Hyundai i30 N Performance Package

Unleashed in production form at last, Hyundai’s first hot hatch lives up to the hype – and then some. Its rivals had better be worried

- Steve Sutcliffe

IT’S A FAIRLY ALIEN CONCEPT, PUTTING fingers to keyboard for Evo magazine to write about a car that wears a humble Hyundai badge. It hasn’t happened too many times in the past, after all.  

Then again, as we discovered when we had an exclusive drive of a development prototype a few months ago (evo 236), the i30 N ain’t no ordinary Hyundai. Conceived by the company’s new N division, which is itself led by one Albert Biermann, who master minded most of BMW’s best M-cars for 20 years until Hyundai poached him in 2014, the i30 N is without doubt one of the more intriguing high-performance hatchbacks of the moment. But even so, and despite the undeniable credibility of its chief engineer and Hyundai’s very obvious desire to persuade us all that it really has crafted a proper drivers’ car out of the i30, you do wonder… You can’t help but wonder.  

I mean, how on Earth can Hyundai be expected to produce a car that can stand shoulder to shoulder with the genuine hot hatch greats – the Honda Civic Type Rs and the Golf GTI Clubsports of this world – having had precisely zero experience at building such cars in the past? Also, even Mr Biermann himself admits to not knowing a great deal about front-wheel-drive cars before making his move to Hyundai. So once again you can’t help but harbour a nagging doubt or two about the true life potential of the i30 N.