Hyundai Tiburon N looking ready to roll

Before hot hatches there was the compact two-door coupe, a once thriving segment from the late 90s to early 2000s that saw the likes of Toyota Celica, Honda Prelude, Nissan Silvia and Hyundai Tiburon playing it out.

Today the Toyota 86 and Subaru BRZ twins are just about the only cars in that space, although Mazda has the MX-5 convertible and Honda has revived the Prelude with a new generation model in the North American market. Is Hyundai toying about the return of the Tiburon as well?

Not officially but at least the internet thinks so. With Hyundai’s current arsenal of high performance N models, namely the i20 N, i30 N, Kona N, Veloster N and Ioniq 5 N, perhaps it’s a natural progression to bring out an N coupe next.

And that N coupe could well be the next generation Tiburon N. As to how it’s going to look like, AI Car Design has got some clue for us. This realistically rendered Tiburon N fits right in with Hyundai’s current crop of products, with bold, edgy design that has become a familiar sight on many of the brand’s models. The hunkered down stance is accentuated with large wheels that filled up the arches and red accents that wrap around the base of the car. The creative minds at AI Car Design has even rendered the interior and it looks pretty damn good.

It’s a pretty aggressive looking thing and with that it needs the substance to match as well. The 2.0-litre turbo four-cylinder engine that is found under the bonnet of the i30 N will drop perfectly into the Tiburon N. In the i30 N it develops 206kW and 392Nm, paired wit either a 6-speed manual or 8-speed dual clutch automatic transmission. The Tiburon N can make do with exactly the same setup, although more power wouldn’t go astray.

It’d be really nice to see the compact sports coupe segment returning to its heyday and a Tiburon N is definitely one of those cars we’d like to see becoming a reality.

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