GALLERY: Highlights From The Geneva International Auto Show

“What are the future classics?” It’s a question that’s thrown around seemingly ad-infinitum amongst car collectors, drivers, journalists, really any group of people that fosters even a mild interest in the automobile. As with any important question where subjectivity abounds, there are of course the standard, safe answers that ensure you won’t get into an argument about whether or not Teslas are overhyped gadgets or if the lack of electric car ownership equates you with top-tier heathenism. Those answers tend to revolve around cars like the Toyota 86, the Mazda Miata, the Porsche Cayman, and all the others that people like to point toward as heralding in a new age of affordable sports cars. You can’t really disagree with those responses, but that doesn’t mean they’re the exhaustive list of the incoming class either.

The supercars on display at Geneva this year are hard for me to picture in my garage, but they still evoke some tangible thoughts and excitement all the same, because they show us what’s to come, which rivalries will be be rekindled, how technology will continue forging the future of driving, and what the next generation will form their budding opinions on. Things change all the time; no category of classic cars is any more “correct” than the next. Don’t forget that the Model T was at one point the newest gizmo on the (unpaved) block.

So yes, Petrolicious may have a slight affinity for cars of the vintage variety, but that doesn’t mean the next wave of things being built isn’t interesting now and won’t earn significance as they age. Geneva certainly proves that point. Whether it’s the leading bleeding edge of performance embodied in the Aston Martin AM-RB 001 (with its bright and shiny new name attached now, Valkyrie) or the call-backs to the past like RUF’s CTR or Alpine’s new Porsche-fighter, there are surely some newcomers with staying power.