Supercharged Hyundai Genesis Coupe Heads to SEMA—Could It Make It to Production?

We probably shouldn’t get too far ahead of ourselves. Hyundai hasn’t even revealed the Veloster-like, face-lifted Genesis coupe yet, but the Hyundai Genesis Hurricane SC, which the company will show off at the SEMA show this November, might be a rare situation when a SEMA show car actually hints at a potentially awesome production vehicle. Why do we think it’s at all possible? Spy photographers have caught test vehicles out in the open, with hoods up and blowers peeking out.

But about not jumping to conclusions: The same thing happened prior to a supercharged V-8 Genesis sedan showing up at SEMA a few years back, and we still haven’t seen that car on any dealership lots. Maybe someone at Hyundai’s tech center in Michigan just really likes superchargers.

The engine in this car is a 3.8-liter V-6, developed collaboratively between HATCI (the aforementioned tech center) and Magnuson Products. Thanks to Magnuson’s supercharger, a liquid-to-air intercooler, and between six and seven pounds of boost, the engineers have managed to crank more than 450 hp out of Hyundai’s six-cylinder, a number that sounds more SEMA than SAE, but still, at least 400 seems totally possible for an engine that started its day with 306 hp.

Adding some credibility to the engine’s production chances, we have this statement from Hyundai senior engineer David Dutko: “The HATCI and Magnuson supercharger demonstrates the high-performance potential of the Genesis Coupe’s V-6 engine—the car was engineered to handle this kind of power. Our HATCI engineers have been working for years with Magnuson to ensure high engine output is available on future Hyundai vehicles.”

In addition to the screaming V-6, this show car benefits from an “IsoTorque” limited-slip differential from Torvec, Inc. It’s been tested at Hyundai’s proving ground and is said to deliver a second-per-lap improvement over the current Genesis V-6 production car. Beyond the impressive hardware, Rhys Millen Racing provides visual enhancements for the car, while additional partners have contributed wheels, exhaust, and other accessories.

Really, we’d let all the other things go (well, the differential would probably be useful) if Hyundai just green-lights the blown V-6,  which would make a great alternative to the oft-rumored, even more oft-denied V-8 coupe.

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