Hyundai Benchmarks Mid-Engined Sports Cars at Nurburgring

Why is Hyundai Benchmarking Sports Cars?

The Nurburgring has lately been the illuminating site of Hyundai testing an Alpine A110S sports vehicle, and this has kindled talk of the South Korean carmaker developing a real sports car. YouTuber and Nurburgring coach Misha Charoudin caught sight of the auto in the parking lot over an exclusive day for automotive enterprises to use the ‘Green Hell’ for product evaluation and development. His attention was drawn to license plates starting with GG HY, which are trademark of vehicles used by Hyundai such as the Honda Civic Type R and Volkswagen T-Roc R. This makes sense, seeing that these are natural competitors of Hyundai’s i30 N, Veloster N, and Kona N performance models. Nevertheless, Hyundai is yet to acquire any two-seater sport vehicle within its inventory, and so why precisely it is assessing the A110S?

There could be a couple explanations for this. To start, Hyundai might have noticed certain qualities in the A110S that it believes all N vehicles should be built with. Since the N brand’s development and guidance was formerly maintained by Dr. Albert Biermann of BMW M, it is quite likely that N desires to maintain the A110’s riding experience, even while creating a sporty hatchback or performance crossover.

Currently, the development of the high-powered Ioniq 5 N performance EV is underway. An even weight distribution from front to back has been achieved through the utilization of a flat skateboard chassis, indicating that Hyundai may be hoping to draw inspiration from the A110’s structure when it comes to achieving a balanced driving experience similar to what would be expected by a mid-engine sports car.

An additional potential is that Hyundai desires to construct a sporting auto and they are taking into account all pertinent details ahead of introducing it. This is not something we can disregard, as Hyundai has often indulged in the notion of making a sports vehicle or even a supercar. The N Vision 74 hydrogen-powered sports car concept made a strong declaration lately, with firm administrators asserting there are personnel within the organization who ardently wish for a halo product to be produced for sale.

Hyundai had prior spoken regarding designs for a supercar, but in 2017 determined the plan was too expensive and would have an estimated cost of $150k. Furthermore, Hyundai, in conjunction with Rimac, gave designs for two sports cars – an electric one, and an alternative powered by hydrogen fuel cells – only for Porsche to purchase a majority share in Bugatti-Rimac which caused these ideas to be abolished. Prior to the arrival of the N Vision 74 and the RN22e CR concept, that is, an Ioniq 6 with all electric performance, Hyundai and Rimac had called off the blueprint.

It is widely speculated that an N variant of the Ioniq 6 could possibly be released, and its mid-engine design should afford it top-notch handling abilities to take command of the electric performance market.

An additional possibility, yet the most improbable in our estimation, is that Hyundai might be planning a mid-engined sports vehicle. Originally, in 2014 the corporation surveyed consumer interest by introducing the Hyundai PassoCorto model at the Geneva Motor Show, which experienced immense recognition. Despite the attentive and enthusiastic reception, however, the project never advanced further than the design concept stage. Subsequent to the remarkable present of RM show cars, we are still led to believe that these were likely implemented as trial tools for scientific expertise instead of true projects or declarations of resolve.

Hyundai N has still declared their loyalty to regular fuel engines for their performance vehicles, thus an automobile powered by gasoline may potentially be a scheme. Though the production of a sole-designed platform for a merchandise that could have a restricted time frame (such as the Toyota GR86, which has been terminated in parts of Europe due to stringent exhaust emission regulation) makes this option not feasible.