When an ex-SsangYong Designer Built South Korea’s First Ever Supercar

The South Korean automobile industry has gone from strength to strength over the last forty years, and is now the fifth largest in the world. The cars are just as good, if not better, than anything offered by European, American or Japanese manufacturers, and are very reliable. And that’s fine. But they’ve never been the go-to for enthusiasts. Yes, Hyundai has the Genesis and Veloster, and Kia has the Pro_C’eed GT, but that’s sort of it, right?

Wrong.

After the Korean War, both North and South Korea were a mess. Even South Korea was one of the poorest countries in the world. But while the North has gotten pretty much nowhere in the last 60 years, South Korea has become one of the worlds richest countries.

It’s the perfect breeding ground for a supercar then, yes?

It was sometime in the mid-nineties when Han-chul Kim quit his job as a designer at SsangYong to build the car of his dreams. Now, SsangYong designers are actually quite famous, although not in a good way. For just about every single car that has ever come out of the factory has been either terribly proportioned or just plain hideous. Just look at the Rodius, or the Actyon, or the Kyron, or the Musso. Or don’t. That’s probably the best idea. I’m sure eye cancer is very painful.
Anyway.

He founded Proto Motors with his wife, who was a researcher at the confusingly-named Asia Motor Company, and they presented the PS-II concept at the Seoul Motor Show. Since it was powered by the V8 from the 1999 Ford Mustang SVT Cobra, it had 320 horsepower, which is probably about three times as much as Ssangyong has ever used. Their cars aren’t just bad in the aesthetic department.

By 2004, the car had been renamed the Spirra, but was no nearer to production. As we’ve seen time and time again, it’s quite difficult for startups to get even this far, and there just wasn’t enough money to continue. So the whole project was put on hold.

It wasn’t until 2007 when Kim met Dong-Hyuk Park, an IT entrepreneur who had founded Oullim Networks, a firm which specialises in Internet security. I think you can see where this is going.
Proto Motors was soon acquired by Oullim, and development of the Spirra started once again.

Then, something strange happened. The Spirra actually went into production. That’s remarkable for what started out as the fantasy of a SsangYong designer. I mean, most SsangYong designer fantasies should be destroyed by nukes.

There are 9 distinct versions of the Spirra, each with a different power output. The more money you’ve got, the faster your car will be. Simples.
The first cars used the 2.7 Hyundai V6 from the Hyundai Coupe, with the slowest version having an unmodified version of the engine. 175 horsepower isn’t really enough though.

That’s why the other four versions have twin turbos, which resulted in power outputs ranging from 380 to a rather impressive 500. 500 horsepower from the engine from a Hyundai Coupe! That’s enough to reduce the 0-62 time to 3.5 seconds, which, in case you didn’t notice, is really quick.

But Oullim decided that it wasn’t quick enough, so they built a racing version. Oh yes.

It had 600 horsepower, still from the Hyundai V6, and was apparently capable of 211 mph. Raced in the 2008 Korean GT Masters series, it won its first race and took the championship. Quite an achievement, considering it was up against GT2 cars such as the Porsche GT3 RSR, BMW M3 GTR, and Nismo 350Z
But this engine wasn’t very suitable for a road-going vehicle, and yet 500 horsepower wasn’t enough. So they asked Hyundai very nicely if they wouldn’t mind giving them some more powerful engines, and Hyundai said yes, which is a bit of a surprise, because you might have thought that the 2.7 was their most powerful engine.

It wasn’t.

The Genesis and Genesis Coupe have a 3.8 litre V6, which makes a very healthy 294 horsepower. Obviously this wasn’t enough for Oullim, but it was better than what they had.
The result was the Cregit series. It now had an updated exterior, but that wasn’t the most important part. Oh no.

The top-of-the-range EX now made 600 horsepower. From a Hyundai engine. It was now capable, if you rounded it up a bit, of 200 mph. On the road. In what started out as the dream of a SsangYong designer. I wouldn’t blame you if you simply refuse to believe it.

But to deny its existence would be a great shame. For the world wouldn’t quite be the same without start-up manufacturers building supercars, even if very few of them ever reach the hands of customers. But when a start-up is actually successful, and brings out a car like this, it is very special indeed.

Written by Steven@R.I.D

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