If I get asked to describe this event with hashtags, i would definetly use the following, #Hyundai i30 N, #TCR, #acceleration, #grip, #awesomeness and #Bilster Berg !
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To clarify my instruction, at the 19th and 20th of october Hyundai Motor Germany invited us to a racetrack which is called “Bilster Berg”. It is a very curvy track with a lots of up and downs and many people who drove there said it is the Nurburgring in small.
Even when the layout, on the first look, do not look hard to drive i can tell you now it is a very demanding track.
There is for example a very tight curve where you start at 26% steep hill downwards, race into the curve and after a 21% pitch upwards you drove without seeing it into the next right leading corner.
The track was invented by Herrmann Tilke and Walter Röhrl. It is additionally a fairly new track which was build in 2013.
The track can also be seen in the video at the end of the article.
It can be said that the decision for this racetrack for an i30 N event was very well considered. It is nearly perfect for an i30 N which is not some kind of drag-monster but has one of the best agility in his class. Especially when you consider the keen price.
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But back to the event itself, the only bad thing about the event was the limitation to 50 cars.
The first day at the racetrack started with a track-walk where the guides explained nuances of the track and started to teach you the racing line. We got divided to 5 groups to get a better utilization of the guides and our time. Beside the track-walk there have been a security-training with dynamic-handling test, “brake and avoid” test and after we completed this we were able to drive our first rounds on the track with a trackguide leading us.
At the end of the day we finished with a great meal at a restaurant and many conversations about our experiences of the first day.
The second day started with a warm welcome from Hyundai Motor Germany and afterwards we went straight to the track. This time our activity pool had many options to choose from.
For example, single coaching of the racetrack, video analysis of your driving skills and as a highlight there was the current i30 N TCR car which was driven by Luca Engstler who is actually driving it in the german ADAC TCR Championship.
We managed to get into the co-pilot seat and started some rounds with the TCR.
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Trust me, i have driven in many fast cars, but a TCR Racecar is somewhat special. After i folded myself into the bucketseat, long legs are bad when you have a full roll cage, i got tightened into the 6point harnesses and after a short check we started our way towards the racetrack.
My intention to film the drive was instantly thrown away when we entered the first corner. Even when the car has roughly 350hp at around 2645 lb and does the 0-60mph in 5.1 seconds, the lateral force is insane!
Luca Engstler pushed the car indeed to the limits. Do not get me wrong, he had the full control over the car at all time, but the ability to drive through corners is way beyond normal. There are not many cars who has this kind of agility and it comes really close to cars like a KTM Xbow.
In this moments you instantly start to think about your own car. In my mind i was planning for a semi-slick, a turbo-upgrade and a rear-seat removal…
Since the TCR made some very decent round times, the time as a co-driver was faster off then i wanted to. I realy wanted to spend more time in the car and on the track, but other people where waiting for their testdrive too.
In the end we wanted to thank Hyundai Germany for this awesome and super organized weekend and hope there will be more Driving Academy events in the future.
We have some additional impressions (and the racetrack at the end) in the video below.
