John Hennessey should give other tuners lessons in relentlessness. He may be known for his Vipers, but he'll attack any car he feels is ripe for fortification. So maybe it's really no surprise at all to see that he's now turned, at least a fraction, of his attention to Hyundai's Genesis Coupe.
Actually it's not John Hennessey's attention, but that of the students enrolled in "Tuner School," a State of Texas-accredited academy Hennessey has started to teach tuning and fabrication techniques to anyone willing to pony up the tuition bucks (and no matter what their SAT score). So far about 20 students have walked the ivied halls of Tuner School, and Hennessey Performance Engineering (HPE) has hired, says Tuner School Chancellor John Hennessey, "about a third of them" as regular employees.
Starting with a 2010 Genesis Coupe powered by the 3.8-liter V6, the four students in the last class established a baseline of 253 horsepower at the rear wheels on HPE's DynoJet chassis dyno. Then, they fabricated cold air induction and cat-back exhaust systems and added in some nitrous. The result is... well, take a look at the inevitable YouTube clip.
Yup, that's 380 hp. Not shabby, and not unexpected considering the miracle that is nitrous oxide. But there's more to come.
With that class now graduated, the next class at Tuner School will be constructing a twin-turbocharger system for the Killer Korean Koupe using two GT30R turbos as the heart of the system. The plan is, says Professor Hennessey, for the beast to be whomping with at least 500-horsepower in time for early November's SEMA show in Las Vegas. And by the time of that massive fiesta, the car will also be seriously decorated and fitted with all the time-tested tuner-riffic bits and pieces including shiny wheels, lots of gauges and aftermarket seats.
After all, every great institute of higher learning starts by teaching the classics.
John Pearley Huffman, Contributing Editor
estreka says:
06:52 PM, 09/ 3/09
While I personally think 500hp is major overkill for the G Coupe, the car does lend itself to the tuner world quite well. I think $10K invested via a centrifugal supercharger, Tein suspension, smaller rims (yes, smaller), and a mean exhaust would turn this car into one helluva daily driver.