Hyundai’s first hot hatch gets a high five

LINCOLNSHIRE is not all flat. There are hills and there is a racing circuit called Cadwell Park that even has a section on it called The Mountain.

Bikers, and in particular followers of the British Superbike championship, will be very familiar with it.

It’s my favourite British circuit, not least because it is surrounded by trees and greenery. Good news then that Hyundai chose it to launch its new i30n, the first serious hot hatch the company has built. We got to drive it on the track, then – assuming we’d not rolled it into a ball of scrap

– on some of Lincolnshire’s blissfully traffic-free roads.

My suspicion was that the i30n was going to be a good car. Why? Because Hyundai has never made this sort of car before and would probably not do so again if it bungled the first attempt.

Second, because the Korean company has been competing in the World Rally Championship and will have learnt a great deal about building high performance hatchbacks. Hyundai i30n Performance five-door hatchback

Price: £27,995

Engine: 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo, 271bhp 0-62mph: 6.1sec Fuel consumption: 40.0mpg

And third, because a couple of years ago Hyundai poached a bloke called Albert Biermann from BMW. Herr Biermann’s job at BMW was running the M division, the outfit that creates cars like the M4 and M5. The i30n is not a good car. It’s a brilliant one.

First, a run down of the specification. There are two versions of it: the standard i30n and the i30n Performance, which we’re testing.

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