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Hyundai and performance? Most who conjure up images of the South Korean brand probably wouldn’t immediately equate the two terms as synonymous, unless they’ve spent time in the automaker’s sporty Tiburon coupe or taken a spin in someone’s hopped up Accent.

Yes, the budget brand has a performance-oriented following and its smallest entry has become more popular with the tuner crowd since the newest version debuted last year, while the racy Tiburon has always found buyers willing to spend thousands to personalize it with large diameter wheels, lower profile tires, ground effects kits, customized paint and big, phat audio systems, but overall most young buyers would probably think to purchase a Honda, Mazda or VW for tuning purposes before a Hyundai.

Well, Hyundai Canada wants to change that perception, and to do so is launching an all-Canadian approach to in-house aftermarket performance parts called, aptly, Hyundai Performance Parts. Available through its dealers or online at www.hyundaiperformance.ca is a catalogue of performance and design enhancing goodies that’ll even get the most diehard tuner excited. There’s everything from performance clutch assemblies to Stop-Tech brake upgrades, B&M short shift kits, suspension upgrades and lowering spring kits by Eibach. Something as simple as an AEM air intake kit can do wonders for your engine’s ability to breathe, while the same company’s strut tower brace can improve stability through the corners. An axle-back exhaust system can do a lot for forward thrust too, while making your car sound a lot sportier.

Or maybe styling is more important. Hyundai Performance Parts offers little items like chrome exhaust tips for upgrading the exterior to carbon-fibre style interior trim kits. Or maybe a few aero add-ons are more in order, like a rear wing or a set of more than forty customized alloy wheels. Aluminum foot pedals not only look good but work better during aggressive maneuvers, while specially designed audio systems by Clarion can be integrated for a finishing touch.

Not shown on the website but reportedly available are turbo kits that can boost output in a Tiburon by more than 70 horsepower; the performance division is planning to continue building its offerings so that more and more of its cars will be tunable from the dealer level, and as importantly backed by the manufacturer without affecting its full five-year, 100,000 km factory warranty.

To showcase its Performance Parts products and the entire in-house tuner division Hyundai released an update to its initial Accent SR for 2008, and the new model is a fabulous little road car with wonderful balance and plenty of get up and go thanks to an already zippy 110-horsepower four-cylinder that gets better airflow via special SR air intakes. A sport-tuned suspension lowers its ride height and larger 17-inch alloy rims and low profile rubber make for a formidable little budget racer. A few faux carbon fibre interior mods combine with an uprated stereo and special exterior paint to finish it off. The Accent SR is just the first of many special tuner cars offered by Hyundai, some of which were put to the test at Dunnville raceway in Ontario last month.

Expect interesting things from Hyundai as it continues to strengthen its image from merely the budget-oriented brand of the past to one that now delivers high-quality, value-driven luxury on one side, with the Azera, Veracruz and future rear-drive, V8-powered Genesis, to affordable performance cars on the other, like the Accent SR, Tiburon and a future rear-drive, V8-powered coupe.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 25th, 2007 at 10:30 am and is filed under Hyundai, Performance, Tuning. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.