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Hyundai ‘N’ high-performance brand to tackle GTIs and STs

Hyundai has confirmed development of a new high-performance brand known as Hyundai N, which it says will be pitched at customers interested in going stupidly fast. The company has revealed very little information on Hyundai N, other than to say the first model to bear the N logo is in fact its newly revealed 2014 i20 WRC rally car.

The 'N' stands for 'nyeeeeaaarrrhhh!' We think.
The ‘N’ on the i20 WRC stands for ‘nyeeeeaaarrrhhh!’ We think.

The N brand takes its name from the Namyang R&D Centre that has collaborated with Hyundai Motorsport on the development of the i20 WRC. 

Hyundai says the testing, research and development expertise that goes into creating the i20 WRC will go some way towards influencing future road-going Hyundai N models. The company refused to confirm or deny whether the first N model would be a highly-modified road-going i20, though a spokesperson suggested “that would be a smart assumption to make.”

N will likely be aimed at customers who might otherwise purchase models such as the Golf GTI or Ford Focus ST.

Hyundai WRC team principal Michel Nandan did give us some hint as to just how performance oriented N models might be. He suggested that initial N models would likely be slightly uprated versions of Hyundai’s road cars, but that future N products had the potential to offer ‘extreme’ performance in line with the Hyundai i20 WRC car.

Nandan revealed Hyundai N cars will go on sale both in Europe and ‘outside of Europe’.

Hyundai will divulge more information on its N brand during the course of 2014. Watch this space for more.

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