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For Hyundai, Can SEMA Get Sweeter Than It Already Is?

Hyundai has teamed with the development team at Bisimoto to take your basic Santa Fe and make it into a vehicle with more surprises than you might imagine.
Posted: October 30, 2016 - 11:06PM
Author: Marc Stern
Hyundai Teamed With Bisimoto Development To Create A Monster -- They Surely Have

Bet you think that it must be a typo; how can anyone think the Hyundai Santa Fe crossover with its predictable – in an excellent way – 3.8-liter longitudinally mounted engine can crank out 1,040 horsepower and send it crashing toward the rear wheels? Honestly, it’s all in the company an automaker keeps. If you are Hyundai and want to do a super-powerful riff on the Santa Fe, you would turn to one of the premier tuning shops in the country, Bisimoto.

Bring Your Dragon Sword

Taking a standard Santa Fe and making it into a fire-breathing street monster is not a job for the faint-of-heart. Somehow the following description of Bisimoto just doesn’t seem right. If anything, they are far from faint-of-anything. Indeed, the concept they have created and which will debut at a news conference Tuesday in Las Vegas at the start of the Special Equipment Manufacturers Assn. (SEMA) show.

Called the Santa-Fast – it should be with the kind of power numbers tossed around among developers – Bisimoto has done it usual incredible magic act on the 3.8-liter Lambda V-6. The details are mind-boggling.

“Bisimoto takes pleasure in making any vehicle fun to drive, even a larger SUV,” Bisi Ezerioha, owner, said last week. “Our Santa-Fast SUV is a proof-of-concept vehicle with driving capabilities that our customers can count on every day they turn the key.” When the Bisimoto team completed its extensive tweaking – more like a radical reinvention and rebuild – they certainly did have a “proof-of-concept.”

It’s fitting that the monster they created is debuting near Halloween because anyone who comes upon, let along challenges, the Santa-Fast will find a fire-breathing dragon, waiting to eat the unwary. The Santa-Fast, which without the fancy paintwork looks just like a run-of-the-mill Santa Fe, is lightning on wheels. The six-speed manual required lots of work to handle the massive power output of the highly-tweaked V-6. Among other things, the developers had to work extensively with the rear-drive to ensure that Santa-Fast didn’t stand up and do the tango every time someone let out the clutch quickly and hit the accelerator a little too aggressively.

Lots To Like

There are many things to like about this the Santa-Fast. It is tough to concentrate on any single item as more important than the other. The Santa-Fast’s 39 psi turboboost is that time. It is a huge boost and has inspired a unique boost-per-gear protocol allowing for optimum traction.

With that said, here are some lists of the various changes that Bisimoto made to make the proof-of-concept very special. In case you were wondering, Bisimoto developers made 58 tweaks while they worked on the project. They include:

ENGINE

  • Bisimoto-built Hyundai 3.8L engine, in climate-controlled engine-building clean room
  • Bisimoto custom twin-turbo kit and intercooler
  • AEM Electronics
  • Infinity 708 ECU
  • Boost-control solenoid
  • Fuel pressure regulator and flex-fuel sender
  • Arias 9.0:1 custom forged pistons, Bisimoto specification
  • Bisimoto-Web level 2.4 camshafts
  • PurOl “Elite Series” Synthetic Motor Oil, 5w30
  • PurOl Manual Transmission Fluid
  • GuldstandPro mil-spec wiring harness
  • Driftmotion Aluminum tubing
  • ARP Head studs wheel studs and bolts
  • Bisimoto custom exhaust system with dual-pulse chambers
  • Five-O racing 2200cc Injectors
  • Supertech valvetrain
  • Kinsler fuel filters
  • Golden Eagle sleeves
  • NGK Iridium sparks plugs
  • Odyssey PC 950 battery
  • Brian Crower steel rods
  • Racepak IQ3 street dash
  • Twin Turbonetics TNX 30/56 Turbos
  • Dual RG45 wastegates
  • Godzilla blow-off valve
  • Spearco intercooler core
  • Vibrant Vanden clamps and stainless steel hardware
  • WPC engine treatment and coatings
  • Goodridge Motorsport braided lines and plumbing
  • Performance tube bending mandrel hardware
  • Griffen dual-core radiator
  • TurboHot exhaust coatings

DRIVETRAIN

  • Custom Rothfab rear sub-frame conversion
  • Hyundai Equus rear differential
  • 6-speed manual conversion, with Genesis R-Spec gearbox
  • Custom console-mounted shifter
  • Spec stage-5 clutch and aluminum flywheel
  • Custom Bisimoto axles and half shaft
  • KW coil-over suspension

RIDE/HANDLING

  • Fifteen52, 19-inch Tarmac R40 Wheels
  • Toyo Tires: R888 265/35R19
  • Buddy Club 4-piston brakes, with Bisimoto brackets

    • EXTERIOR

    • Denmatic design scheme
    • Gatorwraps auto wrap
    • Hyundai Genuine Accessories mud guards
    • Custom modified grill
    • INTERIOR
    • Momo Daytona EVO seats
    • Bisimoto reservoir socks
    • 4-point chromo rolls cage
    • Crow restraint harnesses

    DRIVETRAIN

    • Custom Rothfab rear sub-frame conversion
    • Hyundai Equus rear differential
    • 6-speed manual conversion, with Genesis R-Spec gearbox
    • Custom console-mounted shifter
    • Spec stage-5 clutch and aluminum flywheel
    • Custom Bisimoto axles and half shaft
    • KW coil-over suspension

    CHASSIS

    • Fifteen52, 19-inch Tarmac R40 Wheels
    • Toyo Tires: R888 265/35R19
    • Buddy Club 4-piston brakes, with Bisimoto brackets

    INTERIOR

    • Momo Daytona EVO seats
    • Bisimoto reservoir socks
    • 4-point chromo rolls cage
    • Crow restraint harnesses
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