Words: Jason Round

A big, old Hyundai fan from way back, I’m always interested to see what the marque is up to, and it looks like it’s onto a pretty good thing with the 2007 Tiburon.
We don’t know about the ‘sensuous silhouette’ hinted at in the press release, but the Tiburon still manages to maintain its shark-like appearance. Hell, slap a dorsal fin on the back and you’d have people running for cover.
The new look is largely attributable to a new nose, high-rise rear wing and a very interesting 17in alloys. Drivers also get ESP, along with additional airbags, front seatbelt pre-tensioners and load-limiters among other safety features.
“Tiburon now exclusively offers the sleek style and rakish lines of a true coupé — one not derived from any sedan, cabriolet or convertible — for very much less than the $54,000 plus next up in the class,” said Oliver Mann, Hyundai’s General Manager of Marketing.
Inside, you can expect the same ‘store everything’ pockets and compartments found in previous models, though the sport seats now feature extra bolstering, red-leather trim as well as new interior adornments, including dash panel, gearknob, boot, handles and air vents. There’s also a very Euro-esque cool blue lighting system and even an iPod dock.
The old faithful Delta 2.7L V6 remains in both sequential and manual set-ups, and while it’s not a bad bit of gear with 245Nm of torque and a 15.8sec quarter sprint, we’d love to see some kind of forced-induction plumbed up to it in the future, though I guess we’ll just have to drop it in the Hyundai comments box for now…

The 2007 Tiburon is available from $37,590 for the six-speed and $39,380 for the Selectronic auto. A special TS edition will feature sunroof, leather trim and new Vivid Blue colour.