All climate options covered

By ALASTAIR SLOANE

Hyundai's coupe/convertible study (CCS) broke cover at last year's Frankfurt motor show, more than a year after the Korean carmaker admitted it was working on such a project with renowned German cabriolet specialist Karmann.

The CCS will be one of the highlights at the Hamilton motor show next week. At the moment it is drawing crowds at the Melbourne motor show.

The concept is based on the Tiburon 2.7-litre V6 coupe and features a fully retractable sliding glass roof.

Karmann designed it as a three-phase unit - a glass-roofed hardtop, open sunroof or top-down convertible - all at the touch of a button.

Hyundai says the CCS also explores aspects of interior and exterior styling and packaging, which may influence its future models.

The carmaker is looking at putting the CCS Tiburon into production as a low-volume model alongside the coupe. It reworked the boot of the coupe to accommodate the CCS roof assembly.

It calls the system the third generation in retractable roof systems, in that it re-defines earlier designs and provides drivers with more of an open-air choice.

"The driver merely touches one button to send the glass roof sliding back over the rear window," says Hyundai.

"By sliding outside, rather than inside, this maximises rear headroom.

"At this stage the side supports remain in position, so if the weather changes the roof slides quickly back to the closed position."

Hyundai says the full top-down process is elegantly engineered and deceptively simple.

"The system has less moving parts and less pivot points than earlier systems, resulting in reduced extra weight [less than 140kg over Tiburon] and the rear shelf moves only in a single plane rather than lifting or twisting."

It says the design lends itself to the use of solar panels.

Karmann has built more than two million open-top cars since 1949.