Monaco, the small state at the Côte D'azur, is the place to be for supercar-lovers every year in April. This month the luxury show Top Marques is held. The last weekend of April the Grimaldi Forum was the place to display the cars, yachts and other luxurious things.
Last year I went to the Top Marques show for the first time and then I already knew that I would return this year. Top Marques isn't just an ordinary car show. You can't compare it to the the Dutch AutoRai or any other car show. No, the cars you see here in Monaco, are the things you usually won't find on any other shows. You can make testdrives in supercars. For instance a lap around the F1-circuit in the Koenigsegg CCX or just cruise in front of the casino with a Gemballa Mirage GT of a K1 Roadster. Hereby you'll find a report of some brands that are represented @ Top Marques 2008:
Koenigsegg
The exclusive Swedish brand Koenigsegg presented a special CCX with a full carbon body and a CCX which potential buyers could take for a short spin around Monaco. The CCXR is made as a Veyron killer. This Koenigsegg only weighs 1280 kg and the bio-ethanol V8 produces 1018 bhp. With all that power the CCXR will do the 0-100 km/h in just 2,9 seconds and it will stop accelerating above the 400 km/h.
Fisker
Last year this car manufacturer from California brought a car based on the SL 55 AMG, the Tramonto. This year they’ve brought a creation of their own, the Fisker Karma. This isn’t just another sportscar, the Fisker is also environmental friendly. The car has both a normal combustion engine and an electrical engine. This way you can also drive completely green. The body of the Karma is made out of aluminium, the batteries which are used to power the electrical engine can be found in the centre of the car to get to a perfect as possible weight balance. The car is also relatively quick, the sprint to 100 km/h takes 6.0 seconds, compare this to other “green” cars, like the Prius which takes about 11 seconds to get to 100 km/h. If you are an environmental freak you can also get solar panels on the roof of your Karma. This way the car will also be charged when you just leave it outside. Without these panels you should plug it into the socket every night. This way you should be able to drive for a whole year on one tank of petrol. This is something to think about when you look at today's gas prices.
Carlsson
The German tuner Carlsson presented their modified CL and S-Class both based on the 65 AMG versions. They have modified the interior and the exterior of both cars. They had a nice two-tone paintjob by Aigner and they both received a new bumperkit. The interior can be adjusted to your personal style. You can get anything you want. The S-Class was equipped with soft white luxurious leather and a full options multimedia-outfit. Carlsson doesn't just change the looks of the Benz. They also tune the engine a little bit. They give the 65 AMG a boost to 700 bhp and 1100 Nm. With that boost the 65 AMG modified by Carlsson will do the 0 to 100 km/h in just 3,9 seconds. Unfortunately the topspeed is limited to 320 km/h...
Brabus
The other Mercedes tuner, Brabus, also showed up at the Côte D'azur. They showed the Brabus SLR Roadster and the Brabus Smart, which you get for free when you buy the Brabus SLR Roadster. Brabus showed a white SLR with a red interiour and other rims. But the hottest news is under the bonnet. Brabus put 650 bhp in front of the car. Thats as much as the SLR 722. With this convertible you can sprint to 100 km/h in just 3,6 seconds. And the topspeed is around 337 km/h. The Smart that you will get has 112 bhp, so you can go from 0 to 100 km/h in only 9,5 seconds.
Gemballa
As you already could have read above a lot of tuners went to Monaco, Porsche tuner Gemballa was one of them. They brought two Mirage GT's, a Cayenne Biturbo GT750, an Avalanche and an Avalanche Roadster. Enough to choose from I should think, it was also possible to test drive an orange Mirage GT and both Avalances. Every time Gemballa tunes another Porsche it looks like they want to improve their previous work. In the Mirage GT the V10 has been tuned and now produces a massive 650 bhp. The entire exterior of the car has also changed to give the Mirage GT an even more aggressive appearance. The Cayenne Biturbo GT750, the name already gives a clue about the power in this SUV, 750 bhp from a biturbo V8. This makes it the fastest SUV you can buy, the sprint to 100 km/h is over in just 4.6 seconds, if you’ve got the guts you can go on accelerating towards the topspeed of 310 km/h. You can get the Avalance in both coupe and convertible version, you could also test drive both models. The base for the Avalanche is a standard Porsche 997 Turbo. Gemballa tuned the engine so it produces 600 bhp and has 840 Nm of torque. This will shoot the Avalanche in 3.5 seconds to 100 km/h, you can reach a topspeed of 320 km/h. Both exterior and interior are also modified by Gemballa. The Avalanche has four exhaust pipes and a huge spoiler. The interior has a lot of aluminium, carbon, alcantara and nubuck-leather. Gemballa also shows that matte is still hot.
