The First Genuinely Hot Hyundai Is Taking On The Nurburgring 24-Hours

The first proper fast Hyundai is on its way in the shape of the i30N later this year, but before that happens the Korean firm is entering two of them into the Nurburgring 24-hour race to give the new hot hatch its final sign-off.

The 2.0-litre turbocharged machine is set to lay the mediocre ghost of the err, sub-optimal Veloster Turbo to rest. It has already been tested on the Nurburgring, at which Hyundai has its own development facility, and on UK roads, as well, so it should be a fine-handling thing when it arrives. No excuses if not, anyway.

We don’t know how powerful or fast it’s going to be, yet, but we do know it will have a six-speed manual gearbox. The racing version is running a standard drivetrain right down to the gearing, but with upgraded brakes, wheels and tyres. There’s obviously a roll-cage as well, and a front splitter/rear spoiler combination to aid aerodynamics.

We can’t help thinking that adding aero will alter the way the car feels through the corners, which, if Hyundai has tuned the steering and chassis to that spec, will mean the production car is in the wrong state of tune, but we’d imagine they finalised the chassis in the UK and mean to use the N24 race mainly for publicity.

The N after the i30 stands both for Namyang, the location of the firm’s base in Korea, and for Nurburgring, after its testing base there. The cars will be racing in the SP3T class, where cars are all mostly standard. After this we’re expecting big things from the i30N. We’re guessing, but power should be upwards of 250bhp; maybe even closer to 300bhp. We look forward to finding out.