Friday Fives: The 2014 Paris Motor Show edition, 4 cars we want now and the 1 that made us go hmm…

Now that the flurry of unveils have ended, here’s our pick of the four cars we want and one that we’re not so sure of. By Chris Ng

We love motorshows. It is the one event where all car manufacturers gather and try their best to steal the limelight away from the other. Some succeed, while others grab the headlines for all wrong reasons. And the 2014 Paris Motor Show is no different – you have specially dressed-up cars, mind-blowing concepts and production-ready vehicles that should have rolled out of the factory yesterday. Then, there are vehicles that made us wonder if the manufacturer is all right. Here’s the list:

5. Infiniti Q80 Inspiration Concept

It’s a four-door fastback and it will be Infiniti’s jab at the premium saloon category. Plenty of large surface areas punctuated only by well-place creases and bumps. The doors open portal-style and reach human gets their individual quilted leather seat. Powering the car will be an all-new downsized twin turbocharged 3.0-litre V6 and electric hybrid, which offers a system output of 550bhp.

While this may be a concept car, Infiniti says that this may well be the basis for all future vehicle designs. So at least we know where they got their inspiration from, yes?

4. Volkswagen XL Sport

We can’t help but to see traces of the R8 here, yet it is far from the truth. While the super Audi is powered by either a V8 or a V10, the XL Sport gets motion from a motorcycle engine. Ah, now the Group’s purchase of Ducati makes sense.

In the rear is the Ducati V2 that produces 197bhp, revs to a stratospheric 11,000rpm and can sustain speeds up to 270kph. Amazing. But too bad only 500 XL Sports will be made.

3. Mazda MX-5

Alright, we’ve seen this one already. Mazda’s new MX-5 was unveiled way before the launch but it needed to be featured here once more. This is the most aggressive rendition of the KODO design to date. Low centre of gravity, long bonnet, short overhangs, a sharky face and a front-midship layout makes this roadster drool-worthy.

What’s even more interesting is that the MX-5 will come with a 1.5-litre SkyActiv-G petrol engine and a six-speed SkyActiv-MT manual gearbox.

2. Honda Civic Type-R

Yes, the red ‘H’ is back but the Civic Type-R won’t be the high-revving beast unlike its predecessors. The new one will be turbocharged to push more than 276bhp from the 2.0-litre i-VTEC engine and will rev to a misty-red 7,000rpm. The car will have six-speed manual, adaptive damping and a +R button that strings up the engine even more.

But we only need to know two things – how the car will combat torque steer and do we still need to wait for the VTEC to kick in?

And the one that made us go hmm…

1. Audi TT Sportback

It happened with the A1 and the A5. We get that one; the addition of two more doors opened up to people who wanted an easier time accessing the rear seats. But why did Audi needed to do the same with the TT and then utterly made it not-very-good-looking-at-all is beyond us.

So what’s next? The Audi QTT?