Future Models - Hyundai 2008 Tiburon
Exclusive: Hyundai goes rear-drive
Serious: HCD-8 concept car is expected to morph into the new rear-drive Tiburon, due here in 2008.
World scoop: Hyundai confirms its next-gen Tiburon coupe will be rear-wheel drive
29 April 2005
By BYRON MATHIOUDAKIS
"FUTURE Driven" Hyundai will abandoning front-wheel drive for its next
Tiburon.
Due to be unveiled towards the end of 2007 before a local debut the
following year, the rear-wheel drive coupe will be a "serious sports car",
according to a senior Hyundai Motor Company executive.
Although details are scant, it is believed the Tiburon replacement will
be a three-door coupe featuring many of the styling cues as well as the
general proportions displayed on the HCD-8 Concept Car, which made its global debut at the 2004 Detroit motor show and has since appeared in Melbourne.
The HCD-8, as it stands, is powered by a supercharged version of a current
2.7-litre DOHC V6 with a six-speed manual gearbox.
However, variations of Hyundai's new-generation 3.3 and 3.8-litre V6 engines
are expected to debut in the 2+2 seater sports car, with the latter one
likely to be the range-topper.
"Yes, we are developing rear-wheel drive for the next sports car," was the
surprising response from Hyun Soon Lee, Executive Senior Vice President for
Hyundai Motor Corporation.
This remark came after a suggestion from the gathered press at the opening
of the 2005 Seoul motor show in South Korea that the company seek the
passionate sports car route to increase its global youth appeal, rather than
simply focus on quality.
Mr Lee's remark even caught out other Hyundai executives.
It is a surprising development for a model that started out as the very
unsporty two-door derivation of the front-wheel drive Hyundai X2 Excel of
1990 called the S-Coupe.
That car's predecessor jumped up to the 1995 J2 Lantra platform to become
the SX, FX and SFX Coupe until the current, sharper - but still front-wheel
drive - Tiburon came into the fray in 2002.
A rear-wheel drive sports car is in line with Hyundai's desire to push its
vehicles further upmarket.
Such a model willl probably share many components with a rear-wheel drive
sedan in much the same way that Nissan's 350Z has spawned a range of
mostly-US market Infinity products such as the G35.
There has been speculation for some time that Hyundai was considering
releasing a luxury line of vehicles above the current, Sonata-derived
Grandeur - which has just had a complete makeover and is the star of
Hyundai's stand at Seoul.
Adding further credence to Hyundai's sports image push is its re-entry into
the World Rally Championship from 2008.
The company says it will field an all-wheel drive "sports car" very loosely
derived from the yet-to-be released Accent replacement, the front-wheel
drive MC4 small car.
Australian new car buyers have never experienced a rear-wheel drive Hyundai
in the marque's 19-year local history.
Yet before that first 1986 X1 Excel, its entire range consisted of
rear-wheel drive small and medium sized models, mostly derived from outmoded
Fords like the Cortina-based Stellar.
Hyundai's Seoul motor show catch-cry this year is "Endless Surprise, In Our
Motor-Life". A rear-wheel drive Tiburon replacement is nothing if not that
from South Korea's number one car-maker.