Hyundai and Giugiaro to re-make 1974 Pony Coupe Idea

Hyundai is rebuilding the 1974 Pony Coupe Idea made for the corporate’s debut at that 12 months’s Turin Motor Present, and is working with its legendary designer Giorgetto Giugiaro to take action.

The rebuilt idea can be proven within the northern hemisphere springtime, Hyundai stated, which implies someplace between March and Could.

Hyundai Motor introduced the plan throughout a design discuss in Seoul that includes Giorgetto and Fabrizio Giugiaro (his son) together with Hyundai Motor chief artistic officer Luc Donckerwolke and head of Hyundai’s International Design Centre SangYup Lee.

It’s stated that in 1974, Hyundai Motor executives contacted Giorgetto Giugiaro to suggest work designing its first unbiased mannequin and “Korea’s first mass-produced automotive”.

The nascent firm commissioned Giugiaro to design, make blueprints, and construct 5 prototypes – certainly one of which was a coupe.

With its wedge-style nostril, round headlamps and geometric strains, the Pony Coupe was supposed for North American and European markets. Alas the undertaking got here to a cease in 1981 simply earlier than mass manufacturing amid an opposed financial setting.

Whereas the idea was an unfinished dream on the time, the corporate nonetheless contends its “daring spirit helped kickstart the Korean automotive business by straight influencing Hyundai’s first unbiased manufacturing fashions underneath its Pony nameplate, which ran from 1975 to 1990 and had been offered world wide”.

The idea design apparently additionally served as a supply of inspiration for Giugiaro’s work on the DeLorean DMC 12 that debuted in 1983. Sure, that DeLorean.

The Pony Coupe Idea stays a key a part of Hyundai’s legacy, the corporate insists, citing its inspiration on the design of the Ioniq 5 and the N Imaginative and prescient 74 hydrogen-hybrid ‘rolling lab’ improvement car.

“Not solely does this undertaking maintain historic worth, however it additionally represents a cross-cultural alternate that might pave the best way for extra collaborations down the street,” stated Mr Donckerwolke.

SangYup Lee added: “Because the authentic idea automotive not exists, we’ve commissioned Giorgetto Giugiaro to rebuild it primarily based on our design philosophy, ‘Shaping the long run with legacy.’”

Of his authentic design, Mr Giugiaro stated, “I designed the Hyundai Pony after I was nonetheless a younger designer in the beginning of my profession. I felt very proud that I used to be in command of making a car for an organization and nation that was about to tackle a fiercely aggressive international market.

“Now, I’m deeply honored that Hyundai has requested me to rebuild it for posterity and as a celebration of the model’s heritage.”

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