Top 10 Craziest Cars of the 2015 Geneva Motor Show
The Geneva Motor Show is home to some of the greatest cars on earth. It’s also home to some of the strangest automotive oddities you’ll ever set eyes on.
Complete 2015 Geneva Motor Show Coverage
This year was no exception. Self-driving race cars, chrome golf carts and six-wheeled defenders were scattered amongst the latest consumer vehicles and high-end supercars. These are the top 10 craziest vehicles of the 2015 Geneva Motor Show.
To showcase General Motor’s Onstar in car connectivity services, Opel has created a pseudo car out of Plexiglas and light strings. Why, no one knows, but a good guess is because it looks like the future. That or maybe Opel had a lot of left over Christmas tree lights from the holiday season.
There’s nothing less European than a 4,449-lb., 75-inch wide American muscle car with a 707 HP 6.2-liter supercharged V8. Looking more out of place than Larry the Cable Guy in the Louvre, Dodge has the Challenger SRT Hellcat sitting front and center on the company’s display. At last report a few Suzukis were found hiding in a corner looking scared.
The Gea is the latest vehicle to come from the world renowned Italdesign Guigiaro design house. Said to incorporate “Piloted Driving” technology, the Gea is a massive, four-seat super sedan powered by four electric motors.
With suicide doors and bucket seats worthy of being found in the poshest of smoking lounges, the Gea allows the front seat passenger to swing around backwards and face rear occupants for a friendly game of whose going to blink first.
The monstrous Mercedes-Benz G500 4X4² could have made this list all on its own. With 17-inches of ground clearance and a turbocharged 4.0-liter V8 making 422 horsepower and 450 lb-ft of torque, the G500 4X4² laughs at Jeep Wranglers and Land Rover Defenders.
But putting the near-monster truck on the company’s display in Geneva isn’t enough. Mercedes seemed fit to build a near-vertical, off-road-like stand for the big SUV on the lawn outside of the Motor Show and stuck the G500 4X4² on top.
Mansory is known for building some of the world’s craziest cars, usually based off the latest exotics. Well, the coach building firm also dabbles in golf carts, as seen here with the Garia Mansory Prism. Safe to say, this isn’t your grandfather’s golf cart unless he’s very rich. In that case, maybe it is.
Mansory states the Prism can go 0-25 MPH in less than two seconds on the way to a top speed of 37 mph. Speed can be controlled on the dashboard through three settings: Golf, Street or Race. In race mode, it apparently possible to spin the rear tires on asphalt.
Forget all that though. This is a chromed out, baller golf cart with sick rims.
Some like Porsches stock, while others like it RUF. Most RUF models are modified versions of existing Porsches, but the CTR³ is something a little special. Using Porsche components, the CTR³ is actually a ground up build by the people at RUF. With a 3.8-liter turbocharged six-cylinder engine officially making stupid levels of horsepower, the car is fast too.
Credit goes to the crazy green and blue livery for landing the car in such a high spot on our list .
The Mercedes-Benz G63 AMG 6X6 was pretty cool, so why not do it to a Land Rover Defender? That seems to be the idea behind the Kahn Design Flying Huntsman 6X6 Concept.
Powered by a GM LS3 V8 making 430 HP, the elongated Land Rover is six-wheel drive and features menacing looks fit for a Bond villain. Although this lunatic SUV is still only officially a concept, it wouldn’t be all that surprising for a production version to become available in the future.
The EDAG Light Cocoon is a lightweight, electric powered sports car concept. Sleek and apparently fun to drive, none of this makes the Light Cocoon standout form the dozens of other specialty sports cars on display at Geneva.
But the fact that the EDAG body structure is created using a 3D printer is fairly crazy. Plus, the outer skin of the car is a weatherproof textile stretched over the body structure for protection and weight savings. The real pièce de résistance for the Light Cocoon though is back lighting for the outer skin that allows on-the-fly customization of the cars appearance.
Sbarro is more than just a maker of greasy pizza. OK, it isn’t the same company, but in France there is an auto manufacturer named Sbarro that produces crazy vehicles. In fact, Sbarro could have had a top ten craziest things to see list all their own.
But the coolest car on display in Geneva this year is the Grand Prix. Basically a modern interpretation on a pre-war Grand Prix race car, the Sbarro features a steel tube frame covered in composite body panels. Power comes from a 295 HP BMW V12 engine paired to an automatic transmission. Weighing just 2,315 lbs., the Grand Prix includes tons of period correct styling touches that makes it look so bad ass all-around.
Here’s a scary thought, imagine ripping around a racetrack in a car with no windows? Worse still, you’re not at all in control of the car. That’s exactly the idea behind the ED Torq Self Driving Race Car (SDRC).
Using four electric motors, the Torq is said to make 1,327 pound-feet of torque in a car that weighs little over 2,200 lbs. (without a driver passenger of course). Yup, this self driving race car is occupant optional.
And then there is the styling. To say this car’s styling is unique is like saying Keith Richards may have dabbled in illegal substances once or twice in his life. Regardless, the Torq may be the first step towards a driverless racing series one day sponsored by Left Shark.
A 20+ year industry veteran, Mike rejoins the AutoGuide team as the Managing Editor. He started his career at a young age working at dealerships, car rentals, and used car advertisers. He then found his true passion, automotive writing. After contributing to multiple websites for several years, he spent the next six years working at the head office of an automotive OEM, before returning back to the field he loves. He is a member of the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada (AJAC), and Midwest Automotive Media Association (MAMA). He's the recipient of a feature writing of the year award and multiple video of the year awards.
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All the crazy shit at this show and you pick a freaking Hellcat? Zzzzz
Ahh, America /sigh