Red Mist

After months of hype, Hyundai's new hot hatch has finally landed on Aussie soil and it’s here to give the Golf GTI the blues.

WHEN Hyundai announced the hero colour of N, its new performance brand that would take on the world, it said it was inspired by the “limitlessness” of our atmosphere. Yet, while its choice of Sky Blue doesn’t strike us as the most intimidating war paint for battle, that hasn’t stopped Hyundai going in hard to establish itself in the fast-car game with some trash talk.

N Performance Development division boss Albert Biermann has called out the current Golf GTI, saying the German allrounder will fall to pieces on track in the shadow of Hyundai’s first serious performance car, the i30 N.

They’re dangerous fighting words, because while the Golf GTI’s legend was fading through the ’90s, Volkswagen has since built it back into a world-class benchmark – one that Namyang’s newly arrived hot hatch needs to beat.

So what has Biermann so cocky? The N has wider tyres than a regular i30 and redesigned suspension, its steering rack is heavily upgraded, while adaptive dampers and brakes stripped from the larger Genesis sedan feature at each corner.

There’s a 2.0-litre inline four pinched from a Sonata, but with a bigger turbo and on overboost it’s good for 202kW and 378Nm. It spins a front LSD that varies lock with an electronically-controlled clutch. There are programmable drive modes, too, and specially developed Pirelli P Zeros. Underlining Hyundai’s seriousness, the i30 N has landed in

Oz for $39,990 (before on-roads), which is $8K less than a Golf GTI Performance and a frighteningly low price for something packing weaponry you’d expect from an AMG A45.