First look: Hyundai gives Tiburon teeth

SOUTH KOREAN car-maker Hyundai has chosen China's third-largest motor to reveal a midlife facelift for its Tiburon coupe, which is expected on sale in Australia in early 2007.

The revised Tiburon, featuring "a subtle redesign of the front and rear with an emphasis on new optical elements", made its global debut at the fourth Auto Guangzhou motor show, held over July 25-31 in the prosperous Cantonese province in south China.

The first update for Tiburon since its global release in September 2001 and its Australian launch in March 2002, when it replaced the unimaginatively named Coupe (which replaced the even more catchy S Coupe model name in 1996), apparently brings no mechanical change.

Following the discontinuation in April 2004 of Tiburon's 102kW/181Nm 2.0-litre DOHC four-cylinder engine variant, Hyundai's sole two-door model is currently available with a 127kW/245Nm 2.7-litre V6 engine, mated to either six-speed manual ($32,990) or four-speed semi-auto ($34,680) transmissions.