Hyundai teamed up with legendary Italian designer Giorgetto Giugiaro to recreate the unique Hyundai Pony Coupe Idea of 1974, an iconic present automotive designed by Giugiaro and which helped lay the groundwork for the arrival of the Pony sedan a 12 months later, South Korea’s first independently developed mass-produced automotive.
The idea was amongst 5 designs Giugiaro got here up with for Hyundai within the early 1970s as a part of a authorities problem to develop a South Korean automotive in time for launch by 1975 (beforehand Korean automakers had been constructing automobiles of international automakers).
Whereas a sedan physique model was chosen because the winner, a manufacturing model of the Pony Coupe Idea was on account of comply with however the mission got here to a cease in 1981 on account of an financial downturn. The automotive’s wedge-shape would dwell on in one other Giugiaro design, nevertheless: the DeLorean DMC 12 that debuted in 1983.
Regardless of its significance, the unique Pony Coupe Idea now not exists. Hyundai hasn’t mentioned what truly occurred to it, however the automaker has recreated it in preparation for subsequent 12 months’s 50th anniversary of the unique unveiling on the 1974 Turin auto present. The idea is powered by a 1.2-liter inline-Four rated at 82 hp. The engine options longitudinal mounting, with drive despatched to the rear wheels through a guide transmission.
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The recreation was unveiled on Thursday on the inaugural working of Hyundai Reunion, which occurred at Italy’s Lake Como. The occasion is described as a “heritage model platform” that serves as a technique to protect Hyundai’s spirit and values because the automaker transitions to a world of electrical mobility.
Additionally current was Giugiaro and his son Fabrizio. The 2 Giugiaros, who labored on the recreation, immediately run the design agency GFG Fashion, which they began after promoting their remaining shares of their earlier design agency, Italdesign Giugiaro, to Volkswagen Group in 2015.
The collaboration between Hyundai and GFG Fashion may lengthen past the recreation of the Pony Coupe Idea, in keeping with Luc Donckerwolke, Hyundai Motor Group’s chief inventive officer.
“Not solely does this mission maintain historic worth, but it surely additionally represents a cross-cultural alternate that might pave the way in which for extra collaborations down the street,” he mentioned when the mission was first introduced final fall.