost a crossover. It’s decently quick , with 0-60 in 4.5 seconds, and decently efficient too, but I can’t help feeling that there are more succint offerings from Rennen and Bonham. If Cornaldie were interested in getting a proper verdict, then I’d be all down for a test-drive…
An AWD electric sports coupe pretending to be a muscle car. Well, that’s the best summary of EVE’s Phoenix concept that I could come up with, a car that doesn’t look aggressive enough to be a muscle car by any means and certainly doesn’t seem to be one underneath. What is worth nothing howeveris EVE’s Variable Motor Technology, something we’ve all been expecting to appear on electric cars soon enough. Variable drive is something that will have serious benefits for a lot of drivers once it starts appearing on production cars and not just concepts, and I look forward to that immensely.
Kogan’s new STS Turbo is a track machine the size of a pocket calculator. It’s a tidy looking machine, and with some 370hp under the bonnet, it’ll certainly be fast too. Weighing in at under 1 ton, it certainly seems like a very capable track toy for sure. No word on any lap times however yet, which would be a good test to see how much of a track machine it really is.
As per usual, AL Autos did not hold back in providing the most detailed press pack of the whole show. The Flusso has received another styling update, and has another new engine, this time a 3.5l turbo i6. One does wonder if this car will ever actually be finished enough to state where two or model years actually see any similarities at all. The Luxus also has a new new engine and more styling tweeks. As for their new Semita, “[They themselves] don’t even know what to call this car”. Huh, interesting that. I had the chance to test drive it, which you can read below.
Zastero’s new Venirus coupe may sound like a medical term, but it’s actually a luxury car. It promises smooth torque delivery, 445 hp to boot and air suspension. For $35k, that’s not too shabby at all, but the styling does not sell it at all. It’s too tall, the front end looks like 3 cars have been stitched together - badly - and the promise of “hydraulic steering” isn’t exactly revolutionary.
So you thought the near-$50k MRP trim of the Montes Urban was expensive? Pah! You ain’t seen nothing. That was a car that offered top-tier hot-hatch performance for over $15k more than the average price of its rivals. So of course, the next logical step is a car that is to offer a trim that is 0.7 seconds faster from 0-60, 207kg lighter, more inefficient, 2 km/h faster and that runs with a tuned version of the same V6 engine for Eighty One Thousand Dollars. $81k for a hot hatch that’s as fast as similarly priced sports coupes and reaching well into the luxury car price territory is the single most stupid and absurd offering for a car I have ever seen. What an absolute joke of a hatchback.
Bramble’s slogan for their new Moro sports coupe left me confused. “Where’s the fun if you can’t control it?” Well, heh, I think there’s quite a lot of fun to be had when you’re not in con…
…moving swiftly on to protect my journalistic integrity, the Moro isn’t ugly but nor is it stunning. And more than anything else, it looks tired. It’s a bit on the heavy side compared to the other entry level sports cars we’ve seen at the show, though it still pegs in a respectable 0-60 time of 6.4 seconds. Pricing in the low-£20ks mark thougb isn’t enough to save it from being outclassed by rivals in the styling department entirely.
Hoorah! The new Shromet Radiant is here. Like the previous gen, it’s one hell of a smiley looking thing, though I can’t seem to work out why it’s so tall (odd suspension modelling to blame perhaps?). Still, that height ought to satisfy the cross-over buyers, as will it’s neat range of engines, which includes a very temping 2.0l i6. Hybrid models and an all-electric trim are also promised.
What’s with the long face, Halcyon GT? Leviathan seem to have given their updated luxury coupe some very sad eyes, yet with so many luxury toys on the inside, V12 and V10 engines on offer and some very tempting performance specs, you’d think it’d be happier.
Scagliati made sure to deliver their usual display of automotive beauty with the stunning Il Dominante. Not the most radical looking hypercar ever, but an awfully pretty one at that. 1100hp under the bonnet with a proper V12 soundtrack, AWD and a stunning interior; luxury meeting top-end technology in all the right ways. They even claim it should be comfortable, efficient and practical enough “to be used as a continent-crossing GT car in the same vein as La Serenissima”. Quite a bold claim, but then again, with a price tag of $452k, you’d damn well expect it to do everything.
The new La Serenissima GTE was also unveiled, promising to bring some Renaissance-era sophistication and another V12 soundtrack to the WEC this year. It’s a mean, if rather clean looking machine, though then again, that’s probably the point. Team announcements are expected shortly.
Znopresk gave a history-focused presentation to reveal their new Zenit and Zest. It’s a big shift styling wise for the Italian marque, but one that I think just about works. The new front ends of the cars aren’t exactly pretty, but they’re certainly interesting nonetheless. As for specs? Nothing as of yet, but expect them to be as predictably safe and solid as Znopresk’s have been for the last few decades. if the brilliant little new Zap! I drove last year at the same show is anything to go by, we shouldn’t have anything to fear regarding the status of the Automationverse’s most brilliantly average company.
Then again, who wants average when you can have pure Automotive seduction in the form of the new Bonham Kashmir. God dammit Bonham, you’ve made another stunning looking machine, this one more grown up than the more feminine Fleming but far more imposing. Specs are set to arrive soon, though I can confirm that it will be available with a 6.0l V12 and frankly that’s all we need to know.
Aurora started their announcements run of the show with the stunningly awkward looking Nightshade SUV. I am honestly speechless at how anything can look so odd, so much so that I might need some nightshade just to drive it.
Erin revealed the facelifted Nardella, which was quite the…(see more)
Zenshi introduced updates to its European model lineup, with the focus on the new 2018MY Grandea and 2018MY Axia. It may well be the 50th facelift we’ve seen for these cars in the past year, but there’s no denying how graceful the now look. Both car’s specs remain basically unchanged, aside from a simplifying of the Axia’s trim range. As for the Grandea, you can find out more in my road test below.
Dimension - not the American Dimension, a different one - revealed the new Xerinna. It appears to be a low-end supercar, with 485hp under the bonnet in M-AWD configuration. It promises sub-3.0 seconds 0-60 times for around $80k, certainly offering value for money there.
