I’ll let you in on a little secret: Most of the concept cars you see on auto show floors don’t actually run or drive. They’re typically just exterior shells with no powertrain, no suspension, and largely, no chance of reaching production.
There are outliers, of course; some automakers go so far as to fit their concepts with tiny engines or batteries so that they can at least move under their own power. But building a concept from the ground up with a fully functional powertrain and a working suspension takes time and money.
Genesis knows this all too well. The company has been on a streak lately, debuting nearly a dozen concept cars in the last 12 months alone. Most of them were design shells, but at least two of those concepts had actual working powertrains.
The Magma GT envisioned a mid-engined sports car, while the X Skorpio imagined a sporty off-roader. Genesis hinted at a powerful combustion engine for the Magma GT and a V8 for the X Skorpio. During their launches, both cars were filmed moving under their own power.
But here’s the thing: those two concept cars may not be exactly what they seem.
Photo by: Genesis
A source close to the matter tells us that Genesis may have simply added its own designs to already existing chassis. The Magma GT is allegedly a C8 Corvette in Genesis clothing, while the X Skorpio is either a rebodied trophy truck or a reworked Local Motors Rally Fighter.
We were admittedly skeptical at first—why would a large auto brand like Genesis simply rebody a C8 and try to pass it off as its own thing? But once we started digging, there was plenty of evidence to back up those claims.
The Magma GT is allegedly a C8 Corvette in Genesis clothing, while the X Skorpio is either a rebodied trophy truck or a reworked Local Motors Rally Fighter.
Other than the basic mid-engine shape, the Magma GT doesn’t immediately scream C8 Corvette. But look closer. The first major giveaway is the tires; on every production Corvette, you’ll see the phrase “TPC Spec.” What does that mean?
TPC stands for Tire Performance Criteria. These tires were developed by General Motors, together with Michelin, to meet the C8 Corvette’s specific performance needs. You’ll see them on every C8, from the base model to the latest ZR1 and ZR1X.
Look closely, and you’ll notice those very same TPC tires on the Genesis Magma GT, too. Granted, Genesis could have plucked them off the shelf and put them on its own concept—anyone can—but it would be an odd coincidence. The size of the Michelin Pilot Super Sport Cup 2R tires also matches up with the Z06 and Z06 with the Z07 package: 275/30ZR20 up front and 345/25ZR21 in the rear.
But what’s most indicative is that the two cars appear to share many key structural components that would be almost impossible to replicate from one vehicle to the next.
The two front radiators have similar mounting points, while both cars use similar end shape tanks. The rear brakes have a similar mounting location as well:
Even the rear subframe is virtually identical, with common mounting solutions seemingly shared between the two cars:
Of course, the one thing we can’t see well is the interior. Genesis offered brief glimpses of the cabin during the car’s launch, but the only thing immediately visible was a pair of off-the-shelf Recaro bucket seats—not uncommon.
But when we zoomed in and brightened an official Magma GT photo, we were able to just barely make out what appeared to be one of the C8’s signature interior cues: the central tunnel.
While the detail is far less obvious in the Magma than it is in the C8 (and, frankly, really hard to see), there are some similarities:
And then there’s the big elephant in the room: Genesis doesn’t make a high-performance engine, even though the company claims that the production version would have a twin-turbo V8. Genesis didn’t provide any specifics for the Magma’s powertrain, like displacement or output, or even hint that this might be an all-new engine from the company that debuts soon.
Listen closely to this clip and tell us where you think the engine came from (we have our own ideas):
Can these all be happy coincidences? Maybe. Unlikely, but maybe.
Another interesting tidbit our source tells us is that Genesis had another vehicle in mind initially as the base of the Magma GT: the Ferrari 296 GTB. But the Ferrari was simply too pricey, so the company went with the more affordable C8 instead.
In contrast to the Magma GT, the X Skorpio hides its alleged donor car less successfully. Our same source tells us that the company used an off-the-shelf trophy truck as its base, which seems entirely plausible. But our investigation may have revealed something even more interesting: this could actually be a Local Motors Rally Fighter.
The Rally Fighter, in case you didn’t know, was an off-road vehicle produced by the now-defunct company Local Motors between 2010 and 2016. Only about 50 ever made it to production, which begs the question: How the hell would Genesis have (allegedly) gotten its hands on one of these things?
Genesis X Skorpio Concept
Photo by: Genesis
We reached out to a former Local Motors employee, who wished to remain anonymous, to see if any of this could actually be true. While our contact was initially skeptical that Genesis would purchase an extremely niche off-roader and slap its own design on top of it—as were we—many of the similarities are too hard to ignore.
On the surface, the X Skorpio’s design really looks like a Rally Fighter with a Genesis facelift; it does very little to disguise the original’s high-riding nature and sleek bodywork, other than Genesis’s two-line design language scattered throughout the exterior.
The interior is pretty telling, too. The Skorpio has a similar tubular frame to the Rally Fighter’s, with the central transmission tunnel area bearing a similar upward sloping shape. It appears that Genesis designers didn’t even bother removing the aftermarket Momo steering wheel that Local Motors also used; it’s just slathered in Alcantara and fitted with a little screen.
But much like the Magma, the details on the engineering side are potentially the most telling.
Our source overlaid CAD data from the original Rally Fighter onto the X Skorpio, showing that the two cars have a nearly identical 115.0-inch wheelbase. That’s not uncommon for these types of off-road racing vehicles, given the nature of their basic designs, but it is interesting.
On top of that, the two cars have very similar rear control arms and nearly indistinguishable exhaust manifold configurations (all of which you can see below).
Genesis also claims that the Skorpio uses a V8 making 1,100 horsepower (again, Genesis doesn’t make a V8). The Rally Fighter used a 6.2-liter LS3 V8 from GM, although it wasn’t that powerful out of the box.
To Genesis’s credit, the Rally Fighter was always an open-source design, meaning its CAD data was available to the public from the beginning. And you can still find it if you know where to look.
That said, the number of odd commonalities between the two cars makes it appear more likely that Genesis went out and bought an existing Rally Fighter rather than building their own version from scratch.
Our Local Motors source does make it clear: “It is not a smoking gun, but that’s a lot of hints pointing in the same direction.”
Genesis X Skorpio Intake Manifold (Left) Vs Local Motors Rally Fighter Intake Manifold (Right)
Photo by: Motor1
We reached out to Chevrolet to see if the company knew anything about the development of the Magma GT, and a spokesperson confirmed to Motor1: “It’s not anything we worked on…”
When asked whether the Magma GT was based on another vehicle’s platform, a Genesis spokesperson in the US told us: “We do not have details to share regarding platform and powertrain at this time.”
We also reached out to Genesis PR in the Middle East about the X Skorpio specifically, but we’re still waiting to hear back.
It should be said that, if these details are true, nothing Genesis did here is illegal; the company didn’t steal any engineering secrets for itself. Another interesting, though less probable, piece of the puzzle is that maybe—just maybe—a recent strategic partnership between the two companies gave Genesis access to GM’s arsenal of engines and platforms (although Chevy’s statement would lead us to believe that that’s not the case).
It could all just be a funny coincidence, or even a cost-conscious way for Genesis to churn out concepts quickly. Maybe it reflects partnerships that have yet to be announced. Who knows. Whatever the case, these two concept cars ultimately leave us with more questions than answers.
Anthony Alaniz and Chris Rosales also contributed to this report
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