GOING TURBO
Hyundai’s hot hatch a bargain ... and a hoot
Cruising the Red River bottoms, I already had the 2019 Hyundai Veloster Turbo Ultimate well over the speed limit when the road swept left onto a bluff. Ahead laid a long straightaway followed by a broad, constant-radius turn to the right.
Never out- drive the eyes is my rule and all I could see for the next mile or two was pasture and road. No driveways. No trucks. No dogs. No cows. Not even a jackrabbit. I toggled the seven-speed, dual-clutch automatic transmission over to manual mode and punched it.
In that millisecond all kinds of things happened. An 8-inch head-up display, centered low in my line of site, ceased showing a sedate green panel of speed, navigation, cruise control and safety information. Instead I saw a bright red semicircle tachometer wrapped around bright, easy-to-read displays of speed and transmission gear.
The turbocharged, 1.6-liter, direct-injected, four-cylinder engine spooled up faster than a cheetah on a gazelle and was off like lightning arcing across a summer sky. Our heads snapped backed and stayed pressed against the leather seatbacks. With 201 horses pulling a dainty 2,800 lbs., the little sportster has one of the best horsepowerratios to be found this side of a rally car. As it neared top end, an overboost function lifted torque output from 195 to 201 lb-ft., meaning it did not get winded at top end. It just kept getting faster.
The sense of speed was made all the greater by an exhaust note that coursed through the premium, eight-speaker sound system. It sounded like someone had spent a great deal of money to upgrade the twin, chrome-tipped exhaust.
Grabs the road
Hyundai speed-limits the Veloster turbo to 130 mph, but we didn’t push it quite that far. Instead, we backed off the throttle and swung out to line up on the curve’s apex. That’s when Boy Wonder observed that the light, but rigid chassis had just enough body lean to put weight where it belongs, on the outside front wheel.
Though we couldn’t feel it, the Veloster was working hard to keep us between the lines. The turbo’s sporttuned suspension has stiffer sway bars than Velosters running with a normally2.0-L engine. All trim lines come with McPherson struts up front and independent, multilink setup in the rear—that’s best practice these days.
In addition, all Veloster models come with torque vectoring control, which uses inputs from the electronic stability control coupled with wheel-speed sensor to apply precise braking to the inside front wheel in a turn. That reduces wheel spin and improves cornering grip and allows for quicker exit acceleration.
So, while the Veloster Turbo’s engine may sound like a Tokyo drifter on a tear, it handles as nimbly as something