GrimmSpeed
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There’s been a lot of buzz about the Genesis Coupe and a lot of people have been spending many sleepless nights trying to reverse engineer and develop new and better performance parts for this amazing car for a good reason.
What I am going to try and do is give you a personable first impression from four different levels of driving and perspectives that I hope will engage your interest even more about this car if it hasn’t captured it already. We have recently received a 2010 White Genesis Coupe just delivered to our shop here in MN from a NJ dealer.
Here is a general description of what we are going to attempt to do. But first let’s call this Genesis Coupe Genny. We’ll try to keep this thread just like a journal dialoging all the activities of the GC aka Genny during our driving tests.
The first category I’d like to call Community Driving-This is where we find out how this car fits into daily life, does it fit well within the community environment. Does it fit well with your GF and family.
Second-Avoid and Recovery, AutoX, spirited driving that often requires some quick reflexes. Here we will explore the cars agility and how much input is required from the driver to make it happen.
Third-I like to call this our fun session, this is where we have our very own Fifth or Top Gear trials. Here we will joy ride and see just how she likes to dirty dance.
And Forth-Here we’ll do our best to find out just how quick she is on her feet. We’ll be stretching her pretty legs across the quarter mile as well as around a road course for the best lap times we can possibly produce.
So here is the first Chapter:
Over the four days I had been driving Genny I must say this is probably one of the easiest cars I’ve driven. Genny is a 2010 White Genesis Coupe equipped with a 2.0T 6sp MT. The commute thru rush hour was fairly pleasant, the clutch wasn’t heavy and the seats where comfortable, and I enjoyed adjusting my seat with the power controls. The clutch paddle on Genny felt consistent throughout the depression and the engagement point was just below the middle which helps with a quick shift. The gear box has a tight feel while shifting thru the six gears. Making it very easy and it gave you confidence to shift quickly and not worry about mis-shifting into the wrong gear. Although the throw could be a bit shorter(I’m sure TurnInConcepts will take care of this) it wasn’t much to complain about since the linear power band was very useful and the stock rev’s moved just quick enough to not give the average driver any hardship while trying to keep up.
I was very impressed with how well the stock track tuned suspension felt on the road, on the highway and on the back country roads. Thru the stock tire pressure you noticed the road but you didn’t feel all the bumps and defects on the aging road. On an open country road you can feel Genny’s torque push the car from 50mph to 100mph within a few seconds; the power was not noticed on the neck, which is a good thing especially when you have a pretty passenger sitting right next to you. But it was enough to put a smile on your face with encouragement should you need to make a pass.
My wife and kids loved the car a lot. They were so impressed with the ride, how much room there was in the rear seats, how much elbow room was available and most of all how quite the car rides. I will say if you are an elbow driver, you might have to find another way to prop yourself when corning.
Genny transitions very well on fast high speed sweepers like what you might sometimes find on the open highway or country roads. Going at about 70-80mph into a sweeper she does such a great job of balancing the weight my passenger couldn’t even tell.
Safety is always priority numero Uno when you’re trying to do some simple testing on public roads. I don’t encourage anyone to go out and try this, but I have always found it very interesting to see just how well cars will tangle with the on ramp clover leafs on the highways. So picture an interstate with four clovers all pointing in different directions. Now pretend you are approaching the entrance at about 70mph, you tap the brakes for just a second to load the front tires, dial in the steering just enough to point Genny up the ramp and you squeeze the throttle and sit back and watch her go climbing up the hill at a constant 70mph till you reach the top just to come back down the other side.
What we’ve learned from this test is that with FWD cars you lose traction going up hill because the car’s weight is on the back wheels and is having to pull its weight up the hill in a circle, so its not only fighting for traction, but also a lot of understeer. Coming downhill the front end is working very hard to steer and power you thru the turn making the car feel unsettling and squeamish.
With an AWD, we’ve found that with power going to all four wheels they have a tendency to all be fighting for traction almost all the time depending if you’re on the brakes or the throttle. So the tires tend to sing the oprah just a bit early and you exhibit understeer acting like a FWD.