K1
K1, a world famous combat sport but also a car manufacturer. The cars are totally built by hand and powered by a 3 litre V6 engine which produces 240 bhp. The engine can be found in the back of the car, just where it should be when you’re building a sportscar. The engine cover is transparent so you can see the engine. The car looks really impressive, nice and low, distinctive wing doors and a futuristic appearance. The lightweight Roadster sprints to 100 km/h in just 4.6 seconds and has a limited topspeed of 250 km/h. The K1 is a very good car to drive, it has an almost perfect weight distribution, 48% of the weight in the front and 52% at the back. The sound of this car is also wonderful when you hear it driving through the streets of Monaco. In this car you’ll even get all the attention in a city like Monaco. A Ferrari or Bentley doesn’t get you this much attention.
Pagani
Pagani is a well known brand at Top Marques, unfortunately this time no testcar. They did show a wonderful Zonda F. The color scheme on this Zonda could be familiar for some visitors, we’ve already seen it on a Veyron and a Mansory Flying Spur. This Zonda F is powered by a 7.3 litre V12 built by AMG. This engine will deliver 602 bhp. The topspeed of this Italian supercar will be 345 km/h, the sprint to 100 km/h will be done in 3.6 seconds. You can also buy the Clubsport, this model has 45 bhp more than the “normal” Zonda F. If you buy this car and decide to race around the Nürburgring you shouldn’t be ashamed, the Zonda F has the track record on the Ring at this moment.
Venturi
Venturi brought a brand new car to Top Marques, the Venturi Fetish with an engine upgrade was shown to the public for the first time. The Fetish is a competitor with the Tesla Roadster and the Fisker Karma, you’ve guessed it, it’s an electrical car. Venturi is a company from France, they’ve already delayed the debut of the Fetish once, but in June 2009 this car should make its appearance on the open roads. Thanks to this delay the engine got an upgrade and will now produce 300 bhp. Venturi also managed to make the car lighter, as much as 30 kg, the car now weighs only 950 kg. In the sprint the Venturi will beat the Fisker, after only 3.5 seconds 100 km/h will be reached. The topspeed isn’t superb, you’ll just be able to reach 160 km/h. The Fetish will be more expensive than both its competitors, with 300.000 euros it’ll cost about 200.000 euros more than both the Tesla and the Fisker.
Tesla Roadster
With a sportscar you normally don't think of an electric powered car. But the person who thinks that this car can't perform is totally wrong! This car hits the 100 km/h marker in just 4 seconds with the help of 6831 batteries. This batteries produce about 250 bhp. So this is a sportscar as well as a "green" car. It is very friendly for the environment. The only problem is the fact that this car doesn't produce a terrifying engine sound and that is for most people also a reason to buy a sportscar.
After reading this article you might think that Top Marques is just about cars. This year for the first time you could also take a look at some nice boats. Not some small sloops or rowing boats, but proper fast and very expensive yachts and speedboats. You could also check out some watches. Really exclusive watches, some of them as expensive as a nice medium priced car. Another item that was interesting was a Pagani soundsystem, a true work of art. Made from aluminium and carbon and what a nice sound. You could find almost anything for the rich and famous, think about nice rugs, barbeques, model cars, pens, airplanes, motorbikes just name it. One thing was binding all these items together, the price, every single item was very expensive. Below you can enjoy some from some extra pictures of the only supercarshow in the world!
