A New Beginning And New Thinking For Luxury: Hyundai Genesis,
I was fortunate enough to be one of the drive team for the launch of a new entrant into the luxury car field, the Hyundai Genesis. Yes, Hyundai Genesis. Don’t laugh because you’ve read Hyundai and luxury car in the same sentence, it is a remarkably well engineered, thought out and produced vehicle, topping out at just $82000. It’s a big car with a massive interior, thanks to a 5 metre length and 3 metre wheelbase. There’s design elements for the exterior reminiscent of some other brands, with the front being commented on most as being Aston Martin. That’s perhaps due to the winged emblem front and centre on the panel edge leading into the bonnet. There’s only one indication of who the maker is, with the Hyundai H on the bootlid. There’s three models in the range, starting in the mid $60K bracket, with the Sensory and Ultimate pack offerings being the trio.
The leading edge is an upright, bluff looking part of the car, sweeping over a long bonnet (housing the 3.8L V6, 232 kW/397 Nm powerplant) into an almost coupe like roofline before tapering off into a a short tail housing a good sized boot. It’s a cohesive and handsome design. The interior is a reflection of the outside, with deeply sculpted seats front and rear, with heating and cooling for the front, heating in the rear, full electric adjustment for driver and passenger plus memory seating, electric sunblind for the rear window, photochromatic glass for the sunroof 
and heated wing mirrors (which dip when reverse is selected). There’s adaptive cruise control to play with; 
think an extension of cruise control which merely has you travel at a preset speed, this uses a camera to track the vehicle in front to keep the Genesis at a set time gap (one to four seconds) behind the vehicle in front and will bring the Genesis to a stop at velocities up to 80 km/h. Over that, Genesis expects the human factor to come into play and steer the car out of trouble. There’s four other cameras as well; front, rear, with two in the side mirrors that will display a 360 degree view on the 9.2 inch 720p display screen, plus offer a choice of four angles front/side/rear. A downlight is the switchgear; although smartly and simply laid out, they lack the luxury look and feel expected, being of typical high quality but hard set Hyundai plastic; there’s also a harsh feeling pocket on the rear of the front seats, devoid of the same velour lining found in the door pockets and soft open/close clamshell centre console locker. The “entry level” Genesis gets plenty of tech such as Hill Start Assist, tyre pressure monitoring, the afore mentioned smart 
cruise control with the Sensory throwing in Head Up Display, rear cross traffic alert, the around view monitoring system and powered steering column whilst the Ultimate gets the panoramic glass sunroof, the sound proofed acoustic glass and more. A nice touch is a LED light that shines the Genesis logo from each wing mirror to the ground. There’s audio controls and front passenger seat controls in a fold down section in the rear seat, allowing those that prefer to be driven rather than drive themselves to move the seat for room and choose their own music. Both features are lockable via the menu system activated from the steering wheel buttons.
Having THAT Conversation With Grandpa
It was one of those conversations. I don’t think that I’ve seen a look on my mother’s face like that since my younger brothers were teenagers. No, my mum wasn’t complaining about anything I was doing. What she was frustrated about was an upcoming conversation she was going to have to have with my 91-year-old grandfather. “If I ever get like that,” she said through gritted teeth, “just take the keys away from me.”
The tricky conversations she was having with my grandfather were about his driving. Yes, he still had all his marbles and his eyesight. He’d passed his medical tests for driving. However, my grandfather is the stereotyped absent-minded professor who will serenely ignore all sorts of chaos around him and keep on going regardless. “Keep Calm and Carry On” is advice he doesn’t need. He is the sort of person who would be so busy doing complicated mathematical operations with the numbers on the rego plate of the in front of him that he wouldn’t pay much attention to the sirens blaring and bearing down on him from behind. He just couldn’t see what the problem was about and why we were all making a fuss about how he drove around town without his glasses – he was going to the optometrist’s wasn’t he? And didn’t he know the way there? OK, he wrote off his Fiat Uno in one ding a few years ago and has had a couple of close calls in the Suzuki Swift that replaced it. And so what if he dies in a crash – he’s over 90 and ready to go, isn’t he? So what was the problem?
F1 in Crisis: Dear Bernie, What Have You Done?
The glamorous world of Formula One is never without scandalous news outbreaks, and as the motorsport juggernaut sets its sights firmly on Austin for the next round of the championship, all is not well. News has hit the shelves that Marussia and Caterham are set to miss the American round of the 2014 F1 championship due to ongoing financial woes; Marussia have since announced that they have gone into administration. It is uncertain whether either team will return to the series; their company futures hang in the balance.
Caterham and Marussia have been fighting it out throughout 2014 at the back of the grid. Image Credit: f1fanatic.co.uk
BTCC Rule Changes: Now There's A Thought…
The 2014 season of the British Touring Car Championship ended in traditionally spectacular form at Brands Hatch on a weekend dictated by the cruel mistress of Mother Nature. Just as the lights went out on another amazing year, the flood gates for 2015 have already started to open. In what seemed like a mere blink of an eye, we were treated to the announcement that Infiniti were to enter the championship alongside ‘Support Our Paras’ Racing, a whole new direction for the BTCC. Soon after that we were told that Aiden Moffat and Laser Tools Racing were set to enter a Mercedes A-Class for the 2015 season following a successful test session. The next juicy little nugget comes following the annual end of season meeting held between TOCA and the participating teams within the series. The result of said meeting has been a selection of amendments made to the sporting regulations of the championship. Up until this point, all the articles I have read on the matter have gone into analysis about the effectiveness of these changes and how it will impact the sport next year. Have you wondered why you are yet to read an article that questions whether these regulation adaptations have gone far enough, what else could be done to the championship for the future? Could the championship change any further?
Well, it is time to wonder no further, for I present to you my own take on how the BTCC can change the sporting regulations to better the championship for the future. I wish not to present the following words as hard facts, yet I aim to inspire the minds of the masses. What would you do if you had the chance?
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