Automaker renderings of upcoming models typically foretell those cars’ exact shapes about as reliably as moon cycles predict economic fluctuations, but it’s looking like Hyundai has had enough of distilling excitement down to conformity. The Korean automaker has released two expectedly edgy renderings of its 2011 Sonata ahead of the car’s official unveiling on September 10, and we’ve concurrently found a quartet of photos on a Korean site that show those images to be nearly spot-on.

While the transition from blurred drawing to finished product usually involves smoothing edges, softening creases, and generally dashing hopes, the photos we’ve spotted of the Hyundai suggest that the only real difference between the images here and the sheetmetal soon to grace Hyundai showrooms is a slightly taller roofline and smaller wheels. The wide-angle Toyota Venza grille and swoopy multi-element headlights, as well as the dished hood and sculpted front fascia, should all make the leap from paper to production. So, too, will a body-side crease sharp and pronounced enough to make former BMW design chief Chris Bangle blush.

Around back, that crease terminates just above the hefty, angular taillight housings. The backlight sweeps down into a rounded decklid, looks very sleek, and has us bracing ourselves for further utterances of the paradoxical “four-door coupe.” Overall, the look also has us thinking that somewhere the Volkswagen CC’s design team is feeling more than a little violated. While Hyundai isn’t sharing any illustrations of the car’s insides just yet, shadowy spy shots previously posted on Hyundai-blog.com expose an interior that should live up to the stylistic promise of the exterior.

Hyundai has been raising a lot of questions lately, mostly concerning the new market segments into which it is entering and whether or not it should be competing in them. While the Sonata is one Hyundai whose existence nobody questions, it appears the next generation of the mid-size car will still be making quite a splash. We’ll see just how big when the next Sonata debuts in the metal, either at the L.A. auto show in November or Detroit in January.