This is their rice'd up Genesis coupe they had on display.

I threw up a tweet a few days ago about Hyundai's Genesis coupe. My friend Jan had registered for the Hyundai Genesis Adrenaline Tour and was kind enough to bring me along as his guest.

Our regional location was the "DC" event at FedEx Field. It was smaller than what I expected. However, they had cool displays and free mini-waters so, who am I to complain for a free event?

They laid out the course using standard-issue small cones and presented a variety of driving challenges: short straight, a soft turn, a sharper turn, and finally a mini slalom. In the end the course turned out to be ridiculously short. In addition, you only get a single run per car trim (although with short lines they were thankfully bending this rule).

With those two restrictions I only got to run twice. Once in the 2.0T and the last run in the 3.8L V6. I have to say I didn't get a good chance to push either of the cars to their limit. On my first run with the 2.0T, I didn't realize the track would be so short. So I approached the course like any sensible circuit driver and took a practice lap. I just ran smoothly around the course to get  a feel for the gearbox and the layout. The ride was smooth and low-end power was abundant. The event handler kept me in 2nd gear the entire time so I don't have a feel for the full capabilties at all.

For the second run, in the V6, I knew what I was getting in to and I pushed the car a lot harder. The first thing the handler said to me was his 3 rules:

1. Don't hit the cones (duh).
2. Don't burnout at the initial stop (who does that?).
3. ...Something, I stopped listening at this point...

He was nice enough to tell me when to punch it but I wasn't really comfortable not knowing just how much power would spew out if I slammed the pedal down. I'm pretty sure he knew what he was doing and expected some mistreatment but I'm also not one to beat up on nice cars, especially if I don't own it. I felt bad enough stalling both of the cars. Yes I stalled, this was my first experience with a relatively fresh clutch and I didn't expect it to engage so smoothly and quickly. Even still, I did push harder than I would ever dare my Golf to run. When I thought I hit the corner too hard, the Genesis laughed at me and gripped around like a dream. I barely felt it, seriously. This was a turn where I'd normally get a bit of tire squeal in my Golf but it felt like a normal bread and butter event for the Genesis. Of course, you have to keep in mind I drive a beat-up Golf with a worn-out suspension and discount tires so there really is no comparison.

Both trims had seriously tight handling and enough power for any highway action. I'm not saying this is a track star but it's gonna go above and beyond the call of duty for any road trip.

Jan and I had checked out the Genesis before but this was the first chance to really drive it. Dealership test-drives are very reserved.

A little about the cosmetics: I enjoy most of the look but the face of the car looks very goofy. Interior is a little chrome heavy but that helps reinforce the "new and refined piece of machinery" look, I'm not sure if it'll hold up well going forward but right you feel like you're ready to ride. Personally, I feel like luxury and wood (not chrome/silver) go together but that may be years of targeted advertising at work.

One thing you easily forget when you're driving this thing is that it's only going to cost you 30k to take it home (with all the options you're going to want, I'm not sure if you can snatch navigation at that price but I've come to hate them).

All in all, the edmunds.com review says what I'm feeling:

If you're looking for a stylish coupe with serious performance, the Genesis Coupe is one of the best deals on the market.

-edmunds.com

EDIT: Replaced the image I ripped from the web with some original photography from my friend who took me to the event. iPhone pics turn out pretty nice, but I'm sure you already know that.

I'm not saying every car should be going 90 mph or faster if it can. I'm just saying that if you buy a car with a purpose, Use it for that purpose. Don't mod your civic with a 3" exhaust if your going to put around at 30 mph and annoy me with the sound of your muffler.

The same logic applies to people who refuse to ever do anything with their car in order to preserve it. Show cars are of course excluded but not resting a bag of groceries on the roof so you can open the door is just silly. "OMG, it's new so I don't want to scratch the paint." Paint will be scratched, tires will wear out, your pretty car will eventually die. Enjoy it while it's alive and well.

NOTE: I should be back to real posts shortly...