1997 Hyundai Coupe Cabriolet - AllCarIndex

COUPE CONVERTIBLE UNVEILED AT DETROIT MOTOR SHOW

A stunning coupe convertible styling concept was unveiled at the Detroit Motor Show by Hyundai Motor America.

The convertible coupe follows the successful introduction of the popular 2+2 coupe and retains the same bold, swooping lines of the coupe currently hitting the headlines in the UK.

The creative team behind this concept model was made up of designers from Hyundai Motor America Product Planning, Hyundai California Design Studio and Hyundai America Technical Inc.  The team were challenged to create and design a vehicle to capture the pleasure and excitement of open-top motoring for the enthusiast.

Image Enhancing

“The coupe was produced to return some of the fun to the sporty coupe market segment.  While we have no immediate plans to produce this convertible version, we believe it accomplished our goal of creating another image enhancing concept vehicle,” explained Jim Hassock, Hyundai’s vice president of product planning.

Apart from the fully automated soft-top mechanism, the coupe convertible is mechanically identical to its hard top stablemate.  This high performance variant loses no interior space thanks to an outward folding hood design allowing efficient packaging.  The low weight, cost-effective design maintains torsional rigidity by incorporating structural components located in the hood’s stowage area, rear suspension units and rear wings on an existing, rigid, coupe platform.

Innovative, interior features include white coloured gauges, a unique and curvaceously styled CD/radio cassette system with 10 peakers with a central console trimmed with carbon fibre material.  Combined with stylish, 2-tone, low-set leather seats, these assist in enhancing the sporty cockpit image of this concept Hyundai.

SOURCE: Hyundai. Please mention www.allcarindex.com if you use this text.