Hyundai on the N Vision 74 concept: ‘the sports car will never die’

Photography: Mark Riccioni

You’d expect the concept car concept to have its eyelids gently closed as well. But just because a one-time design studio no longer has a rotating stage to call home, doesn’t mean it can’t still capture the imagination. Last year, no other car did it more effectively than the sensational Hyundai N Vision 74.

While BMW continues its “stop me before I redesign” self-sabotage, Hyundai’s crayon department really has the bit between its teeth, and the leader of that team is SangYup Lee, the ex- Bentley and Seoul-born GM designer who oversees. like the Ioniq 5 hatch, the aerodynamic Ioniq 6, the Tucson SUV…basically every great-looking Hyundai since 2016.

He’s talking to me about a static model of the 74. We’re in the green hills of north-west Germany at the Bilster Berg racing complex, a fearsome private track built on the site of a former British Cold War munitions base . The N Vision 74 is not like other motor show stars, as it is by no means a statue. Drive – fast. Before I’m allowed to tackle this miniature Nürburgring in a priceless single, SangYup explains where this wonderful creation came from.

“It’s an incredible journey that Hyundai has been on for the last 50 years,” he begins, speaking quietly with carefully chosen words. “Most of the big OEMs have around 100 years of history, but Hyundai has only been around for half that. But there’s still a beautiful history in the company.”

The story behind the N Vision 74 is a concept car called the Pony Coupe, a sharp two-door envisioned for the 1974 Turin Motor Show. Hyundai enlisted the help of Giorgetto Giugiaro to dress up a standard Pony sedan body that would place the Hyundai flag on the design map.

“Giugiaro convinced Hyundai management that when you go to an auto show, you have to have a stylish coupe,” says SangYup. “In those days, Korea had very poor road and street infrastructure, but the founder of the company always wanted to build a performance car. So there is a great story. They tried to put the Pony into production but the dream it didn’t come true. Now we have the design and the technology to make this car.”

What the N Vision 74 does so cleverly is reference a moment of what might have been in Hyundai’s past in its looks, while embracing ideas for future high-performance powertrains. It’s what engineers call a “rolling lab.” SangYup repeats the word passion as he wraps around the car, pointing out details like the subtle badging (“We don’t need to scream”) and the pixel LED light signature (“A Hyundai signature, we’re not doing a Russian doll design, like now most of the big car companies. We want to build a chess game, where every car has its role, but obviously they are all on the same team.”

I admit I hadn’t heard of the Pony until the N Vision 74 landed, with references not only to its spiritual father, but other late 20th century classics. SangYup smiles and shows sketches dated 2016 in his phone gallery, showing how long he’s been brewing this idea.

“Not many people have heard of the Pony coupé, but Giugaro’s designs are known all over the world: the DeLorean, the BMW M1, the Lotus Esprit, he is a master of design. Gen Z doesn’t know this story, but they see it as the ultimate cyberpunk design. I like that element: it’s contemporary with a cyberpunk strategy.”

The DeLorean reference is crucial, because in an alternate universe, it’s Hyundai’s first sports car, not the doomed American-Irish gullwing that would become the star of one of the great film franchises of the 1980s. all the time “Giugiaro admits that the Pony was quite an influence on the DeLorean; he kept those references when Hyundai didn’t build the Pony. If there was no Pony, there would be no DeLorean, maybe not Back to the future.” great scott

But it’s clearly not a nostalgia trip, despite the closed-back window, the Aerofan wheels, the semi-matt stainless steel-like paint. SangYup cringes when I carelessly use the word retro in the same sentence as his spilled baby.

Indeed, it is an object of national pride, a distillation of Korea that has just closed from an aspiring carmaker to a design leader. “I saw tears in people’s eyes in Korea when we revealed this car. This is their culture. Let’s face it, 10-15 years ago, a Hyundai was a car you only bought with your head, not your heart “, he admits. “We’re not just trying to build a car brand, we want to build fans.”

Something is bothering me. Was he under pressure to show off Hyundai’s hydrogen hybrid technology not with a coupe, but with an SUV? Sports cars don’t really register these days. Everyone is fighting to build higher, not lower.

“The reason for this is that a car is still an emotional product,” SangYup reasons confidently. “It is the second most expensive purchase we have ever made and we wanted to increase the emotional value. Sports cars will never go out of style, because a coupé conveys emotions more effectively than any other car. The sports car will never die.”

The N Vision 74 didn’t need a showroom to shine. Its digital launch blew keyboards around the world and demonstrates the endearingly humble confidence that Korean automakers are rich with right now, while Europe’s insecure old guard struggle to stay relevant. In more ways than one, it’s a spectacle.