My Car is Two-Faced, And Batman Isn't Going to Save Me

"Tim (Fractal Footwork)" (fractalfootwork)
05/14/2015 at 10:05 • Filed to: OppositeLock Review, Jalopnik Review, Hyundai, Hyundai Genesis Coupe, Genesis Coupe, Hyundai Genesis Coupe R-Spec

I’ve been torn about my Genesis since it flew off the lot. Back then, I thought it was the best compromise between the two heavy-hitters: a Mustang and a BRZ. Now, I can change its emotion with a coin flip, but I make the odds.

You see, the Subaru BRZ has the agility of a small feline without scaring half the neighborhood children with your endless toiling under insomniac-green halogen garage lighting aiming for the perfect rack and suspension setup. The BRZ also has a near-perfect driving position for the enthusiast, a sharp, responsive throttle pedal, communicative chassis, and immediate steering... immediate.

I was thoroughly impressed, save for the flat-four.

Now I’ll let the Jalopnik writers !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! about how 200 bhp is enough in this day-and-age of the misappropriated horsepower wars, but it’s not; not for that price, and not when you have an itch.

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So what else is there that can live up to these adequate power standards? Oh look, America ( !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ) makes three muscle cars. The Mustang has the biggest modern reputation on track, so let’s try that.

Let me disclaim what you’re about to hear with the fact that I had just driven an NC Miata before testing my first Mustang and that the ‘Stang in question was a 2012 California Special something-or-other that was setup completely opposite of ticking the ‘track pack’ box.

Either way, I grappled over the cloth seats and gleamed over the uninspired plastic landscape shielding me from the 300-odd bhp V6, but none of that upset me.

I slotted the 6-speed manual transmission into 1st gear and set off. Yes! This thing had plenty of power and I sure noticed it after trying to rev the nuts of off a Miata to get it to move, but the more I drove around the suburban 4-lane boulevards the more disappointed I became. The throttle pedal was lazier than you’re drunk uncle in a leather recliner after dipping wholly too much into the Thanksgiving cranberry sauce. And so was the chassis; it lumbered around trying to nurse the longevity out of the live rear axle. The throttle pedal was anything but linear, think more exponential (ala y=x 2 ), like it was keeping your inexperienced American tuckus from wrapping the pony’s tail around a light pole without full consent.

It all make the extra power not worth a thing. No, this wasn’t for me either.

Fast forward to the present, almost a year later, and I am very pleased with my 348 bhp, 295 lb-ft 3.8 liter Hyundai Genesis Coupe R-Spec, and have kept about the same enthusiasm about the car since my !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! upon ownership.

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Which brings us to the main gripe I had about the Genesis: It slips too easily into a boring car.

Most of the 25,000 miles my Genesis Coupe has amassed over the 10 months of ownership have been from commuting. My job takes me pretty much anywhere over the greater Chicago area, so I have to deal with flat, straight, uninspiring concrete landscapes daily.

On an initial automotive review, the comfort and ease seen in wafting through these congested commuting roads might be noted as a positive, but when you live on the bustling highways everyday your car has a habit of transforming into an average economy-class sedan.

Where I live, there are no great driving roads. There might be a specific corner you dream about taking on your way home, but inevitably when you get there it is clogged to the brim with traffic, disallowing your fancy summer tires from squealing like a pig and your rear-end having the courage to sneak round your front.

Compile all of that with the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , many tire and wheel issues, and a warped rotor I didn’t have the time to fix for months, and you might imagine I’d have some second thoughts about Genesis ownership, but you’d be wrong, so completely wrong.

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Find that 2nd-gear corner, nail the throttle, kick that tail out with the perfect opposite lock and throttle input to counter, hook your front end around the orange cone in the parking lot, take that 1-2 sweeping complex like your life depended on it with all the traction control systems farther off than George W. Bush trying to tell a Chris Rock joke, and all the miles stuck behind tortilla-branded semi trailers hogging each lane of the Interstate will be worth it, in an instant.

Suddenly the car feels like a different animal, even after you slow down to avoid causing a stir. Adrenaline is shot into your blood stream and you can feel everything through the chassis clearly.

There are no magnetic damping or steering wheel reaction settings to fiddle around with, so what changed? Nothing but your newfound respect for the limits and the fact that what’s engineered beneath you is truly a great car through and through.

But tomorrow when I wake up and head into work, I will be bored to death sitting behind a traffic queue waiting to merge onto the interstate. I’ll sink back into the podcast I’ve picked out and slot it into 6th for the long haul.

That is until the weekend when I can pop in a copy of Brand New’s !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and make the long trek to my secret driving road a state away. I’ll find heaven and fall in love with my car again.

DISCUSSION (27)

Sneaky Pete > Tim (Fractal Footwork)
05/14/2015 at 10:17

Should’ve driven a 5.0 with the brembo package.

Hyundai should’ve put their V8 from the Genesis sedan into the coupe. I would’ve bought one. Instead I bought a 2011 Mustang 5.0 with the Brembo package. Great car. Was never boring until I bought a Viper.

Forgetful > Tim (Fractal Footwork)
05/14/2015 at 10:31

After a year and a half of FR-S ownership, I’m even happier now with my purchase. Getting in to Autocross has been a huge help, but even as a DD little runabout, the 86 is anything but lacking. I might have to row my gears a little more than you do, but the way it balances in corners and carves with precision really outweighs the power delivery of a larger engine, IMO.

After watching an Elise dance around the Autocross course like it was being carried by fairies, and then comparing that to the struggle heavier cars display, you really start to appreciate the light weight, modestly powered sports car, for the same reason of getting used to its limits.

