The Bonkers Widebody Hyundai Insteroid Concept Is Yet More Proof That Hyundai Totally Gets It

Is it just me, or do many new performance cars almost seem too serious for their own good? Take the new BMW M5, for example. Huge power figures, huge weight, hugely complicated suspension, but the result is a car that doesn’t immediately elicit a positive emotional response. Cars need to get a bit silly again, and few automakers seem to be having quite as good a time as Hyundai. The Insteroid concept draws inspiration from video games and bonkers homologation specials to create an outlandish hot hatchback that looks like an absolute blast.

In case you’re wondering about the name, Insteroid is a portmanteau of Inster, the name of the electric car on which this is based, and steroid, because this thing ain’t natty. It also sounds like asteroid, which fits because this thing’s truly out of this world.

Basically, Hyundai’s taken its global entry-level EV and given it the Renault 5 Turbo 3E treatment. Think fender flares wide enough to be used as tables, a diffuser the size of the moon, and a proper bulldog stance. I particularly dig the aerodiscs on the front wheels, and the orange accents really pop against the neutral monocoque.

The Insteroid is just a mental thing to look at, isn’t it? It’s gone full track car, with bubbles in the plastic side glass, side pods, a wing seemingly borrowed from a Le Mans prototype, side pods, and even a monowiper. Mono for one, wiper for wiper. I adore that there still appears to be an economy car buried within the funhouse silhouette, and love that things get even crazier on the inside.

Keeping with the theme, the cockpit of the Insteroid is simultaneously sparse and novel. No carpets, no sound deadening, but the pursuit of lightness has yielded some lovely touches. The visual of the mesh dashboard is fascinating, the hydraulic handbrake sticking out of the console gets it, the two-tone cage is pretty baller, and that’s before we even get to the gauge cluster.

Now that is how you do a concept car gauge cluster! Forget holographic displays, give me cables, a dot-matrix display, tiny individual screens for individual functions, even some buttons. It feels like technology stopped being fun when it stopped being a little bit fanciful with hardware, and this cluster has just the right mix of sophistication and whimsy.

Speaking of whimsy, you know what a trackday car needs? Filthy amount of bass. The Insteroid seems to feature an infinite baffle setup with an amusing array of adjacent tubes, knobs, and even an aerial. Some of those bits sound outmoded, but there’s charm in antiquity. People still love Morgans with their wooden body framing, so having a bit of love for an antenna seems totally fair. It’s certainly charmed me.

So why build the Insteroid? Well, “INSTEROID is a celebration of pure fun,” wrote Simon Loasby, Senior VP and head of the Hyundai Design center, adding “It’s not just about how it looks, but also how it sounds and how it makes you feel. From its bold visual language to the immersive sound experience, it’s a concept that invites everyone to dream a little louder and smile a little longer.”

At the end of the day, isn’t that what we’re all here for? Cars should be fun, and the more automakers that take this idea and run with it, the better. Sure, insane zero-to-60 mph times are great, but in the real world, an ear-to-ear grin is more valuable than a ten-second quarter-mile time.

Top graphic credit: Hyundai

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