| Future Genesis GMR-001 GTP Set to Build on Luxury Brand’s First Decade April 29, 2025By John OreoviczIMSA Wire Service |
| DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Since the very start of the automotive age, manufacturers have used racing as a platform to develop, prove, and promote their cars and technology. Racing was an important engineering and marketing tool from Henry Ford’s 1901 “Sweepstakes” through the “Silver Arrows” raced by Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union in the 1930s. Marques like Porsche and Ferrari established their identity and core values as much through on-track competition as their sports cars for the street. Honda is a mainstream car and motorcycle manufacturer with racing in its DNA, an attribute now shared with its upscale Acura nameplate. Celebrating 50 years since it built its first car in 1975, Hyundai is comparatively young as an automotive manufacturer. Genesis, which is the Hyundai Motor Corporation’s flagship luxury brand, was not formally established until a decade ago in 2015. The Genesis lineup now includes an array of performance sedans and SUVs, several offering a choice of gasoline or electric power. In December 2024, Genesis announced the formation of Genesis Magma Racing and the intent to create a prototype sports car based on the Le Mans Daytona h (LMDh) platform used in the Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) class of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and the FIA World Endurance Championship. On April 16 at the New York International Auto Show, GMR unveiled a full-scale version of the car, with a vivid livery and styling cues like twin slit headlight that are instantly recognizable from Genesis’ production vehicles. |
| Per LMDh rules, the Genesis GMR-001 is based on one of four homologated chassis – in this case, ORECA. Genesis Magma Racing is leaning heavily on Hyundai Motorsport for technical guidance, and the combustion engine for the GMR-001 is a V-8 that shares 60 percent of its internal parts with the four-cylinder engine utilized in Hyundai’s World Rally Championship contender. “The inline-four engine is a very, very sophisticated, very efficient engine,” said Hyundai Motorsport Technical Director François-Xavier Demaison. “It’s a proper race engine, so it’s a very good base for developing an engine for (endurance sports car racing).” Design work on the V-8 engine started in June 2024, and GMR recently revealed that the powerplant fired to life for the first time in late February 2025. Every GTP class competitor building their car to the LMDh specification (the Aston Martin Valkyrie is the lone GTP entrant running the Le Mans Hypercar [LMH] specification) pairs their internal combustion engine with a standardized set of hybrid components, including a gearbox casing produced by Xtrac incorporating a Bosch electric motor/Motor Generator Unit (MGU), and batteries provided by Fortescue Zero. “The first part of the project was to extrapolate what we knew from the WRC engine into endurance racing,” said Hyundai Motorsport Head of Powertrain Julien Moncet. “Then we focused on making improvements to aspects like efficiency and reliability, design and simulation, working hand-in-hand to define the engine. “The assembly of the first engine always takes a bit more time, as we pay extra attention to the details because we don’t know the engine. We had to learn and build the documentation together. It took about three or four weeks, but we completed the first fire-up exactly as scheduled.” |
| Genesis announced the Magma sub-brand for high performance versions of its street cars in March 2024, and since then it revealed a series of concept vehicles in development for production. Moving forward, all Genesis vehicles will include a driver-focused Magma version. The first set for production is a 641-horsepower version of the electrified compact GV60 SUV, which in concept form took a class win at the 2024 Goodwood Festival of Speed. Another Genesis showcased at Goodwood ’24 was the GV80 Magma Coupe concept, essentially a fastback version of the GV80 midsize SUV. The street version of the GV80 Coupe debuted in limited production for the 2025 model year; Genesis calls it “the perfect blend of coupe DNA and SUV prowess.” Genesis kindly provided a GV80 Coupe E-Supercharged for evaluation during the week of the Grand Prix of Long Beach. The E-Supercharged package adds an electric supercharger to the standard GV80’s 3.5-liter, twin turbo V-6. That bumps power from 375 to 409 horsepower and adds $5,800 to the manufacturer’s suggested retail price, bringing it to $85,750. The E-SC upgrades also includes larger 22-inch wheels, dark chrome exterior trim and carbon fiber for the interior, and ambient lighting and seatbelts in a reddish-orange hue that looks straight off a Genesis Magma Racing GMR-001. |
| The GV80 Coupe is right-sized for Southern California’s mix of freeways, surface streets, and canyon roads, with sure-footed handling and excellent visibility. The turbo- and supercharged engine unobtrusively provides plenty of power for cut-and-thrust traffic maneuvers or coastal cruising. It’s also a vehicle with presence, highlighted by the distinctive trademark Genesis grille and cat-eye headlights. In the production car world, it took Hyundai roughly half the time it took for Japanese manufacturers like Toyota and Honda to establish themselves as serious mainstream players. Genesis has been on a similar fast track in the premium luxury segment, with its cars and SUVs already frequently rated as class leaders. How long will it take Genesis Magma Racing to make a mark? If the company’s production car performance is any indication, not long at all… |
