NAMYANG, South Korea - I am at Hyundai Motor's research and development center and the PR people have arranged a special treat for me and the crew: a real live car crash test – not something you get to see everyday. In fact, we weren't allowed to bring in our camera. We are standing in a whitewalled control room where a group of Hyundai workers sit behind an elaborate panel of flat screen monitors, lights, and buttons with mysterious functions.

Meet the family: Hyundai's crash test dummies await their next outing.

The panel is protected by glass and looks out onto what appears to be an airplane hangar. At the far end of the room sits a forlorn Hyundai sedan. The car is under bright lights and surrounded by workers who leer at the vehicle. Occasionally one of them scribbles notes onto a clipboard.

We are told this car is the unfortunate volunteer for a side crash test. Our tour guide, senior engineer Paek Chang In, tells us the team is checking that the vehicle meets one of Europe's safety regulations.

Suddenly, the staff disappear and what appears to be a super-sized dolly comes barreling down a track, smashing the side of the sedan.

Paek quickly rushes us downstairs to pore over the remains.

A crash test dummy is seated in front of the steering wheel, head askew, one arm perched awkwardly as if broken. Splashes of red paint stain the dummy's clothing. I feel queasy.

Paek walks us to another room which reminds me of the lab of an evil mastermind.

More than 100 crash test dummies are here - their bodies contorted, their skin a pinkish brown hue. Spare body parts neatly line a wall of grey shelves. Entire families of men, women, children, even babies are dressed in tattered clothes and seated with their arms twisted in eerily familiar positions. One dummy dangles from a rope attached to the ceiling.

Paek tells me the most expensive one is worth $1 million. He pulls back the dummy's jumpsuit to reveal a "real rib cage." The "rib cage" protects a mess of wiring that apparently helps give Hyundai a more accurate reading of how the human body is impacted in an accident.

In the back, rows and rows of dummies sit in chairs holding their arms motionless outstretched over their heads, a punishment sometimes used at strict Korean schools.

As if these crash test dummies aren't being punished enough, I think to myself. Most have endured years of relentless torture as part of Hyundai's drive to improve quality standards and transform the South Korean carmaker from an industry laughingstock to a leader in the global auto industry.