{"id":74408,"date":"2026-08-18T11:38:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T11:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/74408\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T11:38:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T11:38:10","slug":"the-cheap-daewoo-sold-as-a-pontiac-looks-oddly-convincing-with-porsche-996-lights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/74408\/","title":{"rendered":"The Cheap Daewoo Sold As A Pontiac Looks Oddly Convincing With Porsche 996 Lights"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n This is what could happen if Daewoo partnered with Porsche instead of General Motors <\/p>\n

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A designer rendered Porsche 996 cues onto the Daewoo Matiz.<\/p>\n

Fried-egg headlights and a Turbo-style bumper anchor the redesign.<\/p>\n

The idea began as gallery artwork shown in Seoul, Korea.<\/p>\n

The Daewoo Matiz sold under Chevrolet badges, and even Pontiac ones in Mexico, is remembered as a cheap city car that Italdesign Giugiaro drew in the \u201990s from leftovers of a cancelled Fiat Cinquecento<\/a> revival. Independent designer Timur Dautov looked at that same shape and saw a 996 Porsche 911 hiding in it, so he grafted on the cues in a series of renders to prove the point.<\/p>\n

More: Porsche\u2019s Most Mocked Design Scrambles Onto A New 911, And Somehow It Works<\/a><\/p>\n

The project began as a Matiz Carrera 4S artwork shown at the EREVO Sinsa Gallery in Seoul, Korea<\/a>, alongside other pieces built around the fried-egg headlights of the 996. It went over well enough that Dautov followed it up with realistic renderings, which is how we ended up wanting someone to actually build it.<\/p>\n

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Timur Dautov \/ Instagram<\/p>\n

The highlight of the redesign<\/a> is a set of headlights from a pre-facelift 996 worked into the stubby hood of the little Daewoo without looking bolted on. Below them sits a Turbo-style bumper with oversized cooling intakes and an integrated splitter.<\/p>\n

The profile features wide fender extensions, 996 graphics, and a new set of alloy wheels with Porsche\u2019s iconic five-spoke design. At the back, the taillight assembly gets connected by a full-width red reflector strip reminiscent of the 911<\/a> Carrera 4S. Joining it are a modest roof spoiler, black decals that read as a lower back tattoo, body-colored bumper trim, and dual tailpipes poking out of the stock diffuser.<\/p>\n

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Timur Dautov \/ Instagram<\/p>\n

Dautov studied design in Moscow and put in time at Mitsubishi<\/a> in Japan before moving to Korea for a job with an unnamed local automaker. In his social media post, he wrote: \u201cI always thought the Matiz looked like it was designed in collaboration with Porsche, so the fried-egg headlights fit it perfectly,\u201d adding that the 996 ranks among his favorite cars.<\/p>\n

More: Tiny Daewoo Matiz With V6 Engine Swap Proves Horsepower Can Make Any Car Ridiculous<\/a><\/p>\n

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Timur Dautov<\/a> \/ Instagram<\/p>\n

The first generation of the Daewoo Matiz was introduced in 1998, one year after Porsche<\/a> launched the fifth-generation 911. The city car ran a 0.8-liter three-cylinder making 51 hp (38 kW \/ 52 PS), a number that sits some distance from the 296 hp (221 kW \/ 300 PS) of the naturally aspirated 3.4-liter flat-six in the base 996 Carrera.<\/p>\n

For now the Matiz Carrera lives entirely in the digital world<\/a>, unless someone with a spare 996 parts car and a serious tolerance for ridicule decides otherwise. Interestingly, a couple of years ago we covered a unique Matiz from PowerCrazy Automotive with a 3.2-liter V6\u00a0powertrain transplant and Porsche alloy wheels, making it the perfect donor vehicle for the proposed conversion.<\/p>\n