The Hyundai Genesis Coupe is a perfectly fine car, but it doesn't make us want to howl at the moon with excitement and lust. Here's a crazy 1,000 horsepower version for SEMA. Suddenly, I care.
Under the hood, which is now made of carbon fiber (of course it is!), is Hyundai's regular 3.8 liter V6, but it's been all sorts of turbocharged. That means that the pedestrian 350 horsepower engine no longer makes 350 horsepower.
Nope. It makes 1,000 horsepower. Hyundai partnered with Bisimoto for the project, who used new internals and turbocharged excellence to create the beast. Their objective was to make a car that was tractable on the street but balls-out insane like a race car.
Yeah, mission accomplished.
But it also accomplished another, more discreet, mission: It made me actually think about the Genesis Coupe and realize that Hyundai is doing good things there (good power, affordable, RWD, relatively light-ish). Things that we want other automakers to do.
So, as an embodiment of the vision of the concept, this is a success. And for bringing more awareness to the Genesis Coupe, also a success.