After its winter testing programme in Sweden, where it was driven by WRC driver Thierry Neuville, the upcoming Hyundai i30 N was brought to the UK for road testing, and this official video shows us a glimpse of the hot hatch’s tour of the country’s roads.
We often hear about how British B roads pose a unique challenge to a car’s chassis and suspension, and Hyundai seems to agree as it sends the i30 N prototype to seek out “the roughest roads in the UK”.
“With the prototype, we are not in the final stage of tuning, but we are getting closer and closer. We can nicely check if the driving performance of our first Hyundai high performance car can meet our future customers’ requirements,” said Albert Biermann, executive VP at Hyundai and head of vehicle test and high performance development.
“The Hyundai N stands for Namyang and also the Nurburgring. We love the corners, and there are plenty of fun and challenging corners out here,” the former VP of engineering at BMW M said, although I’m quite sure he said “funny” instead of “fun” as printed on the subtitles. Funny can be fun too, so we get what you mean, Albert.
“We have to make sure that on these challenging UK roads, the driving performance is also comfortable enough for everyday driving,” he added. This hints at a chassis that will be able to not just utilise power well, but stay compliant on poor surfaces. This separates the good from the truly satisfying, and we’re looking forward to the i30 N. It sounds bloody good, doesn’t it?
The i30 N will be revealed later this year, but the 2.0 litre turbo FWD hatch (with around 260 hp and a six-speed manual) will race at the Nurburgring 24 Hours later this month as part of its development programme.
The rival to the Volkswagen Golf GTI, Ford Focus ST and Peugeot 308 GTi is expected to debut at the IAA Frankfurt show in September. Word is that a track-focused performance pack will further boost performance, and a Focus RS-rivalling AWD model is under consideration.
SPYSHOTS: Hyundai i30 N
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Only wish P1 (same age in terms of year established) could do the same…..Regretably, it’s all too late now, esp with all the mess P1 is in…
Since when did P1 started in 1947?