Today during the global reveal event for the Genesis GV60 Magma at Circuit Paul Ricard in Le Castellat, France, the automaker wheeled out a bunch of recent concept cars and prototypes, like the G80 Magma Special and the X Gran Berlinetta, as well as showing off a new G90-based wagon called the Wingback that the automaker says is a glimpse of the sort of coachbuilding it wants to do. (More on that wagon tomorrow when I get a better look at it.) After the GV60 Magma was brought on stage, Genesis president and chief creative officer Luc Donckerwolke pulled a Steve Jobs and said they had one more thing to show us.
That one more thing was the Magma GT concept, an absolutely stunning mid-engine supercar that seemingly uses the same V8 as the GMR-001 Le Mans Hypercar. This isn’t just some total flight of fancy concept, either. Donckerwolke said “we intend to develop the Magma GT as a customer racing program in the GT3 category.” Hell freakin’ yeah, dude. Now, Genesis isn’t saying whether that means there will also be a roadgoing production model to go along with the GT3 racer, but the bright orange car that drove out onto the stage certainly
It’s gorgeous
First of all, this thing looks absolutely incredible. It seems pretty small, with classic mid-engine supercar proportions, but it doesn’t look generic. The front end has a large grille with a cool interpretation of Genesis’ G-Matrix diamond pattern, and the brand’s dual-blade LED lights double as functional canards. There’s a fairly subtle air outlet behind the front wheels, and the prominent rear haunches have an air intake just ahead of the rear wheels.
Genesis
The “boat-tail” cabin narrows toward the rear, where there’s a NACA-like duct in the roof and a closed-off panel over the engine that has a couple vertically oriented rectangular vents and a horizontal outlet where it meets the deck. The side windows kick up like on the Le Mans car, and the doors open butterfly style. There are small marker lights just behind the rear wheels, while the taillights stretch across the rear G-Matrix mesh, with hexagonal elements on each end. Below the illuminated Genesis wordmark is a large three-hole exhaust tip that shot a lot of flames in Genesis’ promo video.
The future looks bright
Judging by the very loud and very good exhaust note, the Magma GT is definitely powered by a V8 engine, and it sure sounds a lot like the GRM-001’s twin-turbo motor, which was created by sticking two of Hyundai’s WRC four-cylinders together. It would make a lot of sense for the car to use that engine, as that would certainly save on development costs. Genesis says the Magma GT is “the brand’s clearest expression yet of its commitment to its future high-performance capabilities,” adding that it’s a “long-term ambition” to enter GT racing. Having both the GMR-001 and the Magma GT on the same tracks, in the same races, at the same time would be quite the statement.
And it really doesn’t look that far off. A mere concept car wouldn’t be finished to this level of detail, and it doesn’t seem like the design needs much more refining for it to be production-ready. If it does go into production for road use and not just GT3 racing, it remains to be seen what powertrain it would use — I doubt that racing V8 would pass emissions, so maybe it would use the brand’s twin-turbo V6. Regardless, even if the Magma GT only spawns a race car, it’s really damn cool that Genesis is doing it at all. The brand says the concept will guide its performance identity for the next decade, which has got to be a good sign. I’ll be able to get up close to the Magma GT tomorrow, so let me know what you want to see or learn about it.
