Following extreme cold-weather testing in Sweden, the i30 N is now the subject of testing on public roads in the United Kingdom. As ever, rally driver Thierry Neuville is the man tasked with offering the assessment needed by Hyundai’s engineers for fine-tuning.
The prototype featured in the following teaser video is heavily camouflaged both inside and out. The South Korean automaker, however, didn’t mask the six-speed manual transmission’s gear lever nor the car’s instrument cluster, with the latter revealing driver-selectable steering modes and a redline that starts at 6,750 rpm or so.
The first-ever Hyundai to carry the performance division’s N logo, the i30 N was developed with one thing in mind: not to break records, nor to outperform the competition, but to offer maximum driving pleasure. And from the sound of the turbo four-pot, “exciting” is this car’s middle name.
“We are getting closer and closer to the final development stage of the i30 N,” declared Albert Biermann, the head of Hyundai’s high performance arm. “We have to make sure that on these challenging UK roads the driving performance is also well suited to everyday use,” he added. “There are plenty of fun and challenging corners out here - the N Team loves corners!”
At the end of May 2017, Hyundai will pit two near-production i30 N vehicles at the Nurburgring in the ADAC Zurich 24-hour race. This marks another part of the development for the hot hatchback, which is programmed to be revealed this summer. And spoiler alert: There will be two variants.
Based on a leaked presentation, the i30 N will be available in standard and performance flavors. In terms of suck-squeeze-bang-blow, that would translate to 250 PS (247 hp) and 275 PS (271 hp), respectively, from the 2.0 T-GDI. The start of production, meanwhile, is set for December 2017. At a later date, a wet-type double-clutch eight-speed automatic will be added as an option.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?
Google News