You’re looking at the most insane car ever built. It’s a 1935 Monaco Trossi racer with an air-cooled, two-stroke 16-cylinder radial engine driving the front wheels. Just picture it howling down the straight at Monza at 150 miles per hour, looking like a lit cigar on wheels, engine roaring, headers glowing.

It was the brainchild of technician Augusto Monico. It was built on an aircraft-style space frame and rocked independent suspension all around. It also had hydraulic brakes, a rarity for the time. Unfortunately, the car had 75/25 front/rear weight distribution and suffered from uncontrollable oversteer. It never actually raced and was only driven a few times during the testing phase. Today it’s locked up in the Museo dell’Automobile in Turin, its version of Arkham Asylum. Will the batshit car ever escape and get a chance to vaporize its front tires and kill race car drivers? One can hope.

Most manufacturers were too busy greenwashing their lineups this year to come up with something truly astonishing for Geneva. But the French, ah the French, remembered that car shows—and especially Geneva—are all about insanely gorgeous and futuristic concept cars. Gaze in wonder at the Citroën Survolt, the ultimate show car at Geneva 2010. What powers this magnificent creation? How fast is it? What’s its ‘ring time? Citroën scoffs at your petty questions! Ce n’est pas important! The Survolt is pure beauty and futurism. That is all.

Photo: Autoblog

Audi is showing an all electric version of its A1 minicar at Geneva, but this one has a novel twist. Like the Chevy Volt, it’s battery powered and uses a gasoline motor to recharge the batteries; unlike the Volt, or any other electric car to date, the A1 e-tron concept uses a Wankel motor to produce the charge. More after the jump.

Why a Wankel rotary motor? Because they’re compact, light weight and produce outstanding power for their size. The rotary used in the A1 e-tron weighs just 154 pounds and is small enough to fit below the A1’s cargo floor.

Nuclear reactor? No, a rotary motor.

The Wankel / battery combination will produce reasonable performance, with 0 to 60 times in the 10 second range. Battery only range is expected to be around 30 miles, with the rotary motor providing an additional 100 miles of range. Range could probably be increased by incorporating a larger fuel tank, as the one in the concept e-tron holds just over 3 gallons.

Source: Autoblog

Aston Martin is showing the production version of its Cygnet minicar at the Geneva Motor Show. Based on Toyota’s iQ, the Aston Martin isn’t available to just anyone; in fact, you need to already own an Aston Martin to qualify for purchase.

Why would Aston Martin, best known for cost-be-damned luxury performance cars, build a minicar to compete with the likes of Smart or the new Audi A1? Simple; they had no choice. Tough new EU mandates on fuel economy and emissions will cripple boutique manufacturers like Aston Martin unless they broaden their product range and do so quickly. Partnering with an existing manufacturer, particularly one with a reputation for building high quality vehicles, is the quickest path to market.

As with any Aston Martin, buyers can select a wide range of options and configurations. Pricing starts at $45,000 (roughly 3x the cost of a Toyota iQ) and tops out at $75,000 if you check all the option boxes. At that price, it had better come with leather made from baby whale penis and a concubine.

Source: Motor Authority

We gave you the rundown and a few photos yesterday, but here’s Porsche’s press release video on the 918 Hybid Concept they’re showing in Geneva. I still don’t believe the performance numbers quoted by their marketing people, but at least they stopped short of saying that the 918’s trunk held a shark that fired laser beams from its eyes. It’s still car porn of the finest order, and at least you get to see it move in the video.

Twetta what?

Another sexy Geneva concept car was unveiled yesterday, this time from Alfa Romeo. Dubbed the “2uettottanta” (two-etto-tanta, say it with me), the name is an homage to the storied Alfa Romeo Duetto, one of the all time classic roadsters. More pics after the jump.

Tututattana? I don't care, it looks good from any angle.

No word on power from the turbocharged 1.75 liter motor, but the layout appears to be front engine, rear drive. Dimensionally, it’s a little bit bigger than the pictures make it look. Compared to a current generation Mazda Miata, the 2uettottanta is about 8 inches longer and 3 inches wider, with a slightly longer wheelbase.

Twittytinto? It just looks Italian, and that's a good thing.

With lines like that, you could call it the Snuffleuphagus and I'd still buy it.

Now that we’re likely to see Alfa in the US again, I say build it but keep it simple. We really don’t need the weight or complexity of a power retractable hard top; a simple cloth top will do just fine, thanks. Build a base model with a six speed manual and cloth interior and price it below $25k. Make a premium model with a leather interior and more farkles (heated seats, Bluetooth,etc.) and price it just below $30k. I suspect there are enough of us gear heads with a soft spot for Alfa Romeos that you’d sell them by the boatload.

