Genesis Magma Racing’s red and orange Hypercar is powered by a 3.2L twin-turbo V8 engine, drawing its roots from Hyundai Motorsport’s successful World Rally Championship (WRC) engine. The innovative powertrain is based on the inline four-cylinder motor from Hyundai’s WRC cars, with up to 60% of the components shared, transforming it into an eight-cylinder internal combustion engine (ICE).
Developed in partnership with Oreca, the Hypercar’s chassis integrates Hyundai’s advanced ICE with Bosch’s LMDh-spec electric hybrid technology, creating a hybrid petrol-electric powertrain. This combination aims to deliver the necessary performance for the highly competitive World Endurance Championship (WEC).
Francois-Xavier Demaison, Hyundai Motorsport’s technical director, explained the engine’s foundation, saying, “The I4 engine is a very sophisticated, very efficient engine. It’s a proper race engine, making it an ideal base for our WEC engine. Rallying, being a form of endurance racing, makes the transition to 24 Hours of Le Mans a logical progression.”
Given the limited development time, the team opted not to design an entirely new engine from scratch. Instead, they leveraged the proven WRC engine architecture, which has already undergone extensive testing and validation. Demaison emphasized that while creating a new engine requires substantial time for design, testing, and production, using the I4 engine as a base significantly accelerated the process.
The engine design officially began in June 2024 and was completed in just four months. The first engine was assembled in early 2025, ahead of the scheduled fire-up that marks a critical milestone for the project. This successful start-up is a key step as Genesis Magma Racing gears up for its debut in the FIA World Endurance Championship’s Hypercar class in 2026.