The mad locals at the Geneva motor show

Traditionally at this time of year, the automotive industry congregates in Geneva for the world's most important motor show - but to our great sadness, last year's event was the last there will ever be.

- KRIS CULMER

A sad corollary of this is that we won't get to enjoy our semi-regular laughs at concepts unveiled by Swiss design houses - or should we say mad houses? - Sbarro and Rinspeed.

Italian-born Franco Sbarro began his career as a mechanic, then set up his eponymous firm in 1968 – with zero interest in conventionality.

Sbarro first caught our attention at Geneva in 1973 with the SV1, an attractive sports coupé composed of NSU, Porsche and Volkswagen components - most prominently, two Ro80 rotary engines mounted side by side behind the rear seats!

In 1978, it combined a Fiat four-wheel drive system with a BMW engine in the shell of an "avant-garde cross-country vehicle" - then two years later took this format to a wild extreme, matching a G-Wagen chassis with the 450SE's V8 engine and adding a third axle. The Wind Hawk was, unsurprisingly, destined for the Middle East - just like the AMG G63 6x6 that Mercedes itself would produce 35 years later.

That 1980 show also introduced Autocar to Frank Rinderknecht's Rinspeed, starting fairly sensibly with a small car for disabled drivers featuring a mechanism that hoisted one's wheelchair out, up and into a roof-mounted box.