#HyundaiGenesisCoupe

Hyundai’s rear-drive sports coupe is dead.

First reported by the Globe and Mail, the Genesis Coupe’s 2016 model year will be its last in the U.S. and Canada, a company spokesperson confirmed today. A replacement is expected to follow sometime after 2017, but it won’t carry the Hyundai badge.

What’s a Mustang? We know, but it’s not an easy question to answer. A Mustang is…a Mustang. It’s so thoroughly itself that there’s no need to define it as a variant of someone else’s car. All truly great cars are like this. Competitors might meet and even beat them in this or that regard, but until they develop identities of their own they’ll never possess the same allure. The Europeans practically have such cars in their DNA. The Americans and Japanese have stumbled over the goal line from time to time. The Koreans…well, the Koreans are still new. So what’s a Genesis Coupe?

In our second installment, we take the Scion FR-S to the track, along with the heavier, but more powerful Hyundai Genesis 2.0T and its spiritual antecedent, the Mazda MX-5. Oh, and there are special guests from Japan and America.

Finally, our long-promised video series makes its debut, with our very own Jack Baruth at the helm, doing what he does best; [s]bullying PR people into paying his obscene room service bill[/s] putting today’s sports cars to the test on a closed circuit.

Tomorrow will kick off the start of our new video series; TTAC Track Days with Jack Baruth. Our first vehicle will be a Hyundai Genesis Coupe 3.8 Track model.

“If you want a Veloster Turbo,” quipped Hyundai CEO John Krafcik, at September’s launch of Hyundai’s oddball, front-drive Veloster hatchback, “you can buy one right now. It’s called the Genesis Coupe.” The Veloster Turbo ended up materializing at the 2012 Detroit Auto Show – and so did a new Genesis Coupe. Apparently, Hyundai never planned on making a Veloster Turbo until after the car’s launch. But they did plan on a refreshed Genesis Coupe, and a brawnier Veloster means that the Genesis gets to move up in power and price.