That leads us nicely to the engine. With the original 3.8-litre V6 at the time kicking out 306hp, a new cold air intake, stage one headers, downpipe, and rejigged catalytic converter have upped that figure to 345(ish)hp. To throw on a supercharger is tempting, but Ziyad quickly found out that the Dubai government would soon be knocking on his door.
“There’s a completely new exhaust system. I contemplated forced induction, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to get the car registered. The RTA is quite thorough when it cones to engine modification. Personally, I would love to add a supercharger to it.”
One element Ziyad is particularly keen to show crankandpiston is the interior. Given the surprising subtleties involved on the exterior – “I don’t like to oversaturate, there’s always a balance” – it’s hardly surprising to see that Chrome & Carbon’s boys, as well as the occasional feature and fixture from ARK Performance, has made an impression: a black and red two-tone interior, with custom steering wheel, shift knob, custom-made floor mats (done locally), a new gauge cluster and red painted centre cluster. Plus bucket seats, but it turns out the fafferies involved with a five-point harness and the bone-shaking ride that accompanies a carbon fibre race seat is just too much to ask for a daily drive. That, plus another unexpected issue.
“The problem is the car conveys the totally opposite idea on what kind of person is driving the car: I always have young kids wanting to race me. So trying to keep it in one piece on the road is quite challenging!”
Now clearly work such as this takes more than a few bucks and a couple of late nights in the garage. Though it could be considered vulgar to ask for an exact amount, our curiosity gets the better of us….
“A lot to be honest! When it was all said and done, we’d spent a ballpark figure of $70,000, including the car” – yikes! – “It might be a little bit more. The carbon fibre alone was $15,000.
“We’ve done a lot of dyno testing but I don’t do much trackwork for insurance reasons. Plus there’s always the chance of an accident, and the car is difficult enough to maintain as it is. The sideskirts have been scuffed a few times and it takes at least $300 to fix. Just a scratch!”
Wallet-shrivelling investment aside though, the Genesis Coupe is as finished as it’s likely to be, and it’s something that’s made us look a little deeper at the Genesis Coupe we drove. We really enjoyed our time with the little hooner – let’s get that clear right away – but it was just lacking that final bit of finesse, that last lingering thread of oomph, delicacy and poise. With that, Hyundai really would have a serious challenger on its hands in the performance coupe field.
For Ziyad Mohamed, he’s built a one-off for his business. For the Genesis Coupe, he’s built validation.
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Exterior:
- Complete carbon fiber body kit (Front Air Dam, Side skirt, rear diffuser, Hood, Trunk, APR carbon fiber racing wing)
- 19” inch carbon fiber Savini Rims + Nitto tires
- Custom made LED headlights and taillight.
- Carbon fiber front grill
- Carbon fiber fog lights
Interior:
- Custom made carbon fiber racing seats + racing seat belt
- Custom made floor matts
- Custom made painted interior Red and black
- Carbon Fiber racing steering + complete carbon fiber interior.
- LED light door sill guards.
- Extra gauge cluster (oil temp , water temp , exhaust temp).
Engine:
- ARK Performance Complete Exhaust system + down pipes ( Ark Performance )
- Ark performance stage 1 headers
- Injen Cold Air intake
- Super chip
- HKS Racing Sparks
Suspension:
- ARK Performance DT-S Coil-over system.
- Front and rear sway bars
Brakes:
- Slotted , Cross-Drilled rotors
