Could it be that the next hot hatch hero comes from Hyundai? The company has told us that it's going to produce "very hot" versions of both the i20 supermini and the i30 Focus rival in limited numbers. Both will be built as three-doors too.
Hot i20 road car will draw on WRC experience
It's not so barmy considering
Hyundai's WRC programme
. The Korean company is actually building the i20 rally car itself with a staff of 260 operating out of the firm's research centre in Germany.
And it'll be those guys given the task of turning pleasant everyday cars into proper hot hatches. "These will be real halo models with 220, 230hp," the European head of marketing Mark Hall told PH.
He added that Hyundai is using WRC more as a proving ground rather than to flog cars to dwindling numbers of rally fans. "WRC in terms of brand building is not so significant," he says. "What it does is help improve driving dynamics of all our cars."
Hyundai appears pretty serious about this, having also spent a couple of mil on a new development centre at the Nurburgring. We're hopeful Hyundai doesn't nobble the ride comfort chasing tenths on the regular versions, which they say also get pounded around.
A fast i30 could use the pro_cee'd GT's engine
The engine is likely to be the same 1.6-litre turbo shared with the
Kia Pro_cee'd GT
. It's the engine that forms the basis of next year's rally car after all. No word on the gearbox yet...
PHers will to a man, woman and dog will be recalling the last time Hyundai went rallying with the Accent 10 or so years ago. Not a world beater, but handy enough and pretty mean looking too.
A new version of the i20 is due next year and a source within the company told us a three-door will again be available. "The three-door will the connection between the WRC car and the five-door," they told us. Bravo Hyundai we say - the last few cars including the i30 have been nicely styled, so they could be lookers too.