Miniature hero
We know the i20N is huge fun on track and for hectic B-road blasts. But as an everyday car? Let’s find out.
Welcome aboard our new Hyundai i20N. With a weighty-feeling, fat-rimmed steering wheel in my hands (complete with quick-flick drive-mode shortcut buttons), firm suspension rat-a-tatting through the smart-looking, plump-bolstered sports seat and a raspy exhaust note in my ears, it’s definitely an N car.
Rewind to 2017 and not many people really know what an N car is, or how it feels. Hyundai’s N sub-brand is in its infancy and cynicism is rife. A performance sub-brand from Hyundai? A bit like M division? Eh?
Today, N’s part of the furniture. Thanks to a combination of solid marketing and a more than solid first car – the i30N – it’s hard to remember a time when its babyblue signature colours and Brian Blessed exhaust volumes weren’t a part of the hot-hatch landscape.
The i30N hasn’t been the only N model – there’s the Veloster overseas and a new Kona N crossover has just landed – but it’s the i30 that’s done the majority of the heavy lifting for N’s credibility, and set the template for how an N car feels. With its big personality and brawny feel, it’s become a modern classic. Now here’s its most intriguing, most exciting followup. The i20N is a chance to see if the same attributes that make the i30N such a crowd-pleaser can be applied just as well to a smaller, cheaper, hot supermini.
On first listen, seems Hyundai’s aced the dicult second album: the i20N’s already charmed in the 300-mile test (CAR, May 2021), and up against great small hot hatches old and new in Ben Oliver’s test in the August issue. While the GR Yaris won the day, the cheaper i20N more or less level-pegged with the benchmark Fiesta ST and put up a good fight against iconic modern classics like the RS Clio and Peugeot 205 GTI. What’s more, in November’s Sports Car Giant Test the plucky i20N weighed in £15k cheaper than its nearest competitor (and £515k less than the Ferrari SF90) and by no means disgraced itself.
Now a chance to understand how the i20N fares as a long player; as a package to live with every day. Like anyone counting down the days to a new toy arriving, ⊲