It’s Halloween! The day we can finally dress like sexy cats and roam the streets without people judging us as we sexily slurp tuna from cans. You know what I mean, I’m sure. It’s also the best time of year to point out important scary things in not just automotive design, but taillight design. And I need to call out Hyundai, who has had a longstanding vampiric fetish with their taillights.
Yes, vampiric; as in of vampires. Specifically, fangs. Hyundai taillight designers seem to have a bit of a fang fetish. Bloody fangs, even. There’s at least three separate times, two of which I didn’t make up, that Hyundai has incorporated a bloody fang motif into their taillights.
Let’s start with the most recent iteration, found on the current-gen Tuscon:
Those are fangs. No question. Four sharp fangs, slathered in blood. They even have a sharp fang motif pattern on the lights themselves, so we have little fangs on big fangs. But these are even a bit more subtle than the fangs that came before them:
The third-gen Hyundai Elantra hatch had taillights that featured a really obvious bloody fang motif; just look at those inner reverse/tail lamp units that flank the license plate area. They have a fang shape, and, unlike the Tuscon fangs that are monochrome red, these incorporate the ivory of the tooth (the reverse lamp) itself with a lower blood red area that really suggests the look of a fang, freshly dipped in blood.
For taillights, these are incredibly fang-y.
Now, by far the most blatant example of Hyundai Fang-Fetishism has to be on the early Ponys:
Remember those? I think they were optional and kind of expensive, because they were made from hollowed-out endangered narwhal tusks, and had lights inside them along with hoses that took red ATF/hydraulic fluid from a special resovoir and dripped it out the tips of the tusks to give that perfect dripping-fang effect.
This was a surprisingly popular option, though pressure from animal rights groups about the wholesale capture and killing of narwhals and local municipalities tired of red ATF stains all over their roads soon forced Hyundai to pull the option.
If you can find an old Pony with these today, it’s worth picking up! They’re worth plenty!
Happy Halloween. Maybe I made that last one up.
Hyundai Pony with a tusk. That’s better than a Holy Grail, it’s a Unicorn ????!
You see, only The Autopian gives me content about the 2001 Hyundai Elantra GT, the car I took my driver’s test in. I’d just like to put out there that the GT was a shockingly decent car, brought a ton of content for a super low price, and my family put 200k on it until the northeast did what it does best, rot cars. Ours was also that deep blue color!
Something of note, the image above appears to be a later GT, probably an ’04, as the turn signal lens is clear, instead of amber like it was one the ’01 we had.
Never thought I’d wake up one day and see Jason randomly talking about furries…
Actually I’m surprised I haven’t seen it before.
Are we sure we haven’t seen that before?
So if they were to add amber turn indicators, would they turn into candy corn?
Fun fact, the ’01 DID have amber turn indicators!
https://images.app.goo.gl/HLdrEH9X9rfhL8Ue8
Draculantra.
Nosferatuscon.
Your brain is a national treasure.
Back in time, someone I am may have dressed as a not really sexy and somewhat scruffy cat with a dangling package and working “plumbing”. All the sexy cat girls wanted pictures and the plumbing didn’t hold enough water to mark all of my new territory.
specifically – ass fangs
I am so glad somebody besides me has noticed this! THIS is why I keep coming back to this site.
Meanwhile I am being fed an advertisement for Sarah Palin’s bikini pictures that are inappropriate for adults. There was no way I was clicking on that ad.
Could be worse, could be Vance
Or Trump. Or McCain.
“Buyeee, Buddy.”
“Hope you find your dad!”
Getting rid of the Pony’s narwhale fangs would not necessarily eliminate the possibility of ATF leaks from it.
Are you re-enacting the Torch’s Chainsaw Massacre this year?
IIRC, the Isuzu VehiCross had a wonderful pair of chrome fangs up front.
Which made sense. That was one scary vehicle.
I have always thought those looked like bloody fangs and I they annoy the hell of out me because I can’t imagine what the designers were thinking.
What about the sliced artery look of the Tiburon’s final version? Does that kinda count here?
Torch; never change, never change. Now I can not unsee that which I have seen.
I hear that narwhals are always causing a commotion because they are so awesome.