Hyundai Shoots For The Stars

The new i30 N has an ambitious goal – to be king of the hot hatch sector.

- Stuart Gallagher

Hyundai's decision to enter the world of performance cars is a bold one. A reputation for affordable family motors and long warranty periods doesn’t necessarily go hand in hand with driving thrills and Nürburgring lap times. But campaigning a car in the World Rally Championship on and off for 17 years has gradually and subtly given the Korean brand a more sporting persona. Since 2014, the i20 WRC car has been wearing the ‘N’ badging of Hyundai’s performance subbrand; now the first road car to wear that letter, the i30 N, has arrived. The N, by the way, references Hyundai’s global R&D centre in Namyang, South Korea, although another place beginning with N, in a mountainous region of Germany, also played a role in this car’s development.

If it’s brave for Hyundai to launch a performance car, it’s even braver for that car to be a hot hatch. There is no other sector so packed full of impressive machinery. Even the worst of the breed are exceptionally competent machines, and the best are some of the most talented performance cars at any price.

Thankfully, every nugget of information we’ve received, every hint about the attitude behind the car’s development, every individual we know who has been involved and every test location that has been visited has been encouraging. Together it all suggests that Hyundai knows the i30 N needs to appeal to evo drivers if it is to establish a strong reputation for the N brand.

The most keenly received information was that Albert Biermann – former boss of BMW’s M division and the man responsible for the BMW M3 GTS and 1M Coupe – would be in charge of the project. And when we drove a prototype i30 N, it became clear that Biermann’s knowledge and expertise is being put to extremely good use.