Supercars: Nobody needs these cars, but everyone wants them

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Nobody needs these cars, but everyone wants them

Supercars: Nobody needs these cars, but everyone wants them-supercars

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The naturally aspirated V8 engine in the Maserati GranCabrio Sport has an output of 450 hp. The car reaches a speed of 285.

Source: Maserati

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The De Tomaso Deauville is similar to the BMW 5 Series GT. The brand was withdrawn from the market in 2006 and is now celebrating its comeback with a new owner.

Source: REUTERS

Supercars: Nobody needs these cars, but everyone wants them-needs

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The annual production of the new Ferrari FF was already sold out in March. Ferrari can build a maximum of 800 FF units per year.

Source: dpa / DPA

Supercars: Nobody needs these cars, but everyone wants them-supercars

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The Huayra from Pagani has a six-liter twin-turbo V12 from Mercedes-AMG under the hood that develops more than 700 hp. The car is only 1.17 meters high.

Source: dpa / DPA

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The Agera from Koenigsegg has a five-liter V8 engine with 940 hp and costs from 990,000 euros.

Source: dpa / DPA

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In 2012 the first cars from the former Audi engineer Gumpert with 700 hp are to be delivered at prices of around 400,000 euros.

Source: dpa / DPA

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One of the stars at the 2011 Geneva show: the Lamborghini Aventador LP700-4, which, like its predecessor, has doors that fold up.

Source: dpa / DPA

The Geneva Motor Show is the auto show with the highest concentration of extremely luxurious and fast cars. And this market has no crisis.

A.medeo Felisa is not a person to be underestimated or annoyed in everyday life. Today, however, the 65-year-old boss of the sports car manufacturer Ferrari is in a good mood. Because we’re talking about business, and it’s going great. “We sold out the first annual production of our new model FF,” says Felisa. "We planned 600 to 800 cars a year, we’re at the upper end."

Ferrari is not alone in this. The many small exotic brands that can only be found in such a concentrated manner at the Geneva Salon are also flourishing and thriving. Roland Gumpert, a former Audi engineer who has built up his own sports car company, dreams of an entire family of models that will one day leave his factory in Altenburg, Thuringia.

"The sports car market is growing," says Gumpert, who has built around 50 copies of his racing car-like Apollo (from 650 hp, 360 km / h) since 2005, and now he is showing the Tornante, which is more suitable for everyday use. In 2012 the first 700 hp cars are to be delivered at a unit price of around 400,000 euros. To this end, Gumpert is developing a four-seater with all-wheel drive, which he intends to present at next year’s Geneva Motor Show. In the end, annual production should be around 30 to 50 cars. The entrepreneur sees his customers particularly in Asia.

The Swede Christian von Koenigsegg is just as optimistic about the future as Gumpert. He has been building extremely powerful and expensive super sports cars since 2002, and he has delivered 83 units. "Asia is getting more and more appetite," says Koenigsegg. He sees 30 percent of his future sales there and 30 percent in the Middle East. The account of an oil sheikhs also helps to pay for Koenigsegg’s creations: the new Agera model with a five-liter V8 and 940 hp costs from 990,000 euros.

A Koenigsegg clearly belongs to the car category that nobody needs, but everyone wants – if they know it. Even for experts, the manufacturer GTA Motor from Spain is new, Spano is the name of his first car, an 820 hp racer that reaches 350 km / h and costs 550,000 euros – as is usual with small series manufacturers, the net price is given here, for German buyers So 19 percent (100,700 euros) VAT would be added.

Horacio Pagani is almost an old hand in the supercar business. He has been manufacturing extremely fast and powerful cars since 1999 and has a love for detail like no other. Pagani personally pays attention to the design of every single screw, they say.

His new model, the Huayra, is also an eye-catcher. But the car also works, and it’s pretty fast: a six-liter twin-turbo V12 from Mercedes-AMG with more than 700 hp turns the 1.17 meter flat racer into a rocket, but one that also carries a heavy burden: the predecessor model Pagani Zonda In July 2010, R set the record for production cars on the Nordschleife of the Nurburgring with 6: 47.5 minutes.

Pagani is a skeptic who thinks the sports car business is problematic, but he manages to expand: the previous production hall in San Cesario sul Panaro near Modena is now used for carbon production, the rest of the cars are manufactured in a new hall. Pagani has sold around 140 cars so far, and from 2012 he expects 40 cars per year. Its customers also have to dig deep into their pockets: The Huayra costs from 825,000 euros.

The Italian Giuseppe Fornasari deals with luxurious super SUVs. Between 2005 and today he has sold 72 of his giant mobiles, and he plans to have five different models in his portfolio shortly. “I build fast and good everyday cars,” he says, “and I will probably sell 50 units this year.” The reason for the optimism: the decline of the GM Hummer brand. Fornasaris prices start at 200,000 euros.

Fortunately, it doesn’t always have to be powerful giants that attract attention. The German manufacturer Wiesmann is known for tightly cut coupes and roadsters, of which it has so far sold 1,300 pieces. At the salon there is an over-car without a roof, windows, doors and – unfortunately without an engine. "First we just want to show what we can do," says Marketing Director Jan Molitor about the Wiesmann Spyder. "It is not yet clear whether we will build the car."

That cannot be said of the Lamborghini Aventador. The successor to the Murcielago bears the name of a fighting bull again and shows the design of a stealth bomber. Lamborghini builds uncompromising series sports cars – if you like it softer, you can buy from Audi or Porsche, all three of which belong to the VW Group.

Who is known to want to take over Alfa Romeo. The Fiat subsidiary brand is showing the new 4C, one of the most attractive cars, at the fair. Under the only four-meter-long sports coupe, the only competitor of which could be a Lotus, there is no known platform, but extremely lightweight construction. Carbon, 850 kilograms, engine in front of the rear axle, 230 horsepower should be enough. “A PS only has to move around four kilos,” says Product Manager Matteo Benedetto. The car is officially a study, but will be built from 2012 and will cost around 45,000 euros. Good thing beauty isn’t reserved for billionaires.

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