Running Man

This magazine’s point man was given a “variety show” run-through of Hyundai’s activities and facilities on its home ground.

- David Ting

APPARENTLY I was a member of “2016 global top media”, so said the name tag issued by the earnest Korean hosts.

Frankly, I would be more comfortable describing Hyundai Motor as a 2016 global top manufacturer of cars.

Hard facts justify the description. Almost five million Hyundai motorcars were sold last year (of which nearly a million units were accounted for by the Elantra/Avante alone); the stylised “H” has a brand value of over US$11 billion in 2015 (according to Interbrand), parking it between Ford and Canon; and Hyundai’s vehicles and technologies have won numerous awards around the world.

Hard numbers justify the description, too. The Ulsan Plant is said to be the largest single complex of its kind; the company’s total staffstrength is 110,000, of which 11,000 are researchers working in Namyang Technology Research Centre; and the automaker’s California proving ground has a total area of about 3.5 Sentosas.

The island resort analogy ends there, because this media jaunt wasn’t a summer junket with sun, sand, sea and kimchi.

The two-day excursion was so fast-paced at some points, it felt like the “package tour” equivalent of the i20 World Rally Car’s racing sequential transmission.

There was so much to do, “Seoul” many Korean things to see and too much to digest, like trying to finish a big stone bowl of bibimbap.

On the first day, the whirlwind trip became really windy when I entered the wind tunnel of Namyang R&D Centre and the engineers turned the fan on.

The so-called Aerodynamic Test Building can generate a maximum wind speed of 200km/h, but something in the wind was more interesting when I was there – a Honda HR-V, bearing Korean registration plates and possibly used for comparison testing.