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Written by Ollie Kew
Imagine you"re vice-president of engineering at BMW"s M Division. Well done you. One day, Hyundai comes calling, offering you a job creating a new line of hot hatches. You"d have to be fairly confident you"d get your own way, right? Ditching a world of 500bhp supersaloons for unproven Korean pocket rockets takes quite some conviction.Albert Biermann did just that in 2014, and two years later, TG.com is catching up with Hyundai"s Head of Vehicle Test & High Performance Development at the N rburgring. This is the home of the N" cars.We"re invited into the tennis court-sized, clinically clean garage of the 6.6million Hyundai R&D centre which overlooks the Nordschleife"s Dottinger Hohe straight. The Tron-spec bulling opened in 2011, as a base for Hyundai to test new cars to breaking point around the Ring.One well-used i30 mule is up on ramps to the left, a heavily disguised new-gen i30 rests next to it. Both have survived the Hyundai torture chamber."We test at Nardo, in the Alps, on the roadbut the N rburgring is a big challenge", explains Biermann. "Our durability test for every new car is 480 laps. That"s 10,000km running at 90 per cent of maximum performance. Ten per cent of the laps are run in wet conditions." Is that all? At the Ring a dry day is rarer than a sober spectator at BrunchenSo, what are the crucial bits Hyundai has had to change for the new i30 N (not the finalised name, we"re told), due in 2017?"We want three things: great brakes, great turn-in and high power", says Albert. "We have our 2.0-litre engine, but it needs a strong clutch as this will be a manual car. The gearbox has been made stronger and more precise. We have a better tyre [a Michelin Pilot Super Sport, as worn by the likes of the Peugeot 308 GTi], and better aero. We need to work on reducing drag the road car does not need a lot of downforce."
Date written: 3 Jun 2016
More of this article on the Top gear website
ID: 3694
Imagine you"re vice-president of engineering at BMW"s M Division. Well done you. One day, Hyundai comes calling, offering you a job creating a new line of hot hatches. You"d have to be fairly confident you"d get your own way, right? Ditching a world of 500bhp supersaloons for unproven Korean pocket rockets takes quite some conviction.Albert Biermann did just that in 2014, and two years later, TG.com is catching up with Hyundai"s Head of Vehicle Test & High Performance Development at the N rburgring. This is the home of the N" cars.We"re invited into the tennis court-sized, clinically clean garage of the 6.6million Hyundai R&D centre which overlooks the Nordschleife"s Dottinger Hohe straight. The Tron-spec bulling opened in 2011, as a base for Hyundai to test new cars to breaking point around the Ring.One well-used i30 mule is up on ramps to the left, a heavily disguised new-gen i30 rests next to it. Both have survived the Hyundai torture chamber."We test at Nardo, in the Alps, on the roadbut the N rburgring is a big challenge", explains Biermann. "Our durability test for every new car is 480 laps. That"s 10,000km running at 90 per cent of maximum performance. Ten per cent of the laps are run in wet conditions." Is that all? At the Ring a dry day is rarer than a sober spectator at BrunchenSo, what are the crucial bits Hyundai has had to change for the new i30 N (not the finalised name, we"re told), due in 2017?"We want three things: great brakes, great turn-in and high power", says Albert. "We have our 2.0-litre engine, but it needs a strong clutch as this will be a manual car. The gearbox has been made stronger and more precise. We have a better tyre [a Michelin Pilot Super Sport, as worn by the likes of the Peugeot 308 GTi], and better aero. We need to work on reducing drag the road car does not need a lot of downforce."
Date written: 3 Jun 2016
More of this article on the Top gear website
ID: 3694
