Geneva International Motor Show 1975

About the Event

For the time, the 1975 Geneva Salon had an uncommonly high number of new model unveilings, with eight important and/or interesting show debutants, highlighted as follows: 

The undoubted star of the 1975 Geneva Show was the new, but controversial, Rolls-Royce Camargue.

After the proud lineage of hairy-chested Triumph TR open-top sportscars, the effete closed TR7 coupe came as something of a shock to the traditional string-backed gloved, real ale-drinking driving enthusiasts.

General Motors (GM) first ‘world car’ project was the GM T-Car, initially revealed as the Chevrolet Chevette saloon in Brazil in 1973, with the German Opel Kadett T-Car derivative launched for Europe a few months later. GM’s British division, Vauxhall, had to wait a while longer to introduce its own version of the global T-Car. The result was the Vauxhall Chevette, the UK’s first hatchback model (pre-dating the Ford Fiesta and Austin Metro), as revealed at the 1975 Geneva Salon.

Peugeot’s first prestige post-war range-topping model, the handsome Pininfarina-styled 604 was a refined executive saloon powered by the then-new PRV V6 engine, jointly developed by Peugeot, Renault and Volvo, hence PRV.

With the avantgarde Citroën CX launched just months earlier, and still causing a sensation at its first Geneva Show appearance in 1975, Renault’s response to its svelte Citroën rival was the brand new 30 TS V6; a pleasant, if somewhat bland, five-door hatchback rival pre-dating subsequent executive hatches such as the Rover 3500 SD1 and Audi 100 CC Avant.

In 1972 the Beta berlina (saloon) was introduced the first all-new Lancia model to be launched since Fiat took control of the celebrated engineering-led car maker in 1969. At the March ’75 Swiss show Lancia launched the latest addition to its growing Beta family in the form of the versatile HPE (High Performance Estate).

With its distinctive goldfish bowl-like styling and broad stance, AMC’s new Pacer had its European premier in front of an intrigued audience at Geneva, looking unlike any other car at the 1975 exhibition.

A major novelty of the 1975 Swiss show was the first public display of the Bricklin SV-1, a two-seater sports coupe ‘safety vehicle’ that anticipated the latter and better-known De Lorean DMC-12 with its gullwing doors and niche appeal.

Most liked pictures of the event