Past & Present: Jake Reining’s Hyundai Genesis

Back in 2010 I spent a lot of time browsing forums reaching out to people in the southeast looking for new content.  This search lead me to Texas were I met Jake Reining and his Hyundai Genesis. 

Jake’s Genesis started off as pictured above, bone stock brand new when purchased in October 2009.  When the car was first released, it was a big surprise to everyone.  Out of all the Asian manufacturers Hyundai pulled the trigger and brought back the rear wheel drive sport compact.  

In our first feature of Jakes car he called on his good friend Peter Terry to take photos of the car at the stage picture above(Jake Reining Hyundai Genesis – 2010).  Jake’s Genesis was one of the first Genesis’ to be modified at this level at the time.  The car ended up at SEMA that year.  And Jake was kind enough to have one of our stickers on his car for his first SEMA appearance.  Nowadays that may not seem like nothing at all to some, but it was a huge deal to me personally.  

After the great fall of majority of our favorite forums, I lost contact with Jake.  During this time the car had a few changes and eventually Jake decided to part out the Genesis and sell it as a stock vehicle.  That did not go as planned, and Jake decided to rebuild the Genesis again.   

In 2012 I started to see a Genesis all over my Facebook news feed from SEMA (SEMA PHOTOS HERE).  We ended up sharing one of the photos, and shortly after I see the name Jake Reining and my mind is blown away to see the progress of the car since it was last posted here. 

Since SEMA 2012 we have been trying to work out a way to get one of us to finally get a photo session with the car.  But we could never coordinate the times and locations to make it happen.  As always we love to keep up with all our features, and post them as the build progresses. So Jake was kind of enough to take photos of his car for us.

Jake’s Genesis has graced many websites and magazines since we first posted it.  But I wanted to at least give it a proper farewell.  Jake has accomplished a lot of firsts and only with the car.  He was the first Genesis on air in the US, and the first Genesis in the world to have the Airrex air suspension kit.  And first and only Genesis to be on a cover of a major magazine to this day. 

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