Hyundai Genesis Coupe Concept

The Koreans rustle themselves up a rear-drive pony car.

Hyundai's nothing if not ambitious. What else but ambition could turn a company known only for shoddily made cars like the mid-'80s Excel to a major purveyor of well-built mainstream and near-luxury vehicles in just 20 years?

The company's rapid rise to respectability has been pretty shocking, but nothing Hyundai has done along the way—building vehicles with better appointments, better reliability, better value—has been particularly brash. Until now.

We say that because the stylish concept you see here has the Ford Mustang in its sights. The exterior was designed in California, the interior is from Korea. And this thinly disguised concept presages the production version that will be shown next spring at the New York auto show. A final name has yet to be settled on, but it likely won't be Tiburon since the Hyundai Veloster concept is the precursor to the next-gen Tiburon.

Where's the Pony Power?

A top-spec production Genesis coupe should more or less match the Mustang GT's 300-horse output, although the rear-wheel-drive Korean coupe will make that power from a 3.8-liter DOHC V-6 versus the Ford's SOHC V-8. A 200-plus-hp turbo inline-four is the base engine (the same world engine in the Dodge Caliber and other Chrysler vehicles), and either can be mated to a six-speed manual transmission or a five-speed auto with the inline-four and a six-speed automatic with the V-6.

You might still find yourself wondering where the V-8 option is. Even going beyond the idea that pony cars traditionally offer an eight-hole powerplant, we have an expectation of a V-8, given that a full-size rear-drive luxury sedan based on the Genesis sedan concept will go into production in the second half of 2008, with Hyundai's first all-new V-8 under the hood.

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