Well that's my year made...

[CardShark]

I'm a very, very lucky boy.

I spent yesterday at the Geneva Motorshow, I've been twice before and it's a great day out if you're into that kind of thing, and with it being the first major show of the year you often get to see some premiers. An early morning flight out and an evening flight back makes it a long day however with the Palexpo literally being next door to the airport and a 5 minute walk once landed it's dead easy and I had over 8h to poke, prod, and climb in and out of pretty much everything that I wanted to, with one or two exceptions.

I've visited a number of car shows in the past and you get to know in advance the brands that are generally closed to the public, for example Ferrari, Lamborghini, Rolls Royce and Bentley have always been invite only in my experience, and the chance to blag your way onto the actual stands themselves rather than just observe from behind low glass partitions is the square root of zero, not that it ever stops me from trying. Porsche were very accommodating and I had a sit in a number of their models including the recently revised 911 GT3 RS, however they weren't the first stop on my visit.

The entry point to the show was near the McLaren stand and seeing as I got there just after the show opened I thought I'd start there before the crowds amassed, it wasn't obvious (there was a narrow pathway to one side of the stand) however instead of it being a closed anyone could have a play with what was on display. They had a 570 Spyder, a 570gt Black Series, two 720s, a Senna and a Senna GTR concept (both Sennas had locked doors) so I had a sit in them, during which one of the McLaren reps struck up a conversation with me. Now I've been a petrolhead for as long as I've been on this planet and I'm familiar with McLaren's history both as a race team and car manufacturer and I have reasonable knowledge of their current range, discussing model specs and so on was quite easy and I obviously came across as enthused and informed. When I was asked if I'd like to see something "a little bit special" I wasn't going to say no, at which point I was shown through to a private viewing area and VIP lounge away from the public, where sat no vanilla Senna.

So, here it is, McLaren's MSO "Carbon Theme" Senna. I got to talk all things McLaren over a coffee (I declined champagne, I was already so excited I thought it would go to my head!) and nibbles, got my backside into the driver's seat, and even got to talk watches for a while as they had the Richard Mille collaboration on display as well. EasyJet didn't need to fly me home, I spent over an hour with them at the start of the show and I was still buzzing when I left, I could have flown myself back.







That's me in the car, apologies for the quality of the 'photos.

[Optimum]

Great work, sir! The Senna's no beauty but I'm sure it will be an immense car.

[mrushton]

fantastic cf bodywork