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2021 Hyundai i30 N Drag Races Ford Focus ST, Someone Gets Badly Whooped

Recently updated where it matters, the Hyundai i30 N is one impressive straight-line performer although it’s been engineered for handling first and foremost. The red hot hatch in the featured clip also sports a wet-clutch transmission instead of the six-speed manual of the pre-facelift model, which makes an even greater difference over the quarter mile.
Drag Race! Hyundai i30 N DCT vs Ford Focus ST | MOTOR 15 photos
Photo: MOTOR on YouTube
Drag Race! Hyundai i30 N DCT vs Ford Focus ST | MOTORDrag Race! Hyundai i30 N DCT vs Ford Focus ST | MOTOR2021 Hyundai i30 N facelift2021 Hyundai i30 N facelift2021 Hyundai i30 N facelift2021 Hyundai i30 N facelift2021 Hyundai i30 N facelift2021 Hyundai i30 N facelift2021 Hyundai i30 N facelift2021 Hyundai i30 N facelift2021 Hyundai i30 N facelift2021 Hyundai i30 N facelift2021 Hyundai i30 N facelift2021 Hyundai i30 N facelift
MOTOR senior reviewer Scott Newman has recently tested it from zero to 100 kilometers per hour (62 miles per hour) in 5.4 seconds, 0.05 quicker than the manufacturer’s claim, and the quarter mile was done in 13.55 seconds at 171.8 kilometers per hour (106.7 miles per hour). Second time out on the strip, editor Alex Inwood has extracted 5.2 seconds to 100 kph and 13.5 seconds at 171.75 kph (106.72 mph). Pretty swell figures, right?

That’s ridiculously quick for a compact with front-wheel drive, let alone a compact from a company that doesn’t have too much experience with go-faster vehicles. Hyundai started churning out high-performance cars after they convinced Albert Biermann, the former big kahuna at BMW M, to join them as the boss of the Hyundai N division. What’s more, the i30 N that made its premiere in July 2017 is the performance arm’s first product.

On the other side of the super-sticky track, we have the venerable Focus ST in pre-facelift form. This particular example is equipped with the seven-speed automatic transmission, a torque-converter design shared with the Edge ST for North America. In other words, it’s actually an eight-speed automatic programmed to ignore the second gear to improve performance.

Ford could’ve done better, that’s for sure, and their sloppy transmission calibration is also evident in this showdown: 5.7 seconds to 100 kilometers per hour and 13.8 seconds at 167.23 kilometers per hour (103.91 miles per hour). Adding insult to injury, the Focus ST is rocking 0.3 extra liters of displacement from its 2.3-liter EcoBoost compared to the Hyundai’s 2.0L.

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About the author: Mircea Panait
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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.
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