Wall Street Journal recently profiled the increasing influence of Korean designers in the US auto industry. Koreans have had a hand in the design of the Cadillac Provoq, the Chevy Volt, the Lincoln MKT and the Nissan Forum. However, the biggest hype is reserved for the 2010 Chevy Camaro. This concept car was designed by Korean-born, Sangyup Lee. The 2010 Chevy Camaro will feature tremendous horsepower and a possible 6.0 liter V8 engine. It’ll also have an optional backseat panty bin for all the girls you’ll get driving this badass car.

The article points out several interesting factors in the rise of Koreans within the industry. It started with GM’s stake in Daewoo in early 2001. Bumsuk Lim, “a Korean-born design professor at the Art Center college of Design in Pasadena, Calif”, also “attributes Korean designers’ rise to the country’s increasing societal emphasis on external beauty.”

Mr. Lim points out that petite nip-and-tuck cosmetic surgeries like quick nose or eye jobs have become so popular in Korea that parents give them to sons and daughters as high school or college graduation gifts.

“We’re not unlike Brazil and other Latin America countries,” which are also a hotbed of petite plastic surgeries, Mr. Lim says. “Call us vain, but we like to look good and be cool and trendy.”

Hmm…so ugly people do not make good designers. Makes sense. Is that why most chefs are portly? Anyway, the article continues:

In many ways, the character of people in Korea also gives its car designers the “ideal temperament” for the profession, says Shiro Nakamura, Nissan’s global design chief. “They’re emotional and hot-tempered, and their dispositions make their design that much stronger and expressive; they’re like the Italians of Asia,” the Nissan design chief says, referring to another country which has shown excellence in car design.

I’d like to add another reason for the increase in Korean designers. Kimchi. It’s gotta be the kimchi.