OK, so you are on a bit of a shopping trip at this year's Geneva Motor Show. For those who have never been on the first two days of the Show, by the way, it's as important for the manufacturers to impress the motoring press as it is to sell cars to high–rollers breezing into Geneva for a garage re–stock.

What would your poison be? I don't literally mean poison (the all–carbonfibre Panameras, the luminous green 458s with extra grilles, fins and wings, the... shudder... Invader) of course. None of us would go for any of that.

No, were I to be in town with 300k euros boring their way out of my wallet, I'd be hot–footing it to the Lamborghini stand and pleading with them for first dibs on the new Aventador. Not as an alternative to an Aston, Maserati or a Ferrari — because it's an altogether different sort of car — but instead of a Pagani, a Koenigsegg or any of their ilk.

Not only does it match any of them for outrageous looks, its colossal performance and high build quality has been engineered under strict VW group control. A byword for thoroughness and excellence.

Ever mindful of the pennies, though, for less than a third of that figure, another 'VW family' car had my name on it. Except that it didn't really; instead of 'Wakefield', the seven letters simply spelt P O R S C H E.

With a 'Black Edition' 911, let alone a 'GTS', you'd drive away from this year's Geneva Show a happy man — with change in your pocket.

Steve Wakefield Managing Editor sw@classicdriver.com

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