Now with Genny she felt very neutral going up and down the clover leafs at these speeds. At these speeds the stock tires at stock psi were just starting to sing Mozart. The ride felt comfortable and very predictable, well balanced and easy to maintain. In my opinion I thought Hyundai did a wonderful job of getting the car to talk to me, the driver at these levels. I recall a magazine had mentioned the steering wheel feel grounded or didn’t steer back to the center. I think it’s likely due to the larger low profile tires on the front with low tire pressure. You also notice a little heavier feel as well, which is common in cars with similar setups.
I have noticed the rev’s do hang just a bit longer but I’ve found that most drive by wire vehicles I’ve tested have the same experienced. The benefits I’ve found by having the engine revs hang longer are when you’re down shifting, they are smoother which translate to rev matching. And the draw backs are you don’t have the same accurate feed back if you’re driving a high horsepower vehicle and trying to maintain traction.
The shifter knob was designed to be held in a horizontal position and it felt comfortable. The only thing I didn’t like that I found annoying was the leather boot button. I prefer it to be put in the back, it kept bothering my fingers.
The stock power band does a great job of keeping me interested in driving this car daily. It’s not overwhelming and it does a great job of encouraging you to want to push for more. I can see this car having another +50-100whp and still be a great car for the daily commute. You may want to consider upgrading your brake pads, the Brembo’s felt great, but after bedding the pads and a few tests on smooth and unsmooth roads I started to feel some fade and bias from the front tires. The seats did a great job of keeping me.
So in short I am very impressed and I’m giving it high remarks for street daily driving. Oh and I also like the fact that Hyundai gave two options for the “Oh, Crap!” handles the passengers. I have some video I’ll have to edit and than I’ll post them up. I ran out of memory space when I did the clover leaf test, but it’s not difficult to reproduce so I’ll post them up asap.
Our next opportunity will be at a 2.5 high speed road course at the end of the month where we’ll be focusing more on the overall performance. I’m looking forward to seeing Genny stretch her legs while training at the BMW events which has a varity of cars. We’ll see how she handles traffic with the other cars at the track.
Chong
GrimmSpeed Tech
BMW Driving Instructor
What I am going to try and do is give you a personable first impression from four different levels of driving and perspectives that I hope will engage your interest even more about this car if it hasn’t captured it already. We have recently received a 2010 White Genesis Coupe just delivered to our shop here in MN from a NJ dealer.
Here is a general description of what we are going to attempt to do. But first let’s call this Genesis Coupe Genny. We’ll try to keep this thread just like a journal dialoging all the activities of the GC aka Genny during our driving tests.
The first category I’d like to call Community Driving-This is where we find out how this car fits into daily life, does it fit well within the community environment. Does it fit well with your GF and family.
Second-Avoid and Recovery, AutoX, spirited driving that often requires some quick reflexes. Here we will explore the cars agility and how much input is required from the driver to make it happen.
Third-I like to call this our fun session, this is where we have our very own Fifth or Top Gear trials. Here we will joy ride and see just how she likes to dirty dance.
And Forth-Here we’ll do our best to find out just how quick she is on her feet. We’ll be stretching her pretty legs across the quarter mile as well as around a road course for the best lap times we can possibly produce.
So here is the first Chapter:
Over the four days I had been driving Genny I must say this is probably one of the easiest cars I’ve driven. Genny is a 2010 White Genesis Coupe equipped with a 2.0T 6sp MT. The commute thru rush hour was fairly pleasant, the clutch wasn’t heavy and the seats where comfortable, and I enjoyed adjusting my seat with the power controls. The clutch paddle on Genny felt consistent throughout the depression and the engagement point was just below the middle which helps with a quick shift. The gear box has a tight feel while shifting thru the six gears. Making it very easy and it gave you confidence to shift quickly and not worry about mis-shifting into the wrong gear. Although the throw could be a bit shorter(I’m sure TurnInConcepts will take care of this) it wasn’t much to complain about since the linear power band was very useful and the stock rev’s moved just quick enough to not give the average driver any hardship while trying to keep up.
