James May certainly won’t be pleased with the news that South Korean up-and-comers, Hyundai, are building a state of the art testing facility at the Nürburgring. The rest of us will be pleased, however, because such an emphatic move assures the brands continued path towards product improvement and worldwide sales success.
In a project purportedly worth €5.5 million, Hyundai wants to infuse into their own models, the know-how of testing at the legendary track; a place where almost all high-performance cars are developed and tested these days. This does beg the question, however, what is it exactly that Hyundai wants to develop there?
Hyundai say the new, 3 050 m2, facility will be used by engineers at the Hyundai’s Research and Development Centre in Rüsselsheim, Germany, to improve all manner of quality and driving performance aspects of their European-designed and designated vehicles. Reaffirming its commitment to compete with the top brands around the world, Nürburgring testing in Germany will enable the company to develop even further the driving dynamics, reliability and durability of future vehicles.
We suspect, or more to put it more accurately, hope, that this move could be the first part of a long-term plan for Hyundai to enter the world of high-performance vehicles. Hyundai is also engaging more seriously in Motorsport related activities these days. They want to be back in the WRC, they took recent victories at Pikes Peak, and perhaps they have plans to take Hyundai onto the track with a circuit racing programme in the future?
Allan Rushforth, Senior Vice President and COO of the Hyundai Motor Company Europe, commented: “The new Hyundai test centre at Nürburgring is an expression of our intention to focus on improving the customer experience of our vehicles, such as ride and handling. The new centre represents a significant investment and one we expect will significantly contribute to enhancing the perception of the Hyundai brand and our key competitive competence in Europe.”
