We tackle a tarmac rally course aboard the newest member of Hyundai’s i30 N family
Hyundai has made leaps and bounds in Australia in the past 20 years. The transformation from cheap and cheerful to an established and trusted OEM has filled numerous pages on this very website.
But some of the Korean’s biggest watershed acceptance moments have not been on the showroom floor, but at race circuits.
Imagine turning up to a motorsport event or even a casual track day in a Hyundai a handful of years ago. You would have been laughed out of the paddock.
Now, with the advent of Hyundai’s N division and its first two proponents, the i30 N hot hatch and the newer i30 Fastback N, Hyundai is not just on the fringe of the motorsport paddock. It’s in the thick of it.
It won the inaugural carsales TCR Australia Series this year, is an ever-present force in the World Rally Championship and has ramped up its tarmac rally efforts in Australian events including Targa Tasmania.
Better yet, the engineering and feedback partially borne out of motorsport has given Hyundai the confidence to back its N products with a track-friendly warranty when attending casual circuit days.
Evidence of Hyundai’s transformation was overwhelming when carsales was hosted by the manufacturer at a motorsport event in Sydney’s west this month.
Grass roots
We’re at round three of the Whiteline Twilight Rally Sprint series held at Eastern Creek. Hyundai has offered up an i30 Fastback N to take on the hordes of Mitsubishi Evos, Subaru WRXs and Porsche 911s, plus a tail-happy Holden Commodore SS ute.
There’s nothing particularly ‘factory’ about this smoky Sydney evening. The usual quick shade adorned in Hyundai N branding has been left in the van due to occasional gusts of wind and there’s a refreshingly casual atmosphere among the small crew of technicians. Being December, this approach is perfect.
The car is stock too, complete with a 202kW 2.0-litre turbo-petrol four and six-speed manual transmission. But its athletic origins and grippy Pirelli P Zero tyres ought to give us a fighting chance at slipping into the top quartet of the 90 or competitors on the time sheets.
Kicking off around dusk, you get five runs at the circa 3.5km tarmac course, each spaced about an hour apart. Our co-driver for the event is Fro Horobin, a seasoned rally campaigner and all-round good guy.
The course is a makeshift mix of tight, hairpin-style corners that flow onto fast, often undulating straightaways. Big braking moments are plentiful, typically making for glowing discs and long pedals.
The biggest variable is that of light; you start without lights but by the last run of the night you are fully reliant on high beams (in our case augmented by a light bar attached to the i30 N’s front grille).
We’re no stranger to the well-run Whiteline series. In years gone by we’ve turned up in Peugeots, Volkswagens, BMWs and Toyotas – but never a Hyundai.
Big under brakes
The casual approach to the evening manifests inside the cabin. Fro and I sidle up to the start line, talking shop, Christmas and family, when we’re told it’s go-time in 30 seconds.
I build revs as the final seconds count down, release the last bit of clutch pedal and settle in.
Being front-drive and manual, there’s a certain finesse and patience required to achieve outright speed, but it’s rewarding nonetheless.
Add in the Fastback’s added weight, softer front springs, reworked front dampers with softer bump stops and small diameter anti-roll bar over the regular i30 N hatch, and it’s clear that weight transitions are vital.
With that said, the i30 Fastback N is incredibly malleable, even on a tight, twisting and somewhat foreign course. It absorbs the varying asphalt superbly and harnesses its mass cleanly, turning in positively through fast corners and forgiving the occasional mid-corner adjustment.
Confidence in the i30 N’s dynamics is cultivated throughout the night, be it through its planted, surefooted weight transfers and unbranded brakes, with rotors measuring 345mm up front.
Throughout countless big braking moments, the pedal feels responsive and reasonably resistant to fade. The initial bite of the pedal softens slightly after one particular braking moment from high speed (north of 160km/h), but even towards the end of the last run of the night, there’s dependable stopping power.
What separates this hot hatch experience from most others, however, is a proper mechanical front differential. Power down is excellent and the front-drive underpinnings reward aggressive but considered driving instead of impeding them.
There’s ample firepower, too, the engine crackling and popping as we shuffle the six-speed manual. It’s an involving combination and the manual has a smooth, engaging shift pattern – even if it doesn’t offer the requisite feel of something from BMW or Porsche.
The i30 Fastback N delivers no nasty surprises throughout the evening. In fact, the biggest misadventures typically arose from driver error, arriving too hot into a corner and inducing understeer.
But even then, the chassis feedback and electronic aids are such that you can roll through it and get back on the gas.
The defining moment
The upshot of our five runs is this: we place 24th overall in a field of 90-odd cars. Of those numbers, we’re third-fastest in front-drive cars, beaten only by Hyundai’s own Brendan Reeves in a modified i30 N hatch, and a highly fettled Golf GTI.
So, is a Hyundai i30 Fastback N track-friendly? Unequivocally so, it seems.
Throughout our five runs, admittedly over intervals spaced an hour apart, the i30 N Fastback simply relays what other track tests have already told us: the brakes are dependable (within reason, they will ultimately fade over continued laps of punishment), the engine, driveline and internals are seemingly immune to hot temperatures, and the car is relatively easy on consumables when driven properly.
But the defining moment arrives well after the night is finished, when a technician spots me looking over the wear and tear on the car’s brakes and tyres.
“Those are the original brake pads and rotors,” he informs me. “All we do after each event like this is flush out the brake fluid, using high quality stuff to replace it.
“The tyres are original too, we’ve just rotated them so we get more life out of the fronts. I can see you’ve looked after the fronts fairly well tonight, so there’s not too much feathering on the outside tread.”
All this on a car that is just about to clock 10,000km and has endured countless assessments from unforgiving motoring journalists – including the national launch at The Bend and at least two twilight rallies before the one we attended.
This Whiteline tarmac rally series isn’t covered by Hyundai’s track warranty because it is a timed competition event, but the fact the i30 Fastback N can stand up to this level of punishment is impressive.
We throw the helmet in the boot and head through the smoky air for the front gate. It’s time to go home, riding shotgun in a car that has just earned itself a newfound street-cred.
Keyword: How track-worthy is the Hyundai i30 Fastback N?