The Hyundai Scoupe is a 2-door

coupé A coupe or coupé (, ) is a passenger car with a sloping or truncated rear roofline and two doors. The term ''coupé'' was first applied to horse-drawn carriages for two passengers without rear-facing seats. It comes from the French past parti ...

based on the contemporaneous Hyundai Excel. The name, a

portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of words

History

Development of what would become the Scoupe started in 1985. At the 1989 Tokyo Motor Show, Hyundai exhibited a prototype which was named the "Sports-looking Car" (SLC) concept. Regular production began in February 1990; the Scoupe cost billion to develop. The Scoupe was introduced to the United States market for the 1991 model year at a base price of , thousands less than comparable sporty coupes. The

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badging used an enlarged, stylized "S" followed by all-caps "COUPE". The naturally-aspirated ''Alpha'' was introduced in April 1991, followed by a turbocharged ''Alpha'' in October of that same year. In the United States, additional changes came with the 1993 model year (July 1992), when Scoupes got a facelift, including the current Hyundai stylized-"H" logo, new flush headlamps plus body-colored side moldings and redesigned front sheetmetal, taillights, and rear bumper. The Base and LS models were equipped with a new and improved, in-house manufactured, 1.5L 12-valve, direct-port fuel-injected engine, called ''Alpha''. The car was replaced by the Tiburon in 1996. When it was discontinued in 1995, the Scoupe was one of the last cars sold in the United States with motorized seat belts instead of

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s. In total, 242,441 Scoupes were produced: 63,998 sold domestically in Korea and 178,443 produced for export.

Scoupe Turbo

The Scoupe GT (LS Turbo in the USA) was Hyundai's first attempt at a sports car and featured South Korea's first domestically designed engine with a cast-iron block and crankshaft. The engine contains an

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head, aluminum pistons and

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connecting rods. A special compact heatproof

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combustion chamber design with central spark plug location was incorporated to optimize engine efficiency. The engine utilizes a

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electronic engine control system and a knock sensor. Thanks to the turbocharging, the engine produces . The Turbo model can be distinguished externally by a black roof and "TURBO" badging on the rocker sills. Rod Millen drove a modified Scoupe GT (Turbo) to victory in the Showroom Stock 2WD class at the 1992 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb event.

In media

This car made an appearance on

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Top Gear Series 13 Episode 2 as

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's car for the challenge where the presenters are finding the perfect car for a 17-year-old driver.

Preservation

Hyundai models of the late 1980s and early 1990s are almost impossible to find in preserved condition. , very few Scoupes are believed to remain in use. Several dedicated groups still exist, the main one being scoupetech found on

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. In Korea, the Sports Coupe Family (SCF) was the original Scoupe club, but is now defunct. One facelifted white Scoupe has been preserved and is on display at the Hyundai Namyang Research Institute's R&D History Hall. Millen's Pikes Peak-winning 1992 Turbo has also been preserved.

Design and specifications

As initially launched, the Scoupe was powered by an , 1.5L

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-sourced ''4G15'' I4 engine (internally referred to as the Hyundai ''Sirius G4DJ'' engine), driving the front wheels via a 5-speed

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or 4-speed

automatic transmission An automatic transmission (sometimes abbreviated to auto or AT) is a multi-speed transmission used in internal combustion engine-based motor vehicles that does not require any input from the driver to change forward gears under normal driving c ...

. The ''4G15'' was replaced in 1993 by the 1,495 cc ''Alpha'', with a bore and an stroke. It was available both as a naturally aspirated engine and a turbocharged engine. The naturally aspirated version produced at 5,500 rpm and of torque at 4,000 rpm, with a 10:1 compression ratio, and the turbocharged version produced at 5,500 rpm and of torque at 4,500 rpm, with a 7.5:1 compression ratio. The naturally aspirated Alpha boasts a 14% increase in power over its 1.5L Mitsubishi-designed predecessor, and the turbo produces 42% more power. Turbos came only with 5-speed manual shift, while Base and LS models could have an optional 4-speed automatic. Hyundai says the Scoupe was the first production application for Garrett Automotive Products' T15 turbocharger, which was new for the early 1990s. The turbo unit includes water-cooled bearings and housings and an integral wastegate.

Performance

Hyundai Scoupe Turbo (Korea Domestic) - Flickr - skinnylawyer

'' MotorWeek'' tested a base Scoupe in 1992 and timed the sprint to at 11.9 seconds. The Australian spec S-Coupe GT Turbo has been road tested by several Australian magazines, returning times of 9.2-9.3 seconds for the sprint and 16.8 seconds for . Comparable times for the non-turbo version were approximately 12.5 seconds with a top speed of . The 1988–92 "Base" models with the ''4G15''/''G4DJ'' achieved city/highway

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fuel economy ratings when equipped with the manual transmission, and for the automatic. For 1993 the Scoupe received a facelift and Hyundai's first internally-developed engine ''Alpha''. The 1993-95 "Base" ''Alpha'' 1.5 engine models achieved when equipped with the manual transmission and with the automatic. The GT, equipped with the ''Alpha Turbo'', achieved .

References

External links

scoupetech
on Facebook * * {{Hyundai North America Scoupe 1980s cars 1990s cars Cars introduced in 1988 Coupés Front-wheel-drive sports cars