ABDC 2018: Hyundai i30 N

6th place

Why is it here?

Based on the way it performed in its initial motoring.com.au road test and compare, the Hyundai i30 N was a must for inclusion on the 2018 Australia’s Best Driver’s Car grid.

The Korean brand has dabbled with warm hatches and coupes, but none of them should be mentioned in the same sentence as the i30 N. By the definition of a hot-hatch, the new hi-po Hyundai is scorching.

The template for a driver’s car once included rear-wheel drive, but the hot-hatch genre has changed that in the 44 years since it was born with the first Volkswagen Golf GTI.

With compact proportions and light weight on its side, the typical hot hatch is already off to a cracking start as a quick, agile-handling machine. The practicality and low cost of a small hatch-derived high-performance car are big side benefits

The current (Mk7.5) Golf GTI is an obvious rival for the Hyundai i30 N, however, Volkswagen declined to take part in ABDC. The Honda Civic Type R, meanwhile, as the hottest newcomer in the sub-segment, should put up quite a fight.

What’s under the bonnet?

In 2018 the hi-po stakes are increasingly high, and the Hyundai i30 N duly delivers 202kW at 6000rpm and 353Nm from 1450 to 4700rpm (378Nm on overboost) from a 2.0-litre direct-injected twin-scroll turbocharged petrol four – figures that put it right up there in the hot-hatch pecking order.

You can often pick a genuine high performer from its differential. While warm hatches make do with a limited-slip-diff-mimicking electronic stability control function, real hot ones get a mechanical LSD. The i30 N goes one better with an electronically controlled mechanical LSD, which means the world when managing bulk turbo torque through front tyres, without corrupting the steering and handling.

A six-speed manual featuring a downshift rev-matching mode is the sole transmission – an eight speed dual-clutch auto is coming later – and there’s a rack-mounted motor-assisted power steering with a mere 2.14 turns lock-to-lock.

The i30 N braking package is big, rather than big-name. You get 345mm front and 314mm rear ventilated discs with beefy, red-painted single-piston calipers. Forget the absence of a Brembo logo – the i30 N’s stoppers work.

The Hyundai i30 N rides on massive, bespoke 235/35R19 Pirelli P Zeros and adaptive dampers – these, with the engine mapping, steering weight, e-LSD characteristics, electronic stability control, and exhaust soundtrack are adjustable via steering wheel buttons.

From the rear strut brace that grabs your eye as you sling your luggage into the cargo bay, and the marble-gargling idle as you twist the key, the i30 N barks high-performance purpose.

>>Get all the 2018 Australia's Best Driver's Car results here

How does it perform?

The Hyundai i30 N is a taut, agile, punchy, aggro, raucous ripper of a driver’s car, and all from a Korean brand that’s never done a hot hatch before.

Yet, with the press of a steering wheel button, it’s a quiet, polite, reasonably good riding run-around five-seater hatch in suitably discreet wrapping.

You can adjust almost every facet of the i30 N’s personality, from Eco, Normal, Sport and N modes to the personalisable N Custom, to make it as benign and polite – or as WRC-car-wild – as you like. But even in the tamest of modes you can’t escape the quick, feel-good steering, sharp ride or immense midrange torque.

Driven hard on the relentlessly twisty Eildon-Jamison Road, the i30 N changes direction with alacrity and hangs on with tenacity, yet with a playful side that signposts terrific chassis balance.

In the most focussed of modes it’s immensely rapid from way down in the revs, the engine working brilliantly with the gearbox and diff to turn every Newton metre into scenery-blurring urgency, without too much torque steer.

Some of the software flourishes might seem like gimmick, but slot the i30 N back a couple of ratios with help from the downshift rev-matching function, hear the over-run cracks, then apply right pedal to fire out the other side and you’ll conclude it’s all part of a compellingly mature and engaging new $40K hot hatch proposition.

The gravel-strewn surface at the ABDC performance testing venue at Wangaratta airstrip, saw acceleration figures fall short of potential, and the Hyundai i30 N’s 7.5sec zero to 100km/h was disappointing in the context of the 6.2sec claim.

Hard-driven test consumption in the low teens represents a persuasive performance middle ground – far less thirsty than the mega-buck sports sedans or super coupes, yet much more rapid than the Subaru BRZ tS or Mazda MX-5 RF Limited Edition.

It did not disappoint around Winton, where Luke Youlden’s flyer saw the i30 N lay down a high 1min40sec lap. Want to go quicker? You’ll need more money – and grunt.

From our time at the wheel, the Hyundai i30 N is the next big thing in the affordable high-performance/hot-hatch realm that saw the rise of the Subaru WRX and Volkswagen Golf GTI.

Is it worth the asking price?

Just two cars on the ABDC 2018 grid cost less than the Hyundai i30 N, and neither the Renault Clio RS 200 Cup nor the Suzuki Swift Sport Turbo deliver nearly the performance.

You could have six i30 Ns for the price of a Mercedes-AMG E63 S 4MATIC+, and it took this sort of metal to go significantly quicker around Winton.

As an all-round package that can to do the mundane as well as turn any drive into an occasion, the Hyundai i30 N is almost unmatched in this company, and the hot-hatch segment.

Only a casual enthusiast with a particular focus on cabin finish and ambience could choose the less-potent Golf GTI instead. While the i30 N trails the evergreen German hot hatch in this department – ‘N’ touches aside it’s a bit plasticky inside, and the front seats leave those in the Civic Type R to be desired in term of lateral support – by any petrol-head’s measure it has more of everything that matters. And you get a five-year warranty that extends to track use!

What do the judges think?

Had this been a bang-for-buck test, or a regular comparison that balances pragmatics with performance considerations, the Hyundai i30 N would have swept the field to take the gong.

But this is Australia’s Best Driver’s Car, where X-factor and twisty road feel-good mean everything, and in taking the time honoured hot-hatch approach of shooting for all-round excellence, rather than delivering one knockout blow, the i30 N just misses out on greatness.

The Honda Civic Type R’s hunger for corners and otherworldly chassis cohesion, the Alfa Romeo Giulia QV’s steering and unbelievable ride/handling compromise or the Mercedes-AMG E63 S 4MATIC+’s stunningly muscular engine, then, were singular qualities that this $40K firebrand could not surmount.

Sixth place was still a win for the high-performance bargain that used ABDC 2018 to deliver a week-long lesson in shifting brand perceptions.

The Hyundai i30 N was ultimately beaten by some big names with proportionate pricetags – and by a hot-hatch that rewrites the rulebook on fast front-drivers – but so many judges said the i30 N was the one they’d buy.

2018 Hyundai i30 N pricing and specifications:

Price: $39,990 (plus on-road costs)
Engine: 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo-petrol
Output: 202kW/353Nm
Transmission: Six-speed manual
Fuel: 8.0L/100km (ADR Combined) / 13.2L/100km (as tested)
CO2: 186g/km (ADR Combined)
Safety Rating: Five-star ANCAP

2018 Hyundai i30 N performance figures (as tested):

0-100km/h: 7.5sec
0-400m: 15.395sec @ 156.5km/h
Lap time: 1:40.807sec

Related reading:

>> Hyundai i30 N Review