TL;DR I’m glad you like your car, just quit picking on mine to justify it. ;)

SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > Tim (Fractal Footwork)
05/14/2015 at 10:32

I’m over power. I like outrunning “fast” cars with my little MR2. This is especially true when Subie bros who are “boosted to the maxx, yo” show up and find out that there’s more to getting around a track quickly than making moar power.

BJ > Tim (Fractal Footwork)
05/14/2015 at 10:33

It’s a great-looking car and seems to be well priced for what you get. Something like this won’t be on the books for me for a long time but, when my mid-life crisis is raging full-on, I hope Hyundai will still be making an interesting car like this.

BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires > Tim (Fractal Footwork)
05/14/2015 at 11:21

So the moral of the story is that a boring commute can make a very fun car seem tedious.

I wonder, has anyone actually swapped the V8 from the Genesis into one of these?

GTI Sprinks > Tim (Fractal Footwork)
05/14/2015 at 11:27

Fav’ed for the Brand New “Devil and God Raging Inside Me” as driving music. I just said something to the girlfriend while driving this weekend about how that album was perfectly fitting for a foggy spring morning back road drive that i took.

Textured Soy Protein > Tim (Fractal Footwork)
05/14/2015 at 11:29

Wow that is some terrible music.

shop-teacher > Tim (Fractal Footwork)
05/14/2015 at 11:39

“Farther off than George W. Bush trying to tell a Chris Rock joke”

That is a great line!

We do live in an exceedingly boring area for driving. I don’t think any car can make up for that.

Galileo Humpkins (aka MC Clap Yo Handz) > Tim (Fractal Footwork)
05/14/2015 at 16:26

Kinja'd!!!

I swear I think I was by you in traffic yesterday morning on 94W. Or possibly in the evening on 94E, not sure which but I know I was commuting and was on 94 and it was yesterday.

Tim (Fractal Footwork) > Galileo Humpkins (aka MC Clap Yo Handz)
05/14/2015 at 16:53

Was not on 94 yesterday, sorry.

Tim (Fractal Footwork) > Forgetful
05/14/2015 at 16:56

I apologize. I really do like the Toybarus and thought I was clear in saying about them what you just did: they’re amazingly nimble and capable.

Not trying to pick on your car, just telling the story about how I picked mine.

Tim (Fractal Footwork) > Sneaky Pete
05/14/2015 at 16:58

Maybe I'll swing by a blue oval dealer this weekend and try one out, been meaning to anyways. Those Recaros look awesome.

Tim (Fractal Footwork) > BJ
05/14/2015 at 16:59

I hear they’re going turbocharged for the next model.

Sneaky Pete > Tim (Fractal Footwork)
05/14/2015 at 17:06

They’re extremely comfortable, unfortunately they weren’t available in 2011 when I bought my car. The new model should handle and ride even better with the IRS, though I’m not a fan of the styling (outside of the GT350 which is a gorgeous car).

Galileo Humpkins (aka MC Clap Yo Handz) > Tim (Fractal Footwork)
05/14/2015 at 17:07

Then someone is roaming around Chicago in the same Genesis with the same wheels (or very, very similar). Anyway, the Genesis coupes have grown on me a bit, I like the look of yours.

Tim (Fractal Footwork) > Sneaky Pete
05/14/2015 at 17:18

Kinja'd!!!

Yes.

Tim (Fractal Footwork) > Galileo Humpkins (aka MC Clap Yo Handz)
05/14/2015 at 17:19

I must find this person and make sure he’s not playing out some sort of Back to the Future type scenario with my car.

Galileo Humpkins (aka MC Clap Yo Handz) > Tim (Fractal Footwork)
05/14/2015 at 17:32

Please don’t rip a hole in the space time continuum.

Forgetful > Tim (Fractal Footwork)
05/14/2015 at 18:58

I'm not really offended. Just using the opportunity to express a similarly new found appreciation for my car too, I guess.

BJ > Tim (Fractal Footwork)
05/14/2015 at 19:07

By the time I’ll be able to afford my mid-life crisis, it’ll probably be electric and self-driving.

Kinja'd!!!

banjo cat ghost of oppo past > Forgetful
05/14/2015 at 21:13

What state do you live in? My problem is having way too many curvy roads and driving a Camry, the car designed for peak mediocrity, while my go fast is broken.

Because my avg commute is going up & down a glacial valley its like a lap at Mid Ohio (with potholes) with very tired suspension bits, which I just completely upgraded on my gofast, which is still broken.

Forgetful > banjo cat ghost of oppo past
05/14/2015 at 21:52

I'm in Alberta. I was in B.C. when I bought the car.

105 HP of fury > Tim (Fractal Footwork)
06/27/2015 at 22:07

Bring back a sports almanac!

5pointnine > BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires
08/20/2015 at 11:03

there is a guy that swapped a ls something or another in a 2013 and it is awesome.

ApriliaFutura > Tim (Fractal Footwork)
11/04/2015 at 12:03

Kinja'd!!!

Love mine too for all the same reasons, but the lack of cruise control on the RSpec is kindof a sore spot... Still, I regret nothing when it comes to having traded a Charger R/T for it. It feels quicker, the seats don’t hurt my back even on long trips and it’s still not that well known and regularly surprises the local “muscle” cars, especially when it gets twisty....

Tim (Fractal Footwork) > ApriliaFutura
11/04/2015 at 17:25

Mine (the ‘13s +) has cruse control. Love that yellow!

ApriliaFutura > Tim (Fractal Footwork)
11/04/2015 at 17:37

:) Already collecting parts for the V8 swap too. ....only 64,987miles till the warranty is up!