New Genesis GMR-001 hypercar will challenge Ferrari and Porsche at Le Mans 2026

Rather than dipping its toe into motorsport, Genesis is leaping straight in at the deep end with the GMR-001 hypercar that’s being readied to compete in the World Endurance Championship (WEC) next year, which will include taking on the illustrious 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The GMR element of the name represents the newly formed Genesis Magma Racing team that will be running the car, while the 001 designation is another reminder this is the first time the brand has built a race car. 

Complying with LMDh (Le Mans Daytona h) regulations, the GMR-001 will use a chassis from French race car constructor Oreca, which already provides Alpine with its Le Mans hypercar. The rules of LMDh mean the cars must utilise a hybrid powertrain (the h in LMDh actually stands for ‘hybrid’). Maximum output is pegged at 697bhp, with 67bhp coming from electric power alone. There’s also a minimum kerbweight of 1,030kg. 

However the Hypercar category allows a variety of engines, and Genesis has opted for a twin-turbo V8, similar to what rivals BMW, Cadillac and Lamborghini are using in their cars. Others, such as Ferrari and Alpine, rely on a V6 motor, while Aston Martin is using a naturally aspirated V12.

The GMR-001’s design apes that of its rivals with a huge rear wing working in conjunction with a diffuser and a massive shark fin behind the cabin. Specific features to mark this out as a Genesis include the double horizontal LED strips that run around the car, something we’ve seen already on the X Gran Berlinetta and X Gran Racer Vision GT concepts. The vivid Magma Orange livery will ensure spectators can spot the GMR-001 during wheel-to-wheel racing on the track, too. 

Genesis has enlisted the services of drivers Andre Lotterer – three-time winner at Le Mans and the reigning WEC champion – and Pipo Derani, who has won the 12 Hours of Sebring four times and is a two-time winner of the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship (IMSA), which the GMR-001 will also contest in 2027.

Why is Genesis getting into motorsport?

Given Genesis is a relatively new brand, having only been established a decade ago, and is still working to secure a foothold in the premium car segment, we were curious to know why it has opted to go racing, and what it hopes to achieve by doing so.

Genesis’ chief creative officer Luc Donckerwolke spoke to Auto Express ahead of the New York Auto Show, where the GMR-001 made its public debut, and he explained: “Obviously we are going to get more brand awareness. As you know, we are a very young brand; we just started selling in Europe as well, and we are on our first generation of cars, so we have at the moment a limited brand awareness. That is the first point of racing.

“The second point is that racing is not part of the culture in Korea. What I want with this is that we are going to transport the emotion of racing into Korea, into the brand as well. At the moment we have had normal vehicles, but soon we are bringing in our performance line-up, Magma, with the first cars going to come in the next few months. So there’s that scaling up, with Magma racing on top of that.”

Donckerwolke added that Genesis’ racing efforts, plus its numerous concept models such as the X Gran Equator, which was also shown in New York, help to introduce more emotion into every area of the brand.

In terms of why Genesis is entering endurance racing in particular, one reason cited by the design boss was that it is where motorsport began, signifying the era of the “gentleman racer”.

“Bentley had the Bentley boys, and they created the legend of Bentley. The Genesis boys are starting now, and it's a completely new adventure, but it is certainly this idea of the gentleman racer that is really close to our identity.”

This idea of the gentlemen racer is also going to feed into the high-performance Magma road cars, Donckerwolke told us. The first will be the Genesis GV60 Magma that’s set to launch towards the end of this year.

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