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AutoWeek Magazine
Announces 2003 Editors' Choice Awards From The Geneva
International Motor Show
*Audi, Pininfarina, Bertone and Lamborghini Top
This Year's Awards*
DETROIT, March 7 /PRNewswire/ -- AutoWeek has
announced its 2003 Editors' Choice Awards from the
Geneva International Motor Show, which each year
inaugurates the European auto show season.
For more than a decade, the AutoWeek Editors'
Choice Awards have recognized those vehicles the
magazine's editorial staff selects as the Best in
Show, Most Fun, Most Significant and Best Concept
models at each major auto show around the world.
 
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The AutoWeek Editors' Choice Awards from the 2003
Geneva International Motor Show are:
Best in Show -- Lamborghini Gallardo -- Audi is
bullish on Lamborghini and proves it by nearly
doubling the size of the Italian company's plant and
developing two new models in as many years. The
Murcielago is on its merry way and now we have the
smaller Gallardo. Pressure? Absolutely. Gallardo, like
Murcielago, is equipped with all-wheel drive that
splits torque 30/70 fore and aft while cruising.
Whereas the Murcielago is all carbon fiber and steel,
the Gallardo is aluminum through-and-through thanks to
Audi's aluminum expertise. Torsional rigidity is high
on the Newton-meter scale, and the fresh all-aluminum
V10 -- developed in Sant' Agata with lots of help from
Cosworth and quattro GmbH -- is a smooth
500-horsepower, 376 lb-ft stormer. Prices start at
about $125,000, and U.S. models are due in early
summer.
Most Fun -- Pininfarina Enjoy -- One thing is
obvious about the Enjoy: Somebody enjoyed doing it.
Based on motorcycle and single-seater dynamics, it
reminds us of weekend club-racing idols like the
Caterham Seven and Lotus Elise, which is good since it
actually is a Lotus Elise underneath. As recent show
cars go, it's a bit like the Mercedes-Benz F400
Carving (Tokyo, 2001) or Lotus M250 (Frankfurt, 1999).
The engine is a 135-horsepower 1.8-liter four
sprinkled with Lotus fairy dust. One trick of the
Pininfarina one-off is that you can drive it on the
street with fenders and all, but then on the track you
can pull a Superman phone-booth move and drop the four
fenders for open-wheel thrills. We watched the
Pininfarina little helpers do this and it's a breeze.
For us, the whole package hinges on thrills and
chills. Hence, most fun.
Best Concept -- Bertone Birusa -- Bertone calls its
Birusa a dream car. It sits on a Z8 aluminum chassis
and uses the M-tuned 400-horsepower 5.0-liter V8 from
that car and the M5. Compared to the size of the Z8,
the GT is much larger, with a long and classic sloping
front end and an almost non-existent rear. The
proportions are ominous, to say the least. The Birusa,
importantly enough for this category, puts on a great
show. Big doors open skyward in fine show car style,
and the interior is plusher than Zsa Zsa Gabor's
closet. In the tail section, the rearmost panel folds
down to act as a ramp when activated by the little
remote control hand unit. The wheelbase is a full 11.8
inches longer than that of the Z8. You want a large
windscreen on a seriously dangerous rake angle? This
is your windscreen, this is your angle. All bodywork
is aluminum, and Bertone used the project as a chance
to show its ability to work with the temperamental
material.
Most Significant -- Audi Nuvolari quattro Concept
-- The Audi Nuvolari is designer Walter de' Silva's
first creation for the company, and he has made an
impression with his modern interpretation of a classic
GT. The car also features Audi's new trademark grille
that debuted on the Pikes Peak quattro concept
revealed in Detroit. Inside is a comfortable,
luxurious interior, keeping the brand's reputation
intact, if not raising the bar a bit. The Nuvolari,
named after racing legend Tazio Nuvolari, the last
driver to take an Auto Union car to an F1 winner's
circle, is a two-door coupe with 2+2 seating and short
overhangs front and rear. Beneath the long hood lies a
5.0-liter biturbo V10 with FSI direct fuel injection
(like on the Le Mans-winning R8) that develops 600 hp
and 553 lb-ft of torque. The 0-to-60-mph time is 4.1
seconds. Power is directed to all four wheels via a
six-speed automatic transmission using shift-by-wire
technology. For all of these reasons the car was named
our Most Significant. While the Nuvolari is a concept,
there's a good feeling in Ingolstadt the car will make
it to production.
Visit www.autoweek.com for coverage of the Geneva
Motor Show, including photos, news and the Editors'
Choice Award winners. The Geneva Editors' Choice
Awards story will appear in the March 17, 2003 issue
of AutoWeek.
AutoWeek is America's largest weekly consumer car
magazine and covers all aspects of automotive
enthusiasm, including news, road tests and racing.
With a circulation of 350,000, AutoWeek is one of more
than 30 magazines published by Detroit-based Crain
Communications, Inc.
Web site: http://www.autoweek.com/
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