They don’t make them like they used to. Completed in 1961, Canadian Tire Motorsports Park – née Mosport – is a fearsome track that dodges, dives, and weaves through the Ontario hills. You can’t make a track like this anymore. The huge elevation drops unsettle cars, the blind corners are too dangerous, and the proximity of trees to the tight corners make it nightmare to film for television. Over the years, most of the famous race tracks on this rock, like California’s Laguna Seca, have been widened, smoothed-out, and made bare for easy TV coverage. Not Mosport. It’s still a bastard.
And it was into this setting I was invited to learn how to become a better driver from the very best drivers. My instructor for the day would be Daniel Bois, a man who spends his workweek teaching NASCAR drivers how to race on a road course. That is, when he isn’t racing himself. This is basically like getting Chuck Yeager to show you the ropes on a Cessna 172, but you’re doing it at Edmund Hillary Airport in Nepal. Okay, bad analogy—maybe the cars I’d be using weren’t exactly Cessnas.
Hyundai’s N track day at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park in July 2022 Photo by Hyundai
Hyundai’s N track day at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park in July 2022 Photo by Hyundai
Hyundai’s N track day at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park in July 2022 Photo by Clayton Seams
Hyundai’s N track day at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park in July 2022 Photo by Hyundai
Hyundai’s N track day at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park in July 2022 Photo by Clayton Seams
Hyundai’s N track day at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park in July 2022 Photo by Hyundai
Hyundai, our host, had a fleet of Elantra and Konas ready to go for our track day. Both were the sportiest N models. The notion of Hyundai hosting a track day with its own pro race-car drivers in attendance would be laughable 15 years ago. It really does speak for the supersonic, exponential bounds of progress that Hyundai has made, from being “that company that made the Pony”; to a true design leader and purveyor of cars you can, well, take to a track day. What a time to be alive.
The importance of a good instructor
I have driven on race tracks before, but I couldn’t say I’ve exactly enjoyed it. I felt like good lap times were a dream, and I was mostly preoccupied with keeping someone else’s very nice car out of the wall for several laps. But Bois quickly put me at ease. He never rushed me or pressured me, and I constantly thanked him for his patience with my fledgling abilities. Contrary to what I had been so thoroughly taught in the prestigious school of Playstation racing games, smoothness was my friend. Bois guided me on how to be smooth with all my inputs — even the act of lifting off the gas should be done with grace and confidence.
Hyundai’s N track day at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park in July 2022 Photo by Hyundai
For the first time ever, I was enjoying a lap on a race track; Bois’ guidance was helping me see down blind corners and building my confidence lap after lap. I’m sure it was a walking pace for a guy like him, but for the first time ever my driving felt fast. After four stints of five laps each, I felt like I had gained a year of driving knowledge. I needed to drive home in silence just to absorb it.
But it wasn’t just Bois’ instructional talent that shone that day — the little Hyundais did, too. I have been on track days for much pricier models of cars where they need to be cooled down before returning to the track. But these Hyundai N models kept going out again and again, lap after lap, without complaint. All day I never smelled brakes, and the cooling fans seemed hardly bothered by ceaseless circuits at wide-open throttle.
2022 Hyundai Elantra N
The Hyundai Elantra N is a thoroughly modern sports sedan. It retails for a reasonable $39,653, and for that money you get a 2.0L turbocharged engine driving the front wheels, active exhaust, E-LSD, a rear strut brace, and large performance brakes not shared with any other Hyundai model. The engine makes 276 hp unless you use the overboost function – dubbed “N Grin Shift” – which temporarily boosts output to 283 hp. A six-speed manual is standard, but for $1,600 you can opt for a dry-type eight-speed dual-clutch transmission which, again, is a unique transmission in the Hyundai lineup.
On track, the Elantra N seriously impressive. It’s very rare to find a reasonably priced car with back seats that can be driven every day, but also tracked all day if you so choose. The Elantra N is equally at home nailing douple-apex corners; and commuting to and from work. For under $40k, I think this cannot be topped in the sports sedan segment. The brakes never even hinted at going soft, and the 2.0L turbo propelled us to over 235 km/h down the uphill back straight! And that was without the overboost function.
This is a ton of car for the money. Hyundai has spent years poaching the very best talent from other automakers, and the result is a car that feels like a German sports sedan for roughly half the price of the real thing.
Hyundai’s N track day at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park in July 2022 Photo by Hyundai
2022 Hyundai Kona N
I also spent considerable seat time in the Kona N compact CUV, a car which my colleague Elle drove around Sonoma Raceway. Many people have highly praised the Kona N for its likeness to a hot hatch, and for its surprisingly playful nature. Maybe I would have reacted more positively if I hadn’t just hopped out of the world-class Elantra N. Though they share the same FWD I4 turbo drivetrain, the compromises of the basic CUV layout are too easy to feel. Compared to the composed Elantra, the Kona feels wobbly and soft. The Kona is also $2,900 more, at $42,553. While equally indefatigable at the track day, in my opinion it was nowhere near as satisfying on track as the Elantra.
But for a compact CUV, and a relatively affordable one at that, the Kona N pretty much does it all. It’s still FWD like the Elantra, but if you just like to sit up high, then it could certainly be a do-it-all car for you.
If you can’t be lucky enough to have a talent like Daniel Bois in the passenger seat coaching you, the best thing you could do is to have a car that you can take to the track lap after lap to hone your skills. For that purpose, the Hyundai N models are about as practical as a track car can get. Both are every-day driveable and have room for four people and plenty of luggage. They also do this at an attainable price point with reasonable consumable costs for things like tires and brake pads. You may not be a racing driver, but with the right car on the right track, you may have a chance to feel like one.
Keyword: Track Test: 2022 Hyundai Elantra N