While Hyundai released today the first official images of its i20 N, Hyundai Motorsport also shared the first pictures and details of the i20 N for Customer Racing department’s after five years of experience with the i20 R5.
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The car is based on the strong foundation of the new road-going i20 N chassis. The i20 N brings the high-performance of Hyundai’s N brand to the i20 range for the first time, and in doing so creates a hatchback with race track capability and motorsport-derived performance.
The i20 N Rally2 retains the dynamic look of the road car – part of Hyundai’s new ‘Sensuous Sportiness’ identity – which includes several elements inspired by motorsport.
“The i20 R5 was the first car from Hyundai Motorsport Customer Racing department, and the new i20 N Rally2 shows how far we have come in the five years since the foundation of the department,” said Team Principal Andrea Adamo. “Every area of the new car is an improvement over the original, thanks to the work of our dedicated team of designers and engineers.”
With the exception of the five-speed sequential gearbox from the i20 R5, nearly every other part of the i20 N Rally2 is brand new, including the 1.6 litre turbocharged engine.
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The design process began in January 2020 with a specialised group of designers and engineers leveraging the experience of the i20 R5 project. In doing so, they have been able to take advantage of the fantastic growth of Customer Racing since 2015, which has seen the department grow from a handful of people to a team of 60.
The development of the i20 R5 has continued, with the engineers providing several updates to the original car in recent seasons to improve handling and performance. The i20 N Rally2 carries over these enhancements, with the new chassis allowing further gains in nearly every aspect of the car.
New suspension components and dampers give the car more driver-friendly handling characteristics on all surfaces – vital for the Rally2 category, which forms the basis for national and regional championships as well as WRC 2 and WRC 3 classes.
The i20 N Rally2 will aim to continue the success of the i20 R5, which has claimed numerous titles with customers since its debut in 2016. Our i20 R5 customer teams will continue to receive the same high level of support, uninterrupted by the development of the new car.
“Our focus is now on testing the i20 N Rally2 to further develop each aspect of the design to improve performance and reliability, while also ensuring the handling enables each of our customers to achieve the best possible results when the start competing with the car in 2021,” concluded Andrea.
