Hyundai has been telling us more about its plans for performance models, and it looks as if U.S. buyers won?t have to wait long for their first offering from the company?s N Division. The upcoming i30N that we?ve already told you about won?t be coming to the U.S., but based on conversations with Albert Biermann, N Division?s boss and Hyundai?s overall head of product development, we?re putting a reasonably solid bet on its Elantra half-sibling being the first American-market model to get the N treatment, and likely also a version of the i30N?s 2.0-liter four-cylinder turbo.
?The next car is focused on the U.S. and Korea?it?s a different platform,? Biermann told journalists at the Paris auto show, and although the i30 and Elantra are both spun from the same engineering matrix, they are substantially dissimilar. ?After that, there?s another one for Europe, then I start thinking about China?but the Chinese have not discovered what a performance car is yet, we need to tell them a little bit about it.?
The Elantra is also sold in South Korea as the Avante. As Hyundai?s newest model in both markets, it would be the most worthy recipient of the N treatment.
Biermann also poured scorn on the rival manufacturer?s obsession with setting a record time at the Nürburgring Nordschleife for a front-wheel-drive car, confirming Hyundai had no plans to try for such a benchmark in the i30N.
?Forget it, we?re not going for that,? he said. ?We were working on tuning at the Nürburgring, but n...