Ever since Hyundai announced it was forming the ‘N’ division, there have been rumours of an exclusive range-topper. We read on TopGear that Hyundai is planning to launch a bespoke, ground-up performance car.
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After we seen and drive its production models, like the i30 N, the Veloster N or the soon to come i30 N Fastback, looks like Hyundai’s N performance brand is ready & set to develop its own standalone vehicle according to what company’s boss of high-performance vehicle planning Gyoo Heon Choi said in an interview with Top Gear
Hyundai has confirmed it is indeed doing a ‘halo model’ for its N-performance sub-brand. Speaking with TopGear, they said it will ride on a bespoke platform, which is excellent (though there will be some “sharing”), but the company’s remaining tight-lipped about everything else.
Gyoo Heon Choi, the company’s boss of high-performance vehicle planning, says Hyundai “needs something to further improve [its] high performance image”. “The base model [i30N] is not enough. Volume-wise it’s good, but it’s just a derivative [of the normal i30]. We need something unique and powerful to live at the top of the hierarchy,” he says. “At the top is motorsports, then just behind that is halo and then comes the N models.”
Klaus Köster is Hyundai’s director of high-performance vehicle development. All he’ll tell us is that this mystery-car will be a “blast”. “Everything else, I could tell you,” he says, “but afterwards there are two possibilities. Either I would have to kill you, or use those things from Men In Black”.
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Whatever form this halo car does eventually take, it will follow the same basic principles of N and the i30, and indeed other as-yet unseen N products. “We have a philosophy you can take it from the dealer to the racetrack and you can have some fun without having to renew the whole car after half a lap,” says Klaus. “This philosophy in general will stay I think. And that’s the topic that we will then take into account by choosing what combination and direction we are heading.”
Is it not clear what type of car or when could arrive this halo model, but it is pretty sure that we need to wait a few years to see it. The most insistent rumour talks about a mid-engine model that could use the new currently on development Theta-3 engine.
This engine is set to be released late this year on the all-new generation 2019 Genesis G80. The new Theta-3 four-cylinder engines is beeing developed to fit on front-wheel drive, rear-wheel drive, and mid-engine cars, so this means that Hyundai could have in the future a production variant of RM30.
According to industry sources, FWD Turbo models will deliver 280 hp and RWD T-GDi models would get 300 hp. The current 2.0-liter T-GDi engine used in the Sonata whitin other models delivers 245 hp.
