Rockstar and Hyundai Team Up on an Off-Road-Ready Tucson

2016 Hyundai Tucson SEMA Concept (Credit: © Hyundai)

Hyundai loves SEMA, as it is a chance for it to move away from its usual methods of creating inexpensive, reliable, full-featured cars and SUV’s and into the world of insane performance vehicles. This year, Hyundai is particularly active, and today it has revealed a new Tucson off-road concept that it created alongside Rockstar Performance Garage.

Like any off-road conversion, Hyundai and the folks at RPG first began work on the chassis.

Under here, they began lifting the Tucson by six inches. Then, they installed front 2.5-inch King Shocks with adjustable coilovers, rear 2.5-inch King Shocks with remote reservoirs and progressive off-road springs, set to 17-inch KMC XD Series “Bully” off-road wheels shod in 32-inch Mickey Thompson MTZ P3 tires, and Black Ops 4X4 body clearancing for the larger rubber.

This all combines to give the Tucson a mean stance that looks ready to do more than tackle a light dusting of snow.

The team also focused on interior and exterior modifications to enhance the model’s looks, lighting, and sound system. On the outside, these enhancements include RPG and Wicked Image Designs custom roof rack and bumpers, Bulldog 40-inch LED lightbars and 2-inch LED spikes, and an sPOD electronic control center for connecting and controlling additional accessories. Inside, the Tucson receives an upgraded audio system that includes Kicker high-output speakers and subwoofer.

No off-road rig is complete without some tweaks under its hood. For the Tucson, its 1.6-liter engine receives a Mishimoto 2.5-inch stainless-steel downpipe, charge pipe and front-mount intercooler, a billet oil catch can, a 19-row oil cooler, a Turbonetics blow-of valve, a custom air intake by K&N Filters, a magnaflow center-exit exhaust system, and a dry-cell battery. There is no mention of a horsepower bump for this engine, but I would anticipate at least a few extra ponies over the standard 175 horsepower from these updates.

Hyundai and RPG will reveal this custom Tucson at SEMA on November 3rd, 2015 at 11:30 a.m. PST. I suspect we’ll learn a lot more about its performance then.