Inspired by a neighbor

Down in my building's parking garage, sits this car. Hard to believe that Hyundai has come a long way....

....from when I owned the only one I had, so far. 

My real life Hyundai experience was a 1986 Stellar CXL, nearly identical to the one pictured just above. Styled by Giorgetto Giugiaro of Italdesign, my rear wheel drive sedan was powered by a Mitsubishi 1.6 L (4G32) inline four cylinder engine and Borg-Warner 03-55L 3-speed automatic transmission.

To me, it looked more expensive than it really was, almost on par with some European offerings of the era. However, the facade would give way to really bad rusting issues and expensive parts that made owning it for any real length of time, not really worth it. While it could get up to a decent speed, it sure took it's time getting there.

Still, it was a fun and fairly reliable car from my youth and I didn't have any major problems with it, but I heard all about the troubles the next owner had....

After the Stellar was discontinued, Hyundai wouldn't build another rear wheel drive vehicle for the North American market, until the release of the V6 and V8 Genesis sedan and coupe, almost 25 years later. In between that time, Hyundai greatly improved on their build quality and repaired their reputation from being a cheap, almost disposable car manufacturer to one that is taken notice by even some luxury marques.

Granted, my neighbor's car is a first generation Genesis Coupe (2008-2012), but I was still inspired to try out the second generation model (2013- present) in Forza 6 Apex. The first time racing results really impressed me.