Unattainable luxury lures crowds

The New Ferrari 488 GTB

High-end glamour from fabled brands big drawcard at Geneva motor show

Forget driverless cars, electric power or even green technology. There's no doubt what visitors are coming to see at the glamorous Geneva motor show: supercars.

It's the high-end, impossibly expensive but seductively powerful sports cars that will get crowds gawking and cameras flashing when doors open to the public.

There are new models from fabled brands like Ferrari, Lamborghini and Mercedes but also prototypes from smaller manufacturers.

"There are an awful lot of fast cars and supercars on display this year," said Jim Holder, editor-in-chief of Autocar magazine.

"What you see now is an industry that has got its swagger back and wants to show off a bit rather than put its hair shirt on about high miles per gallon and these slightly more mundane things."

FERRARI 488 GTB

The legendary sports car maker from Maranello, Italy, is sure to draw crowds with its 488 GTB. Based on the company's long racing history, its new turbocharged V8 engine accelerates the two-seater from stop to 100km/h in 3 seconds flat.

Ferrari chief executive Amedeo Felisa vaunted the engine's characteristic Ferrari sound, the "deep, seductive soundtrack" in Ferrari's words. "It's the sound of a sports car," Felisa said in answer to questions from reporters who noted that Ferrari's turbocharged California had lost that trademark scream.

LAMBORGHINI AVENTADOR LP 750-4 SUPERVELOCE

During a demo, the driver for the Superveloce (superfast, in Italian) made sure to gun the engine and show off the metallic music made by its mighty 550kW engine.

It has the classical Lamborghini design -- low-slung, angular and lethal-looking with lots of expensive carbon-fibre materials. It can hit a top speed of 350km/h and its powerful brakes can bring it to a stop in only 30m from 100km/h.

AUDI R8

The German company unveiled its second-generation R8 supercar with a V10 engine capable of zero to 100km/h in 3.2 seconds, and an aluminium and carbon fibre chassis shared with the Lamborghini Huracan. The new R8 weighs 50kg less than its predecessor while being 40 per cent stiffer, Audi says. Style cues from Audi's TT roadster are present, but the muscular angles and scooped out sides shriek supercar.

MERCEDES-MAYBACH S-600 PULLMAN

The new Mercedes-Maybach S-600 Pullman is a limousine of almost unheard of luxury. With armour cladding as an option, the new Pullman is more than a metre longer than the next biggest Mercedes S-class, and significantly taller, too.

After noting that John Lennon owned an original Pullman which he modified with a state-of-the-art Hi-Fi system, Mercedes unveiled the massive limo beneath a video of the Fab Four performing Can't Buy Me Love -- and at over US$50=0,000 ($661,000), few in the crowd could contemplate buying the car either.

Four quilted leather reclinable seats face each other in the limo's rear, a champagne cooler in easy reach. A retractable glass partition switches from transparent to opaque at the push of a button for privacy.