Filed under: Convertible, Budget, Hyundai, Design/Style







The Hyundai Veloster has been a bit polarizing since it went on sale last year. And the debate could get more animated if the Korean company does what we think it's thinking about doing.



At a recent gathering of reporters and Hyundai executives in Ann Arbor, MI, where the annual Rolling Sculpture Car Show takes place every summer, we asked Hyundai Motors America chief John Krafcik what he planned to bring this year (the college town is also home to Hyundai America Technical Center). Last year, they showed off the new Veloster.



Redone Azera? New Santa Fe? Neither seems appropriate for the tone of the event. So, we threw this out: "How about chopping the top off the Veloster and see the reaction?"



Krafcik and PR man Jim Trainor started trying to make poker faces, indicating to us that we may well have stumbled on to a future project, Rolling Sculpture or no. But we aren't sure.



Some thought the Veloster was an answer to a question that nobody had been asking, but the unique coupe is proving to be a great sales and image success for Hyundai. Krafcik has shown a great instinct for design and engineering the Hyundai lineup to successful heights: redesigns of the Sonata, Elantra, Accent and now Santa Fe. He also had a lot to do with the cleanup of the Azera, and, of course, the Genesis and Genesis Coupe. A former product development executive at Ford, it's hard to think he would not be the current product development chief in Dearborn had he stayed, and not been scooped up by Hyundai a decade ago.



Hyundai's sales have been supply constrained on many of its models, including the Veloster. Given a finite supply of Veloster models that it can source from Korea, Krafcik plans to emphasize production of the upcoming Turbo model. That strikes us as a smart move.



We're excited about the turbo, but we couldn't resist asking a rendering artist to imagine the Veloster sans roof. What do you think? Is topless a good thing in this case?



View Poll



Could the Hyundai Veloster go topless? [w/poll] originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 20 Apr 2012 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.



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roller skate.

 

I think it NEEDS to be done and SOON. I've said before that it should be done.

 

with no top, it kinda looks like an SUV.. haha

 

Imagine the structural engineers' groans when they had to design a three door chassis.





Then swanky phil from marketing reckons it'd be 'cool' to have a convertible. NO.

 

I have the marketing catalog from the 1998 Tiburon Convertible press conference. They were close to approving that s-ofabtch but it got canned right before production. I hope that doesn't happen here, granted it doesn't look nearly as beautiful as the Tib would have.







^This looks like so much fun, classy, and the design reminiscent of that "California laid back" driving on Route 1 LA Pop Art style, whereas the Veloster doesn't do that for me.

 

Got a bigger scan of that one dude? Awesome.







The last thing the Veloster needs is more weight.

 

Would have loved it if the convertible tib came out. It didnt unfortunately, so hopefully the vert veloster will be the first one Hyundai delivers to the public.

 

Only in black and white. I do however, have color negatives. I just have to go to a photo place and have them enlarge them.



The original convertible was ready. The business proposal says torsional rigidity was achieved through the rocker panels and a rear strut bar. It even says that crash tests were done and approved! It also says the top was fully-automated (which probably would translate to weight, but still awesome). Interior trim was actual carbon fiber. Additionally, it says the convertible was meant to be "image enhancing."

 

Interesting stuff, where'd you find that stuff?





Let's be real though, a tib convertible would have been rubbish. Is a 2.0 beta expected to haul around 200+ more kg of convertible flab? 80% of them would inevitably have been automatics to boot. On to today, the NA veloster is already sluggish, the LAST thing it needs is more weight to slow it down. And less headroom.