Hyundai i30 N Performance gets closer as Hyundai tackle the Nurburgring 24h

The Hyundai i30 N Performace’s arrival is getting closer as Hyundai enter an i30 N Performance development car in the Nurburgring 24h Race this weekend.

Much of the news from Hyundai of late has been on the luxury Genesis brand, but Hyundai are opening up new markets on two fronts at the moment, with the N Performance sub-brand looking to deliver performance cars for the road as Genesis aims to garner premium sales.

We’ve already has a tease for the Hyundai i30 Turbo N Performance late last year, but Hyundai must be getting closer to delivering a production model as they’ve entered an i30 N development car in to this coming weekend’s Nurburgring 24h Race (pictured above).

Hyundai will actually race three cars in the 24h – an i30 Turbo and Veloster Turbo as well as the i30 N development car – as they use the gruelling race to better understand the new car’s performance and technology ahead of a production car launch.

Hyundai say the new 2.0 litre Turbo i30 N is 40 per cent new, with a newly-developed engine as well as uprated gearbox, suspension and dampers, and upgrades to the wheels and steering too.

Albert Biermann, Hyundai’s Vehicle Testing boss, said:

This Nürburgring 24h race provides the ideal test bed for our motorsport-inspired N sub-brand development and a key part of our ‘born at Namyang, honed at Nürburgring’ performance-car ethos. The technological inspiration and experience gained from this extreme testing will accelerate our development of high-performance, fun-to-drive N model.

The development car for the i30 N sports a very aggressive body kit, which seems unlikely to make it in to a production car, but the 2,640 mile race should be a proper workout for the new i30N ahead of a production debut.