The first tuner to show off a rendering of what its Genesis coupe will look like in Las Vegas is Rhys Millen Racing (RMR). Based off the turbocharged 2.0-liter model, the RMR Genesis coupe will feature a wide-body aero kit, an upgraded turbo and exhaust, and a heavy-duty HKS sequential gearbox. Suspending the tuned coupe is a set of K&W coilovers hidden behind upgraded Brembo brakes, Enkei wheels, and Bridgestone RE-01R tires. Inside, expect to find acres of carbon fiber, an eight-point roll cage, a set of Sparco seats and a matching steering wheel.
With that amount of kit and Mr. Millen's penchant for competition, don't be surprised to see Rhys behind the wheel of a similar Genesis coupe at the Pikes Peak Hill Climb, along with campaigns in Formula D and our own Super Lap Battle series.
The All-Motor VQ35DEBased on the number of hits at www.SyntecTopShop.com, a lot of you have been keeping track of our engine-building contest. The website not only offers videos of what the competition is up to, but also editorial propaganda from the other struggling magazines. One of the pages that we have been previously avoiding hosts the online voting section. The reason we've been avoiding it is because the last time we checked it we only had 44 votes, which was good for about 1 percent. While these figures are inconsequential to the outcome of the competition, it was sort of sad to see that the greater automotive society had more faith in Super Street and Import Tuner than us.
As of the time of this writing, we are pleased to say that we are currently in First Place with 37,639 votes, which works out to 22.5 percent. Given that we have an overboard naturally aspirated VQ35 in a competition, which includes specific output, we're not absolutely sure that we can take this thing. But what won us over, and likely influenced the voters, is our faith in Cosworth Engineering. Just watching the video clip of Cosworth's parts washer is more impressive than anything we've seen from the other builders in the competition.-AH