Hyundai Tiburon at Targa Tasmania
May 2, 2007 by Alborz Fallah
Targa Tasmania is one of the very few popular tarmac-based rally events held in Australia, the event has been taking place annually since 1992 and shows no sign of slowing down.
However apart from the categorization of Modern (post 1990)/Classic (pre 1990) cars which gives incentive for old cars to join the rally, the majority of the “modern” cars follow a common setup, AWD, forced induction, rally bred.
This year, Hyundai again entered the Tiburon at Targa Tasmania, and the results surprised nearly everyone! The cars in the same category included the original rally kings, the Subaru Impreza WRX STis, Mitsubishi Lancer Evos, as well as Nissan Skyline GTRs, Mazda RX-7s, BMW M3s, Supercharged Cooper Ss and even two Lamborghinis.
A four minute penalty for the Hyundai team ended their dream run, however despite the setback the Tiburon came i28th place at the finish. The Tiburon finished ahead of 76 of the 104 Modern class cars.
The Tiburon beat 13 of 20 Porsches, 13 of 19 Lancer Evo 4WD turbos, seven of 11 Nissan Skyline GTRs, six of nine Subaru WRX STi 4WD turbos, six of eight supercharged Cooper Ss, both BMW M3s and Celica GT4 turbo 4WDs and one of the two Lamborghinis.
Not a bad feat for a Front-Wheel Drive setup with only 123kW of power 245Nm of torque!
“Reliability is another of the Tiburon’s attributes. All up, it’s done around 20,000 hard kilometres with its near standard 2.7 litre twin cam V6 engine, six-speed manual shift and standard disc brake rotors and calipers,” Hyundai Team Driver said.
The Tiburon raced at Targa Tasmania was the older model and Hyundai has recently upgraded the Tiburon with a minor facelift and an improved interior, there is also
- standard ESP and traction control,
- side airbags,
- auto-climate control
- a higher spec audio
- 17″ alloy wheels and seat trim,
The new improved Tiburon starts from $34,990. Another difference between the Hyundai and its competitors at Targa is the warranty, only shamed by that of Mitsubishi, Hyundai offers an unlimited kilometre warranty linked to a five year period of ownership and which is fully transferable to subsequent owners.
Print it: 
How the hell is that possible… Im sure it handles ok but its the slowest ’sports car’ I have ever seen… I might enter a 12year old V6 Camry next year, more power and more torque……………………..