Porsche held an ace up their sleeve, unveiling the 918 Spyder Hybrid Concept days before the opening of the Geneva Motor Show. The 918 is a mid engined V8 plug in hybrid, which produces over 500 horsepower. Per Porsche’s press release, the V8 works in conjunction with front and rear electric motors, which produce another 218 horsepower. A PDK 7 speed transmission delivers power to the rear wheels, while the electric motors power the front wheels directly via a fixed ratio. Lithium ion batteries provide current to the electric motors, and the car takes advantage of the Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS), converting recovered braking energy into electricity.

I stopped believing the press release when Porsche claimed that the 918 would hit 60 miles per hour in 3.2 seconds yet yield a average fuel economy of 78 mpg. Since we’re fantasizing here, can you give it a range of 500 miles and sell it to US customers at an MSRP below $20k?

Even if all the content is BS cooked up by Porsche’s marketing department, the body style is stunning. I see some Carrera GT in there, but I also see an homage to the Porsche 904, one of their most beautiful designs. I don’t care what you put in it, but build this car and make it affordable. Trust me, the buyers will come.

Source: Straightline

In the beginning, Saabs were sleek, teardrop-shaped machines that sliced through the wind. Behold the SAAB 92001, or Ursaab. It’s the product of postwar aircraft designers, pure form following function. And it’s gorgeous.

The Ursaab was designed in the late ’40s by a team of engineers at aircraft manufacturer SAAB, led by the incredibly named Gunnar Ljungström. The thing had a monocoque chassis, 108-inch wheelbase, and 50-percent less drag than any other car produced at the time. It was powered by a transverse mounted two-stroke engine driving the font wheels. Seems run-of-the mill today, but this was 1946, a time when most cars rode on ladder frames and bullied their way through wind.

The original 92001 clocked 329,000 miles in testing, mostly on rutted forest roads in Sweden. Three years and several prototypes later, the Saab 92 went into production.

Saab savior Spyker says that they want to return to those streamlined roots for the upcoming Saab 9-2 luxury compact. I can’t wait to see what they come up with.

Source: Autoblog

Sometimes, names that sound good in a Korean boardroom just don’t translate well into foreign languages. Take the i-Flow, for example, which sounds like a monthly problem experienced by women and preceeded by mood swings, water retention and cramping.

Naming aside, the i-Flow represents the latest in forward thinking from Hyundai, a company who is momentarily white-hot. The i-Flow is a diesel electric hybrid concept that uses a 1.7 liter diesel motor with two stage turbocharging, in conjunction with an electric motor and lithium ion batteries. A six speed, dual clutch transmission feeds the power to the wheels and is partially responsible for the i-Flow’s claims of 78 miles per gallon. Hyundai states that the futuristic shape yields a drag coefficient of just 0.25Cd, but there seems to be an awful lot of grille area to achieve that number.

Hyundai worked with BASF on the interior materials, but we may have to wait until Geneva for interior pics. Somewhat disturbing is the announced “contoured screen interface” in the center stack, that will respond to “gestural inputs”. I’m pretty sure I don’t want my car responding to gestural inputs or voice commands, otherwise I’d be leaving a Godzilla-like path of destruction behind me every time I got in the car.

Lotus Evora 414E Hybid Concept: the business end

Lotus will show a hybrid version of the Evora at the upcoming Geneva Motor Show. Called the Lotus Evora 414E Hybrid (at least until marketing works their branding magic), the car is powered by lithium polymer batteries driving one electric motor at each rear wheel. The motors produce 207 horsepower each, so the car’s name is derived from their combined horsepower. The batteries alone are good for around 35 miles, before the 1.2 liter gasoline motor kicks in to recharge them. Total range is said to be 300 miles between charges.

Since each motor also makes 295 ft-lbs. of torque, acceleration is brisk: zero to sixty is said to take less than four seconds. Each motor uses a single speed reduction transmission, but the car allows torque vectoring between the two motors for maximum traction. A selectable “sport mode” will simulate a seven speed paddle shift transmission, so the Evora doesn’t feel like a really fast golf cart.

Lotus is also using the Evora Hybrid to showcase their HALOsonic Internal and External Electronic Sound Synthesis, which gives pedestrians an indication of the otherwise silent car’s approach. The HALOsonic system also allows drivers to select the desired engine sound for the vehicle, including a V6, a V12 and a “futuristic propulsion” sound. OK, that’s just a little cheesy for my tastes, but otherwise I’d call the concept a hit.

Source: MotorAuthority