recently with the introduction of its newest and performance car
the kona and a korean automaker has showcased its presence in all aspects of motorsports and high
performance segments highlighted by the success of the entry-level sports cars such as veloster n
and the european i30 and i20n the high-performance sub-brand of hyundai has also shed light on its
future by featuring rm20e the first electric car project undertaken by the former m division
chief and the current n sub brand boss albert biermann the 810 horsepower rm20e is the latest
iteration of hyundai's racing midship project that started back in 2012 to develop and hone its high
performance prowess and apply the technology to racing cars as well as road cars the first
product of the rm was rm14 which was based on the first generation veloster that was supposed to be
powered by a 300 horsepower turbocharged 2.0 liter engine that was mounted midship
altered from that of veloster's front engine front wheel drive configuration that initial
design has evolved for the next two years and bore improved offspring's rm15 and rm16 and through the
development rm models underwent extensive road testing to validate newly developed technologies
observe their effects on performance and improve them for subsequent application on the company's
newly formed and high-performance sub-brand the rm platform is a versatile engineering
testbed allowing effective evaluation of various powertrains and performance levels all on normal
roads and environments in the words of mr biermann during an interview pertaining to the project
and the result of that testing culminated in the fantastic veloster n which employed a dialed down
version of the 300 horsepower turbocharged 2.0 liter engine from the rm15 and rm16 that 275
horsepower veloster end soon became the fastest front-wheel drive car in the world when the
eight-speed dct was added to the formula to beat out its arch-nemesis honda civic type r with an
incredible zero to 60 miles per hour time of 4.8 seconds but arm project did not stop there as soon
as the fruit of their first labor was released in 2018 with veloster and it followed it up with rm19
co-developed alongside the title-winning i-30 ntcr and veloster and tcr racing cars the incredible
390-horsepower midship machine that could achieve zero to sixty in less than four seconds prove
to the public that the rm project was still very much alive even after a couple of years of hiatus
and that hyundai still clearly had a vision of a production midship sports car in the near future
then shortly afterward in 2020 the spy images of elusive mr23t begin to surface the mr23t as
the name suggests uses a board out version of the 2.0 liter engine to alleviate the extremely
peaky nature of the nearly 400 horsepower 2.0 liter engine while maintaining a similar level
of output making it more user-friendly for the streets furthermore it's rumored to be aided by
an electric motor to help with the low-end torque hybridization would also be necessary to make the
car sustainable beyond 2030 when pure internal combustion cars will be banned in most of the free
worlds interestingly that 2.3 liter displacement which is an odd sounding number for hyundai
was not a coincidence as at around the same time the former ford rs chief tyrone johnson took over
albert biermann's position as the head of vehicle test and development at the hyundai motor europe
test and development facility in germany when biermann was promoted to a president's position
and became the global head of research and development and moved to korea so a legendary
race engineer working up magic with a displacement number that he is so familiar from his experience
in developing marvelous ford focus rs doesn't seem like a bad idea at all especially when it was
learned that the rm production car had its sight on porsche cayman s as its primary competitor
this meant that the visuals of the rm19 and mr23t were just facades and the actual
production car would look very different and would take on a more traditional sports coupe or
even roadster appearance as represented in this traditional midship sports coupe rendering
as featured on the korean car block as well the notion of the traditional roadster was
also very well portrayed in an april fools day release of a hyundai n roadster in 2019
although designed by an independent designer we feel that it's a perfect embodiment of the spirit
of the rm project and we wouldn't be surprised if the production model did resemble this beautiful
design by a korean designer yunjun park when and if it comes out however there could be some
major stumbling blocks before the fruition of the 400 horsepower hyundai midship sports car
the first is the timing presently hyundai is at a crossroads where they are in the process
of completely revamping their product strategy to focus on the production of electric vehicles and
this has been reaffirmed in the latest vision of the n sub brands when the company confirmed that
its focus will be on the development of electric high performance in form of the egmp-based battery
electric vehicles or hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles as confirmed by hyundai's head of the
high performance vehicle and motorsport division thomas steemera who was also from bmw m division
in charge of the u.s market while presenting the kona n the first electric project by team n will
most certainly be the high performance version of the newly released egmp based ionic 5. drawing
from the company's experience in developing the 810 horsepower rm20e electric supercar which is in
turn an offshoot of the 670 horsepower etc racing car hyundai will turn a humble crossover eevee
into a supercar beating family car with nearly 600 horsepower from the dual motors driving all
four wheels so as much as we are excited about the ioniq 5n that could potentially outrun its
platform sharing 577 horsepower kia ev6 gt which has 0 to 60 time of 3.5 seconds we are still
praying for a legitimate sports coupe that could potentially replace the current veloster even if
it's going to be an electric sports car and not a 400 horsepower midship gasoline-powered car
however there are more problems although the current veloster is due to be replaced in the
year 2024 2025 and there are still a few years left the likelihood of another sports coupe on
the horizon seems gloomy at the moment this is because of the general decline in the
popularity of coops and sports cars in lieu of the insurgents of crossovers veloster in particular
has borne the brunt of the market decline as the sales have dropped sharply in recent years
since its introduction in 2011 in the u.s veloster managed to maintain 20 to 30 000 units of sales
until 2017 when it declined to a one-third of the sales at around 10 to 12 000 units
ending up with only 7500 units in the pandemic 2020 this drastic decline in popularity has
forced hyundai to streamline the veloster lineup discontinuing the base and the obscure turbo model
only keeping alive the end model in addition to dropping the standard 250 horsepower trim
in an attempt to increase the sales hyundai improved the product competitiveness by giving
it the newly developed eight-speed dct which made the coupe the fastest fwd car in the world
as well as offering a host of other additions such as the high performance sport seats and all the
go fast bits from the previous performance trim such as the electronic limited slip differential
quicker steering larger brakes and 19-inch alloys making them as standard features
however all the improvement did little in changing things around in terms of sales
despite the fact that it was received extremely well by the press and the general public through
april of 2021 the total unit sold amount only up to about 1 000 units at this rate veloster would
set a new record for low sales by achieving only half of the previous year's sales this obviously
does not bode well for those inside hyundai that are trying to make the new cooper reality whether
it be a 400 horsepower internal combustion midship sports car or a 600 horsepower electric supercar
but it seems it may be a little early to throw in the towel yet as even as spring of 2021 a sample
of mr23t was spotted in korea with a much more aggressively modified version of the rm19 still
seen being tested in nurburcrane germany also the electric rm project is still alive and kicking as
the veloster ntcr is kicking off its inaugural season in pure etcr series from june 2021.
furthermore even if it's not going to be under the veloster nameplate a halo car seems definitely be
in the works as the president of hyundai motorsports mr guhan choi said when asked
about the future of the high performance cars a halo car remains in our plans it won't come for
a while yet but we know we have to make one we are now looking at some alternative power trains and
some different options on what kinds of vehicle we might deliver and when with that being said as we
still have a few more years before the end of the life cycle for the current veloster we cross our
fingers and hope that the sails of the veloster would recover to its former glory so that the
veloster will not end its illustrious career only after two generations so based on the information
presented in our video what kind of a future would you like to see for veloster 400 horsepower plus
midship internal combustion hybrid sports car based on rm19 600 horsepower electric sports car
wake up baby all the stars are shining bright yeah we should stay up so that we can look at them
all night just keep holding me don't let me go everything's so magical all i need is you tonight