Audi has RS, BMW has M, and Mercedes has AMG. Heck, even Hyundai has N for its range of hotter performance models. Now, it’s Genesis’ turn to get an in-house tuning division. It’s called Magma, and the first model to get that treatment is the GV60 Magma, which just made its world premiere in France.
But towards the end of the GV60 Magma’s debut program, Genesis pulled out two more surprises. One of them was the Magma GT Concept, which aims to make a bold statement about Genesis’ new performance division.
Genesis Magma GT Concept
"More Than a Design Study"
Genesis called the Magma GT Concept "the brand’s clearest expression yet of its commitment to its future high-performance capabilities." On top of that, the company is also committed to turning the concept car into a production vehicle and even aims to enter it in GT racing categories down the line.
There are no full specs just yet, though. However, Genesis did say that it will have a mid-engined layout. Emphasis on the engine bit suggests that there will be internal combustion power, should this model reach production. It’s still too early to tell if there will also be hybrid assist for this low-slung sports car.
Genesis Magma GT Concept
Possible Expansion
Genesis has even bigger ambitions for the Magma GT. Speaking to The Drive, Hyundai Motor Group’s Chief Creative Officer Luc Donckerwolke made it clear that it won’t be a direct rival to the Porsche 911. Instead, it will adopt a model strategy similar to that of an evergreen sports car.
That means we could expect a variety of body styles and higher-performance trims for the Magma GT. "There could be a Magma GT base, Magma GT S, GT R, GT Roadster, GT Clubsport—30 cars would need to be made for the GT3 racing homologation," Donckerwolke told The Drive. The executive even admitted that he owns "more 911s than anyone should have."
Think of this then as more of an alternative to the Porsche Boxster and Cayman (likely with ICE options in the future) and, to some extent, the Chevrolet Corvette C8. There aren’t a lot of mid-engined sports cars out that with true daily-driver capabilities, so it will be interesting to see how Genesis approaches that niche.
Of course, the model expansion will depend on the success of the road-going Magma GT, and Genesis has to build it in the first place. The South Korean automaker hasn’t mentioned when that will come out, but it’s a safe bet that it could reach showrooms before the end of the decade.
While Oldsmobile, Saab, and even BMW have dabbled in water-injection systems for production cars over the years, Porsche has been quietly filing patents that indicate a strong interest in refining this technology at Stuttgart. For the uninitiated, water injection is a method of cooling the intake charge and combustion chamber by introducing a fine mist of water (or a water-methanol mix) into the intake tract. As the water vaporises and turns to steam, it absorbs heat from its surroundings, thus cooling intake and combustion temperatures. Cooler air is denser and nets more power, and a cooler combustion chamber is less prone to knocking — allowing for higher boost pressures and aggressive ignition timing without the risk of detonation.
Porsche
This technology has been around for a while, first seen in mid-20th-century high-boost piston aircraft engines, but its use in land vehicles has been limited and mostly confined to motorsports applications and the performance tuning world. Oldsmobile tried it out in their 1962 Jetfire, the world’s first turbocharged production car, Saab tried it in the late ‘70s and early ’80s, while the system was most recently seen on the short-lived 2015 BMW M4 GTS. While other manufacturers seem to have moved on, it looks like Porsche is intent on making the tech truly production-ready.
Porsche Still Focused on Internal Combustion
Now, at a time when most manufacturers are turning the attention of their R&D departments towards battery and charging technology, Porsche engineers are still working behind the scenes to drive innovation in the internal combustion space. Earlier this year, the German manufacturer filed a patent for a new water injection system, and now another patent has emerged, this one describing a method to diagnose and test the system.
Porsche
The Problem With Water Injection
Porsche’s latest patent focuses on a method to monitor pressure in the system and ensure that the appropriate amount of water is introduced into each cylinder at any given point. Being able to precisely meter the correct amount of water into each cylinder is extremely important; too little leads to higher engine temperatures, a tendency to knock, and reduced power, while too much water can damage engine or intake components due to the water hammer effect, or worse, result in excess liquid entering a cylinder, leading to hydrolock and catastrophic engine failure.
Porsche
All water-injection systems so far can only correctly meter flow when the engine is at high rpm and under heavy loads. This means that a reliable diagnosis can only be carried out under these conditions, with the car being driven and accelerating hard. Porsche, on the other hand, is working on simulating these conditions on a stationary vehicle to enable on-demand diagnostics of the water injection system and its components.
How Porsche’s System Works
The patent documents detail a rear-engined car with a hybrid powertrain equipped with all the necessary hardware for a water-injection cooling system. This includes a water tank with a pump unit leading to a pressurised rail and injectors meant to spray a fine mist of water into each combustion chamber. The patent drawings also feature a diagnostic device and an external workshop tester.
WIPO
The on-board diagnostic device uses the hybrid powertrain’s electric motors to momentarily increase engine speed and manage the load on the engine against the torque from the motors. This artificially simulates the conditions necessary to accurately diagnose issues or spot inconsistencies within the water-injection system, all with the car stationary in the workshop or service bay.
The patent also highlights that the increase in engine speed required to carry out this test can be achieved automatically by the diagnostic device, or manually by a technician depressing the accelerator pedal. The system can then accurately diagnose the water-injection system by shifting the load point as necessary, and spraying water through the injectors at the right time to mimic real-world driving conditions. The results of the diagnosis and errors, if any, are then stored and displayed in the external workshop tester.
Porsche
The Bottom Line
Despite the challenges of incorporating water-injection systems today, chief among them the need for a refillable water tank that still requires manual intervention and complicates emissions compliance, Porsche’s persistence shows the brand isn’t ready to let combustion fade quietly into history. Instead, Stuttgart is pushing the boundaries of what a modern ICE can do, using clever diagnostics and hybrid assistance to make technologies like water injection genuinely viable. In an era dominated by electrification, Porsche’s latest patents prove there’s still meaningful innovation left in the world of pistons and boost.
