Hyundai is hoping to take on the mid-range hot hatchback market with the i30 N, and what better way to show it means business than by racing around the legendary Nurburgring.
The Hyundai i30 N is off to the Nurburgring 24h race, a race that features the AMG GT S, Audi R8 V10 Plus and Porsche 911 in their scarily potent GT3 forms. Mad? Yes. Wise? Potentially, as the i30 Turbo won its class in 2015.
So what do we know about the potential Golf GTI, Ford Focus ST and Peugeot 308 GTi rival? Not a great deal, actually, although Hyundai released a video of its new 2.0-litre engine, which shows it reaching 263.9PS and 374.7Nm of torque.
That would make the i30 N more than capable of mixing it up with its C-segment rivals, especially as Hyundai has been testing its ‘N’ family of cars for a number of years at its technical centre located on the Nurburgring.
It is unclear how much of the concept will make it to the production car, so those lovely flared wheel arches may never feature. The rollcage is likely to go, too, but larger alloy wheels, body kit and a beefier exhaust would be par for the sporty hatchback course.
In case you were wondering, the ‘N’ is said to stand for Namyang, which is where Hyundai’s research and development centre is located in South Korea, and not Nurburgring. Or Nordschleife. So now you know.
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