The Rinspeed ... one ‘‘Heidi-ous’’ gimmick after another.  The
Rinspeed ... one ‘‘Heidi-ous’’ gimmick after another. Photo: AFP
Yes, indeed. Why don't those cheese-puncturing central Europeans
build a decent car?  They already make cogs, gears and spindles
with, well, Swiss precision. So why don't they just upsize their
engineering a bit?  It would be easy to be cynical and say
because they are too busy making Toblerone, financing wars and
managing the bank accounts of despots and corporate criminals.
Very, very easy. But let's move on.  Casting my mind over the
expanses of the Swiss car industry, I could come up with just
three brands. The first is Monteverdi, which built a few US-
engined sports coupes in the 1960s and '70s. Another is Sbarro,
about which I knew even less.  Sbarro's scant fame comes from
building a car that scared small children at last year's Geneva
motor show.  Called the Autobau, it looked like a cross between
a food blender and a really ugly food blender.  Creating the
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