Ultimately, though, the differences are in the details. The Genesis gets top marks in crash tests, but the lighter-gauge steel doors don't shut with the same thunky authority as those in more expensive cars. The windshield also lost an altercation with a small stone kicked up by a truck on Highway 101 outside Salinas. By the next night, the bite in the thin glass had turned into a four-inch crack. And though the Genesis stayed planted and silent on good roads, the ride over rough pavement was what Hyundai calls "sporty," but my mom would call "carsick." Still, the fact that the Genesis is in the same conversation as a Lexus -- in something other than the punch line to a joke -- is a remarkable testament to Hyundai's upmarket determination.
I witnessed the other end of that automotive evolutionary line at the annual Concours d'Elegance in August -- more than 200 exquisitely restored classic cars, arranged along Pebble Beach's 18th fairway to be scrutinized like ultra-expensive livestock at the no-credit-limit county fair. Former Microsoft COO Jon Shirley's low-slung, touch-it-with-gloves 1938 Alfa Romeo 8C hardtop won Best of Show, but Jay Leno's 1953 Chrysler "Tank Car" had the most eyeball. He basically attached running gear, a steering wheel and a seat to a five-ton, 1,600-horsepower World War II tank engine. And he drives the six-miles-per-gallon monster to work.
With Pebble Beach's links out of commission for the Concours, it was time to drift back toward Los Angeles and a round at blissfully masochistic La Purisima, off the Pacific Coast Highway between San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara.
Locally, "La Piranha" is known as the place where visiting vanity handicaps go to die. They didn't even play the Q-school finals from all 7,105 yards, what with morning winds of 30 miles per hour and synapse-shorting green contours. Pitch up and make a double-breaker for par and it feels like you've escaped punishment, but your time is going to come.
Looking on the bright side: Having my soul crushed by an unreachable par 4 made it easier to accept the cartoonishly bad traffic on the way back to LAX.
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