[Sportschosun Lee Ji-hyun] Actress Sunwoo Yong-nyeo showed off her deep love of cars and a driving career spanning nearly 60 years.
On the 20th, Sunwoo Yong-nyeo's YouTube channel released a video titled "82-Year-Old Sunwoo Yong-nyeo Falls in Love with a 200 Million Won Foreign Car While Checking Out a New Ride," showing her taking part in a driving experience.
During the visit, Sunwoo Yong-nyeo naturally talked about her long driving history while looking over the car. Recalling her days as a domestic car model, she said, "I was the first female model for a Korean-made car." She added that she had driven the car herself at the time, saying, "I drove it for three to four years until I got married," and even remembered the license plate number of her first car.
She also shared a funny incident from her younger days while driving. While wearing a hanbok and having her hair styled for a historical drama shoot, a man who was staring at her on the road crashed into the car in front of him.
Sunwoo Yong-nyeo recalled, "The man was looking at me and hit the car in front." She said she was in a hurry because of her filming schedule, so she asked the driver of the damaged car, "He hit the car because he was looking at me. Please forgive him." Fortunately, the other party accepted, and she was able to leave the scene. "That worked back then," she said with a laugh.
While living in the United States, she drove a Cadillac, and after returning to Korea, she said she switched between several BMWs. She also had the absurd experience of having a car stolen. One morning, she found the car missing, bought a new one, and later caught the thief and recovered the stolen vehicle. Since she had already purchased a replacement, she explained that she sold the recovered car again.
Even when driving expensive imported cars, she said she does not worry much about scratches. Sunwoo Yong-nyeo said, "Scratched? Just fix it. As long as I don't get hurt, that's what matters," adding, "When a car gets hit, I think, 'This is protecting me from getting seriously hurt. Thank you.'" She shared her own philosophy about cars.
When she later took the wheel for the full driving experience, she was asked about her driving career and answered, "It's been 60 years," drawing surprise. The test vehicle was a high-performance car with more than 700 horsepower.
But Sunwoo Yong-nyeo was hardly intimidated. As the speed increased, she said, "It doesn't seem that fast," and even when told the car had reached 200 km/h, she kept repeating, "It's fine, it's fine." The instructor who accompanied her was also impressed, saying, "She's someone who enjoys this."
What finally made Sunwoo Yong-nyeo tense up, even at 200 km/h, was something else entirely: drifting.
As the car slid and spun, Sunwoo Yong-nyeo immediately repeated, "That's enough. Thank you. That's enough." She then recalled a past memory of slipping on an icy road while driving a BMW after a shoot, saying, "This is how I felt when I had that accident in the snow."
At one point, she shouted, "Stop it." She added, "I have a lot of driving experience, but most mothers would faint," and laughed as she admitted, "I almost got really dizzy."
Meanwhile, Sunwoo Yong-nyeo was born in 1945 and is 80 years old this year. She debuted in 1965 as a dancer in the first class of Tongyang Broadcasting Company (TBC) before turning to acting, and has remained active across dramas, films, and variety shows.
olzllovely@sportschosun.com
This article has been translated by GripLabs Mingo AI.
