Mid-engine Hyundai N car in the works

Hyundai has confirmed it’s developing an all-new engine for use in a mid-ship, rear-drive performance car, one that’s “never existed before” with a “very different” design and configuration to all its previous powerplants.

Details are predictably few and far between, but if Hyundai has proven anything over the past decade or so, it’s that it isn’t afraid to go out on a limb and challenge the status quo.

The prospect of a hot mid-engine Hyundai has been around since 2012 when the RM14 debuted with a hot 2.0-litre turbo-petrol engine shoved in the back of a Veloster body, from which another three evolutions were born.

Hyundai’s rolling labs are crucial because they serve as the physical testbed for new ideas, components and technologies long before the applicable production car comes along, i.e. the RN22e vs the IONIQ 5 N.

Four evolutions of RM labs and a camouflaged prototype venturing onto public roads meant Hyundai was taking the mid-ship project seriously, and we’ve heard whispers of a two-seat convertible sports car being on the planning board once upon a time.

Clearly nothing came of that and there’s no proof such a vehicle was ever considered, but this newest announcement certainly does – minus the open-top element – and we can’t help but wonder if this public affirmation is in response to Toyota’s recent musings with a mid-ship GR Yaris or rumours of an MR2 revival.

Whatever the case, Hyundai Australia claims to know nothing about it and the Korean development team reckon there have been plenty of headaches thus far, which tells us the new engine is still in the early days of its development.

But you wouldn’t develop an engine “that meets the performance requirements of the market” and hope to “mass-produce it without any problems” without a model for it to go into.

The big question now is, is Hyundai N going to hunt BRZs or Porsche Caymans…

Lead image generated using AI

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