LONG-TERMERS
This new kid on the hot hatch block has wowed us in its early tests. Can it now hold our attention as a long-term prospect?
Hello i30 N and SEAT Ibiza FR, farewell Lexus RC F and Alfa Giulia Quadrifoglio. Our 208 and DS 3 also go head-to-head
DEEP IN EVO’S SERVERS IS A document listing every vehicle we’ve tested in print since the magazine started in 1998. It’s a bit of a nostalgia trip, seeing now-defunct brands such as Marcos and Saab cropping up in the list, and being reminded of vehicles that you wouldn’t necessarily expect to see in our pages. Remember the Peel P50 we tested in issue 154? Remember the Cadillac BLS at
all? But today those were mere distractions. I was delving into the list not to marvel over obscurities, but in search of heritage.
Hyundai’s history with performance cars has been a patchy one. Way back in issue 009 we drove the Hyundai Coupe F2 Evolution. A homage to the brand’s successful F2 rally car, it was expensive next to some stiff coupe competition, but looked distinctive and drove surprisingly well. The cartoonish facelift that followed wasn’t so appealing, but Hyundai’s subsequent V6-powered Coupe was a better effort. The Genesis coupe tested in issue 131 never made it to the UK, but issue 157’s Veloster did – and never quite hit the spot. So, that the Hyundai i30 N you see here is already one of our favourite hot hatchbacks is a mark of just how seriously we now take a brand that has often attempted, but never quite succeeded, in kindling evo’s fire.
It was a pleasure, therefore, to be handed the key to EN67 LVE and informed that I’d be running it for the next 12 months. I’d joined James Disdale and Will Beaumont on our triple test featuring the Hyundai in issue 245 and our verdict was unanimously in the i30’s favour. I’d expected to like it, but not to be enthralled to such a degree by its ultra-precise front end, snappy gearshift and entertaining soundtrack, crackling its way across Dartmoor in a way that made it feel like a Group A rally car had snuck into our test by mistake.
Like that test car, our long-term example is a Performance model, with the full 271bhp and £27,995 basic price. As such, it also gets 19-inch alloy wheels rather than 18s (wrapped in Pirelli P Zeros), an electronically controlled limited-slip diff, an active exhaust and uprated brakes. Unlike the car we tested, Hyundai’s signature Performance Blue has made way for Phantom Black (both £585), which adds something to the i30 N’s basic shape that the insipid racing blue doesn’t quite manage.
Two things have struck me over my first month with the N. The first is that it might be a difficult car to hang on to, with photographer Aston Parrott and deputy editor Adam Towler already snatching the key from my grasp – and upon their return babbling effusively about popping exhausts and meaty steering. The second is that the 50-litre fuel tank might start to grate if the i30 continues returning 30-ish miles to every gallon. In theory that’s around 330 miles of range, which isn’t desperately bad, but in practice it needs topping-up every 250 miles or so.
One of my first missions (after ensuring my wallet is always within easy reach,
apparently) will be to decipher the astonishing combination of settings hidden within the car’s N mode. Throttle response, rev-matching, E-LSD eagerness, exhaust sound, damper firmness, steering weight and stability control intervention can all be adjusted through several stages. Some seem like sporting tokenism, but others, I suspect, might be quite useful – and I’m looking forward to discovering which is which.
‘I’d expected to like it, but not to be enthralled to such a degree’