► Pick of the Brits at Geneva 2017
► From McLaren’s new 720S supercar…
► …to ITV drama-inspired Eadon Green
From multi-million-pound Astons to a 600bhp one-off inspired by Hercule Poirot, here’s a run-down of the most intriguing cars our little island has to offer at the 2017 Geneva Motor Show:
McLaren 720S
The company’s first second-generation model, the 720S replaces the current 650S when it goes on sale in May 2017 wearing a £208,600 price tag.
According to McLaren, 90% of its componentry is new, including its 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 which bucks the downsizing trend – the 650S used a smaller 3.8-litre unit. It produces 710bhp at a wailing 7000rpm – nearly 50bhp more than the Ferrari 488.
Combined with a 1419kg kerb weight, such colossal power means 0-62mph in just 2.9 seconds, and a top speed of 212mph. In fact, by the time a Toyota GT86 has hit 60, the 720S is already rocketing past the 124mph mark. Over to you, Ferrari…
Click here to read CAR’s full story on the McLaren 720S
Eadon Green Black Cuillin
The brainchild of shop fitter Felix Eaton, the Black Cuillin was inspired by – and we’re not joking here – a car driven by Captain Hastings in the popular ITV drama, Poirot. Besotted, Felix discovered that the car in question was an Alfa 8C 2900 and every surviving model was stretched beyond his budget.
So he decided to build his own 1930s-inspired car, sourcing a 600bhp V12 to power it and hiring a stand at one of the world’s biggest motor shows in the process. As you do…
Felix isn’t too fussed about producing and selling any more cars – that would interfere with his retirement plans – but reckons he could, in the right circumstances, have his arm twisted. Maybe.
Aston Martin Valkyrie
Formerly dubbed the AM-RB 001, Aston Martin’s ambitious hypercar finally has a proper name: Valkyrie. Not so much a nod to Old Norse mythology as a continuation of Aston’s tradition of bequeathing its finest machinery with a name beginning with ‘V’. Vanquish, Vantage, Virage… you get the picture.
The Aston Martin-Red Bull collaboration hypercar is set to cost from between £2m and £3m, with deliveries beginning in 2019.
Click here for more on the Aston Valkyrie
David Brown Automotive Speedback GT
The Coventry-based luxury car maker displayed its updated Speedback GT for the first time at Geneva. Still based on the underpinnings of a Jaguar XK, the finished article has an Aston Martin DB5-inspired body shell, a revised interior and the quaint addition of folding rear-facing seats in the boot.
They’ve also kept the 5.0-litre V8 engine from the XKR with 510bhp, so 0-60mph is despatched in an impressively brisk 4.6 seconds. And if that doesn’t sound exciting enough for you, there’s even an option to up the power to in excess of 600bhp…
And before anyone mentions build quality the overall fit and finish looked genuinely respectable on the show stand. A shame then, that the lightly-modified donor XK interior looks so desperately outdated.
Click here to read CAR’s review of the David Brown Speedback GT
Noble
Noble who? That’s the level of noise we’ve been hearing from the lightweight supercar manufacturer in recent months, with few new cars coming out of its Leicester headquarters.
A shame, really, as Geneva provided us with a timely reminder that a) Noble remains alive and kicking, and b) makes some seriously impressive cars. The 650bhp M600 might not be as dramatic-looking as some of the other supercars on show at Geneva, yet we’d wager there was little in the entire hall that drive as well as the ballistic yet balanced Noble.
Click here for a full A-Z of the 2017 Geneva show