Inside Access to the Neotech Facility

So through my endless browsing of Korean performance blogs, sites, forums, etc. I stumbled on the Neotech website; http://www.neotech-korea.com/. I was very impressed, as I normally am, to see unique Korean performance products.

[ads id=”4″ style=”float:left;padding:9px;”]I always check the address in hopes that I will find a new shop, club, garage, whatever the case, close to me. This never happens because I live in what is considered a “farm town”. Well that changed with Neotech.  The address read “982-13 Geumsan-Ri, Waegwan-Eup, Chilgok-Gun, Gyeongbuk, Korea”. I was shocked, and double checked it on my navigation app!  I figured there was a widget using my location – That was not the case.. Neotech Headquarters was a mere 4 miles from my villa.

So today for lunch, I grabbed my protein shake and hopped in my Kia Optima SX and manually navigated to the vicinity of the shop. This happens a lot here because very few American navigation apps work correctly in South Korea; many of the roads are not frequented by tourists/foreigners to be mapped correctly. So I pulled up the Korean navigation app “Naver” and guided my way to the pin on the map.  After a few lost turns, I found it!

Just like any other Korean shop I’ve been to, the initial introductions are extremely awkward due to my lack of fluency in Korean. I speak enough to introduce myself, ask one’s name, tell them mine, etc. The older gentleman greeted me with irritation and was able to speak a small amount of English. He asked me, “What is your business here?”  I replied, “I just want to check out the facility, I heard good things.”  

He turned out to be a customer, and introduced me to the President, Mr. Jong Go Lee.  Mr. Lee is also a Vice-Chairman of KATO, Korean Automotive Tuning Organization. I mentioned my car was tuned by Pross/Lap3 and he immediately understood and offered to take me to lunch (this is very common for seniority in Korea), I respectfully declined as I do not want overextend my welcome.  

So he escorted me to his car and ushered me to the driver’s door.. I was shocked, he said, “testuh drivey”. I couldn’t decline. His daily driver is a 2014 Hyundai Grandeur (Azera) 2.4 TDI.  I was very impressed with the maxed out interior and the beautiful SSR rims hovering over the very custom Genesis Coupe Frixxa rotors with 6-piston Brembo calipers.

He directed me through the “long track” and encouraged me to drive aggressively, taking turns, corners, and bumps.  I didn’t want to be overzealous; I’d hate to have to trade my car in to fix his!  The first thing I noticed was the braking.. very responsive, very short and to the point.  I started to get the feel of the coilovers towards the end of the ride, very aggressive, but extremely smooth feeling.  The difference was extremely apparent when I got back into my car.. It felt sloppy to say the least, and I’ve always love the handling on my Optima.

All in all, I was extremely impressed with the facility; I had no idea that much research and development went into just brakes and coilovers alone.  Neotech is classified as a Tier-1 supplier and works hand in hand with Australian tuning company Shockworks.  Through ever advancing technologies, Neotech has developed its premium brand “NSSUR”.  NSSUR was chosen because this is how Korean pronounce the word “answer” and Neotech is the NSSUR to high-end performance handling in Korea!