Affordable performance for Hyundai i30 N Sport

After last week’s rendezvous at the Nurburgring, Hyundai has confirmed that the i30 will be the brand’s first full-grown N-Sport model. Veloster Turbo aside, the Hyundai i30 N-Sport will be the brand’s most convincing assault on a market dominated by VW Golf GTi, Ford Focus ST and Renault Megane RS.

Fostering a turbo charged 2.0-litre engine the i30 N-Sport will need to compare with these well-defined credentials; power in the region of 170-200 kilowatts, acceleration to 100km/h in under 7 seconds and a top speed of 250km/h.

Forgoing the all-wheel drive route because of spiralling costs, the i30 N-Sport will be packaged around a conventional front-wheel drive layout and will initially deliver drive through a 6-speed manual gearbox followed later by a modified version of Hyundai’s dual clutch system. It’s also Hyundai’s first road car to receive a limited slip front differential.

The new Hyundai i30 N-Sport differs to the standard model through a variety of performance-focussed upgrades including new dampers, different wheels, bigger brakes, wider bumpers and fatter alloys. The revised exhaust system should prompt some throttle ping-pong at the red lights.

The project has been overseen by N-Sport boss Albert Biermann who in 2014 left his post as vice president of engineering at BMW’s M performance car. He has already stated that Hyundai’s goal with N-Sport is to make performance accessible – if early reports are accurate and the Rand stabilises the i30 N-Sport could hit showrooms for under R400 000.

The N-Sport sub-division should blossom with far-reaching effects and has been linked to the company’s luxury division, Genesis. Once it has established a foothold, N-Sport could play a later role in the company’s plug-in hybrid strategy (with the ioniq).

“We will go into different markets and regions with N,” Biermann said. “We will also develop high-performance cars for the Genesis brand but they won’t have the N badge. N is just the sub-label for Hyundai cars. We have everything available,” he said. “It’s too early now , but the time will come soon definitely.”

Many of the production car’s components will be tested during this week’s Nurburgring 24hr race.

Biermann added: “This 24-hour race provides the ideal test bed for our motorsport-inspired N brand development and a key part of our ‘born at Namyang, honed at Nürburgring’ performance-car ethos. The technological inspiration and experience gained from this extreme testing will accelerate our development of high-performance, fun-to-drive N brand models.”