I was very impressed with how well the stock track tuned suspension felt on the road, on the highway and on the back country roads. Thru the stock tire pressure you noticed the road but you didn’t feel all the bumps and defects on the aging road. On an open country road you can feel Genny’s torque push the car from 50mph to 100mph within a few seconds; the power was not noticed on the neck, which is a good thing especially when you have a pretty passenger sitting right next to you. But it was enough to put a smile on your face with encouragement should you need to make a pass.
My wife and kids loved the car a lot. They were so impressed with the ride, how much room there was in the rear seats, how much elbow room was available and most of all how quite the car rides. I will say if you are an elbow driver, you might have to find another way to prop yourself when corning.
Genny transitions very well on fast high speed sweepers like what you might sometimes find on the open highway or country roads. Going at about 70-80mph into a sweeper she does such a great job of balancing the weight my passenger couldn’t even tell.
Safety is always priority numero Uno when you’re trying to do some simple testing on public roads. I don’t encourage anyone to go out and try this, but I have always found it very interesting to see just how well cars will tangle with the on ramp clover leafs on the highways. So picture an interstate with four clovers all pointing in different directions. Now pretend you are approaching the entrance at about 70mph, you tap the brakes for just a second to load the front tires, dial in the steering just enough to point Genny up the ramp and you squeeze the throttle and sit back and watch her go climbing up the hill at a constant 70mph till you reach the top just to come back down the other side.
What we’ve learned from this test is that with FWD cars you lose traction going up hill because the car’s weight is on the back wheels and is having to pull its weight up the hill in a circle, so its not only fighting for traction, but also a lot of understeer. Coming downhill the front end is working very hard to steer and power you thru the turn making the car feel unsettling and squeamish.
With an AWD, we’ve found that with power going to all four wheels they have a tendency to all be fighting for traction almost all the time depending if you’re on the brakes or the throttle. So the tires tend to sing the oprah just a bit early and you exhibit understeer acting like a FWD.
Now with Genny she felt very neutral going up and down the clover leafs at these speeds. At these speeds the stock tires at stock psi were just starting to sing Mozart. The ride felt comfortable and very predictable, well balanced and easy to maintain. In my opinion I thought Hyundai did a wonderful job of getting the car to talk to me, the driver at these levels. I recall a magazine had mentioned the steering wheel feel grounded or didn’t steer back to the center. I think it’s likely due to the larger low profile tires on the front with low tire pressure. You also notice a little heavier feel as well, which is common in cars with similar setups.
I have noticed the rev’s do hang just a bit longer but I’ve found that most drive by wire vehicles I’ve tested have the same experienced. The benefits I’ve found by having the engine revs hang longer are when you’re down shifting, they are smoother which translate to rev matching. And the draw backs are you don’t have the same accurate feed back if you’re driving a high horsepower vehicle and trying to maintain traction.
The shifter knob was designed to be held in a horizontal position and it felt comfortable. The only thing I didn’t like that I found annoying was the leather boot button. I prefer it to be put in the back, it kept bothering my fingers.
The stock power band does a great job of keeping me interested in driving this car daily. It’s not overwhelming and it does a great job of encouraging you to want to push for more. I can see this car having another +50-100whp and still be a great car for the daily commute. You may want to consider upgrading your brake pads, the Brembo’s felt great, but after bedding the pads and a few tests on smooth and unsmooth roads I started to feel some fade and bias from the front tires. The seats did a great job of keeping me.
So in short I am very impressed and I’m giving it high remarks for street daily driving. Oh and I also like the fact that Hyundai gave two options for the “Oh, Crap!” handles the passengers. I have some video I’ll have to edit and than I’ll post them up. I ran out of memory space when I did the clover leaf test, but it’s not difficult to reproduce so I’ll post them up asap.
Our next opportunity will be at a 2.5 high speed road course at the end of the month where we’ll be focusing more on the overall performance. I’m looking forward to seeing Genny stretch her legs while training at the BMW events which has a varity of cars. We’ll see how she handles traffic with the other cars at the track.
Chong
GrimmSpeed Tech
BMW Driving Instructor
