Garber Nissan Hyundai

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Driving Impressions

Hyundai's boast that the Tiburon SE can hold the road as well as European sports cars might be going a bit far, but the road-holding is quite good for the price.

The nicest thing about the Tiburon might be its throaty, hollow exhaust note. It's really fun to run up through the six-speed gearbox and enjoy the sounds. A lot of hot sports cars don't sound so hot, but the SE does a great job of delivering that sensual enjoyment, so good you forget there's just 172 horsepower. The redline on the tach is 6500, but the V6 will rev to 7000 before the rev limiter cuts the engine, and it sounds so good you often want to take it that far.

And when you look into the rearview mirror, you see the high spoiler to remind you that the Tiburon is at least trying to be cool. It does block visibility out the rear, which might be inconvenient because if you're always revving the engine to redline, you might want to keep an eye out for the cops.

The aluminum double-overhead-cam V6 is mounted transversely. It makes 181 pound-feet of torque, which isn't a ton, but it's all there at a low 3800 rpm, and that means a lot. Cruising along at 75 mph in sixth gear, 3500 rpm, you can mash the throttle without downshifting, and the SE accelerates well; of course, it'll squirt away better if you downshift to fifth. Just don't expect neck-snapping acceleration from the 172 horsepower, which has to pull the Tiburon's 2986 pounds.

Even with only 181 pound-feet of torque, the torque steer from the front-wheel drive is noticeable.

The gearbox, called the ZF, is good, but the shifts aren't so sharp because the lever has a long throw and the linkage isn't as tight as it might be. However the clutch action is smooth, especially on the upshifts, and that compensates a bit for the long throw; so overall, the upshifts work.

We can't say the same for the downshifts, at least not with heel-and-toe downshifting, because the gas pedal is quite a bit lower than the brake pedal. So you can't fit the toe of your foot on the brake pedal and your heel on the gas. As serious as Hyundai was about the track-tuned suspension, it's surprising they missed something simple like the pedal position for sporty downshifting.

The ratios are fine; sixth gear is a tall overdrive designed to deliver better fuel mileage. It's basically an extra gear on top, because the ratio of fifth gear (0.86:1) is almost the same as the fifth gear (0.84:1) in the five-speed gearbox on the GS model. Still, the SE has the lowest fuel mileage (18 city, 26 highway) among the Tiburons.

We got a chance to test out the brakes, running the Tiburon SE hard on a downhill run to the Pacific Ocean through Malibu's canyons. The SE's larger rotors (12-inch diameter front, compared to 11-inch on the other Tiburons) are cross-drilled for cooling, the first time Hyundai has tried this technology that's not uncommon to high-performance cars. The SE won't stop like, say, the BMW Z4 M Coupe we recently tested; but the brakes are good and solid, and don't forget we're talking about a $22,000, four-seat sports car here.

The suspension is pretty firm on a choppy freeway, but not unbearably so, and it's reasonably comfortable over mere ripples. You might consider this firmness a reminder that it's ready for heavy duty in corners. The SE handles them just fine, although again, it's not in the same league as a car like the M Coupe, because it's not in the same price league. However, the structural rigidity of the Tiburon exceeds that of the BMW M3, according to Hyundai.

The Tiburon SE has its limits when driven aggressively through switchback curves, but handles the situation well. It does a better job than its main competitor, the Mitsubishi Eclipse, and isn't that far off from a Mazda RX-8, and both of those cars cost thousands more.

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