Monaco has always been synonymous with luxury, extravagance and all that is exotic. Being home to the world’s most expensive cars, yachts and jewelry, it’s only natural for it to host an annual supercar show. And that’s something the principality has been doing for quite a few years now. Taking place in mid-April every year, Top Marques Monaco presents only the best of what a local Monegasque would be looking to buy: From gold-enriched alcoholic beverages and carbon fiber bodied yachts, to the main attraction: supercars.
With everything presented in one venue, accompanied by typically perfect South of France weather, CarBuzz couldn’t resist the kind invitation to attend this year’s exotic car extravaganza. While cars are on static display like any other show, in Monaco certain exhibitors give passenger rides around town, to show them what their expensive new toy can do. But it’s not any old route. The test course follows the famous Grand Prix circuit around Monaco, making the passenger (who the carmaker will be hoping is a prospective buyer) feel that much more special.
To mark the 15th edition of the Top Marques Monaco show the organizers went all out to attract more cars, more exhibitors, and to give attendees more things to see and experience. Here’s a selection of some our favorite cars at the show. We’ll start with Apollo, who displayed the new Intensa Emozione at Monaco’s main attraction point, Casino Square. The hypercar sports a naturally-aspirated 6.3-liter V12 and full carbon fiber chassis and sub-frames. Throughout the show, the car went on a few drives around town. Alas, as it’s still under development, no passenger rides were granted. But we still got to see its beautiful design features, inside and out.
Introduced at Geneva earlier this year, the Corbellati Missile, with its 1,800-hp, 9.0-liter twin-turbo V8, theoretically taking it to 310 mph (500 km/h), was another star attraction. As it’s not yet a functional model, the Missile remained rooted to the supercar show floor. But we’ll be waiting to hear from Corbellati about future developments in the coming months. Among the small number of supercar manufacturers displaying their wares at the show were Zenvo, with its TS-1 and more hardcore TSR-S, and Eadon Green, whose Corvette-based Zelcat, was objectively a looker.
Tushek also came to Monaco to launch its new TS900 H, a hybrid hypercar weighing in at just 1,400 kg. Combined with a total output figure of 1340 hp, it promises to deliver a Koenigsegg-rivaling experience. Other manufacturers of note included Arash, who presented its AF10; and Radical, who had a RXC for test drives. As always, Top Marques attracted a bunch of aftermarket companies too. Renntech took us for a ride in an insane 740-hp Mercedes-AMG C63 that we’re sure some well-heeled admirer ended up driving home at the end of the show. TopCar Design presented a pair of Porsche 911 Turbos and a Mercedes GLE, the Russian outfit showcasing its breadth of customizing capabilities with an unusual attention to detail.
Pogea Racing displayed two of its most amazing creations. It’s beautiful interpretation of a Ferrari 488, with Pista-rivaling 820 hp called the FPlus Corsa, was one of the stars of the show. While the Nemesis, a bonkers Alfa Romeo 4C we called the Quadrifoglio that Alfa should have made, featured a major weight-saving carbon-fiber redesign and a serious engine upgrade, doubling its original output to 477 hp. While Geneva is known as the supercar show, Top Marques Monaco gives the newest players in this notoriously challenging niche the chance to shine. And being set in Monaco, when the show ends, a whole new performance begins when the locals go out for a spin.
