Genesis Just Unveiled Its New Hypercar for Le Mans

Genesis unveiled its first full-scale GMR-001 hypercar this week in New York City, where it will go on display at the New York International Auto Show ahead of a campaign next year that will see it race at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The company had previously shown a version of the race car, launched by Genesis Magma Racing, the luxury marque’s racing team. The new prototype is for LMDh endurance racing, including in the FIA World Endurance Championship, which races at Le Mans, and the IMSA SportsCar Championship, whose most famous races are the Rolex 24 at Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring.

Genesis’s new hypercar is intended to show that the luxury marque can compete with the world’s very best when it comes to endurance racing, and, therefore, perhaps manufacturing performance-oriented luxury cars as well. Porsche, Toyota, and Audi have dominated the World Endurance Championship in recent seasons.

The car Genesis revealed Wednesday shows a livery that the company says is inspired by the brand’s Korean heritage. The livery incorporates elements of Hangul, including the lettering for “magma,” or 마그마. A team supervised by Genesis chief creative officer Luc Donckerwolke, who is perhaps best known his work on the Lamborghini Diablo and the Lamborghini Gallardo, designed the car’s bodywork.

“The GMR-001 Hypercar, like every race car, is a sculpture designed by the constraints of efficiency and performance—combined with the design DNA of Genesis—the brand with the Two Lines” Donckerwolke said in a statement. “The livery is an orchestration of the tension and balance of the distinctly Korean character of the brand with gradients from Magma orange to dark red emphasizing the high temperature of the powertrain. And the color gradients from light to dark of the Magma writing in Hangeul is an optical doppler effect that expresses the glorious sound of the V-8 Twin Turbo engine in motion.”

Genesis has not released performance numbers for the hypercar, though it will conform to endurance racing regulations, including with the twin-turbo V-8. It’s expected to make around 671 horsepower.

The new car represents a big push for Genesis Magma Racing, which is Genesis’s motorsport program. That itself is an expression of Magma, which is Genesis’s new performance sub-brand for its luxury cars, in the same way that Mercedes has AMG and BMW has M. With endurance racing and a big splash at the New York International Auto Show, Genesis is hoping that in a decade or two buyers will think of Genesis Magma in the same way that they think of Mercedes-AMG and BMW M, too.

Click here for more photos of the Genesis GMR-001.