Stylish Geneva motor show a moment of innovation
By Russell Williamson
GENEVA: Geneva's annual motor show has always been about style and visual innovation, and 1998 was no exception.
With all the key European design houses like Bertone, Italdesign and Karmann offering radical show cars, and a myriad of customizers such as Brabus, Schnitzer and Alpina ready to dress production cars, the show is fashion central in the automotive world.
But this year it was the mainstream volume carmakers that won the crowds with both production and concept vehicles that stretched the design elastic.
Probably the most significant production car to get its first outing was the Ford Focus, the much rumored replacement for the Escort.
The Escort is Ford's best-ever selling passenger car and is one of the most recognized nameplates in the world.
But with the new car featuring a radical extension of Ford's edge design philosophy and a significant increase in technology, Ford decided it was time to drop the Escort badge.
The new Focus picks up styling cues from the small Ka and midsized Mondeo with its sharp, clean distinctive lines and is a clear indicator of where the U.S. carmaker is headed, both from a design and engineering perspective.
The levels of technology are high for this class of mass- market car with a stiff, lightweight chassis sitting on a fully independent front and rear suspension and safety features incorporating antilock brakes, ESP traction control and front, side, head and chest air bags joining the driver and passenger bags.
The new Focus goes on sale in Europe about September. It will also be sold in other markets and possibly Southeast Asia.
Of significance for Indonesia, Toyota chose to preview its funky new Yaris, set to replace the small Starlet in Europe about the middle of next year.
However, Asian buyers will have to wait a little longer for the new car.
The Yaris is a near-to-production version of the Funtime concept car that was shown at Frankfurt last year.
The Yaris features a relatively long wheelbase and short front and rear overhangs for improved interior space.
Power for the Yaris comes from the first of a new family of small engines and has variable valve timing to give the engine a performance target of about 50kW from its 1.0-liter capacity.
At the other end of the Japanese maker's automotive scale was the new Lexus IS200.
While the car itself was not on the show stand, a multimedia display offered a preview of Lexus' new 3 Series competitor.
The IS200 is a rebodied version of the ugly NC250 that was shown at Tokyo last October and is much easier on the eye.
The rear drive, 2.0-liter straight six-powered compact luxury Lexus goes on sale in Europe about July next year. It will be available in some Asian markets as well.
Moving further into the area where style meets true performance were preview offerings from BMW and Jaguar.
The latest installment from BMW's performance arm BMW M GmbH, the M5, will hit European roads before the end of the year.
Power from the M5's 5.0-liter V8 tops out at 295kW, peak torque is 500Nm and the engine drives the rear wheels through a six-speed manual gearbox.
The suspension is tuned to match the engine power and to keep a firm grip on the road, the 18-inch wheels are shod with 245/40 front and 275/35 rear rubber.
Matching the performance of the M5 with a limited top-speed of 250km/h and an ability to cover the 0-100km/h sprint in 5.4 seconds is Jaguar's XKR coupe and convertible.
The XKR uses the same supercharged 276kW V8 engine as the XJR sedan but with the reduced weight is the fastest car Jaguar has ever built.