Fun Even Without a Driver's License... 'HMG Driving Experience'

Application of Various Courses Including Dry and Wet Road Surfaces
Impressive Largest Off-Road Course in Korea
Various Training Prepared According to Driving Skills and Preferences

[Taean=Asia Economy Reporter Kiho Sung] Hyundai Motor Group's 'HMG Driving Experience,' the largest of its kind in Asia, officially opened to the general public on the 16th. The HMG Driving Experience is designed to allow visitors to fully enjoy the performance of Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis vehicles through various courses that have been difficult to experience domestically. This reflects the determination of Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Euisun Chung to deliver an 'innovative experience.' In particular, there are courses prepared for those without a driver's license or even children, allowing couples, friends, and entire families to enjoy what can be seen as a 'complex automobile theme park.'

On the 15th, a day before the opening, the HMG Driving Experience, visited directly to try out the related driving programs, overwhelmed visitors with its scale. The center, built within the 1.26 million square meters (about 380,000 pyeong) Korea Technoring test track, boasts Asia's largest scale with a two-story customer-exclusive building of 10,223 square meters (about 3,092 pyeong) added to the test track.

The programs available for experience that day included ▲dry surface circuit ▲wet surface circuit and braking course ▲multipurpose driving course ▲off-road course ▲high-speed oval track. The duration was about three hours, and the vehicle types changed with each course.

Among these, the dry surface circuit was a course where participants could check the vehicle's performance and driving skills by driving counterclockwise along a winding road. It is a 'circuit' similar in nature to Inje Speedium, with a total length of 3.4 km. The course was generally somewhat challenging. While typical circuits are composed of an in-out-in layout, this one attracted attention with various configurations such as in-in-out. In particular, unlike Inje Speedium, where elevation changes make it difficult to predict the road conditions ahead, this course felt more challenging because the guardrails made it hard to anticipate the road conditions in advance.

The off-road course can be considered the center's greatest pride. Not only is it the largest in Korea, but it also features various terrains such as sandy paths, water channels, hill slopes, log obstacles, gravel, and sand. Especially, the slope section is designed with an incline of up to 35 degrees, far exceeding the 23 to 25 degrees typical of advanced ski slopes. Here, visitors can experience the powerful off-road capabilities of Hyundai Motor Group's various sport utility vehicles (SUVs). An accompanying instructor remarked, "I never thought the performance of domestic vehicles had reached this level."

The high-speed oval track course is tilted about 40 degrees sideways and forms an oval shape surrounding the entire center. Although I have driven at speeds exceeding 200 km/h on other high-speed oval tracks, here I was able to experience a speed of 240 km/h through an instructor's demonstration. For safety, the high-speed oval track course requires step-by-step training.

Visitors to the HMG Driving Experience Center can freely choose from detailed courses such as ▲driving skill training ▲limit driving experience with professional drivers ▲experiencing various road surfaces and obstacles. Especially, the experience programs accompanied by professional instructors allow anyone from elementary school students to visitors without a driver's license to enjoy the diverse performance and fun of different vehicles.

Hyundai Motor Group plans to lead and expand the domestic car culture by actively conveying the excellent product qualities of Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis models through systematic driving programs. Through this, it aims to become Korea's representative driving experience center capable of accommodating about 15,000 participants annually.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.