Here's The Hot Hyundai i30 N Getting A Thrashing At The Nurburgring

This is Hyundai’s first attempt at a proper hot hatch, and it looks rather promising. The i30 N has once again been spotted testing at the Nurburgring, covered in a way that only lightly disguises its intentions.

Through the camouflage we can see a pointy front bumper and large grille, as well as a boot spoiler and exhaust pipes on both sides of the bumper. It certainly looks like it’s up for a fight in the hugely competitive hot hatch market.

Sounds like it too. It makes an angry noise, like it’s been kept in development for too long and is now quite keen to hit the road. In the video you’ll hear pops and bangs on downshifts, and it’s the Hyundai that’s definitely the car making those noises. Even though at one point the cameraman gets distracted by a Mercedes AMG GT-R….

Power, not that we know any figures yet, will come from a 2.0-litre turbocharged engine, and it’ll have a six-speed manual gearbox. We’re expecting an output close to 300bhp. From the video, the i30 N also looks to be both agile and stable – a good sign for European roads.

Hyundai has been round the Nurburgring many times with the i30 N – recently, two mostly-standard cars competed in the 24-hour race (above). Early prototype drives in the motoring media seemed to be very positive on the whole, so it’s certainly looking like this hot Hyundai will deliver the goods.