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when someone one day writes the big
definitive book of car history well the
early years will belong to germany for
inventing the car the 1910s that's
america falling in love with the model t
ford the 1970s japanese domination but
what about now the 2020s i think it
belongs to the koreans
this is a hyundai
hyundai started importing cars into the
uk in 1982
and at first they were pretty terrible
comedy cars for cheapskates slowly they
graduated to making decent but dreary
white goods for your grandparents but in
the past decades something incredible
has happened to korean car makers
kia started making good looking cars
like the sportage the proceed and the
stinger hyundai's become a hot hatch hit
maker with brilliant n versions of the
i-20 i30 and veloster and both brands
are now home to some of the coolest
looking family electric cars around in
the shape of the kia ev6 and hyundai's
ionix
okay so here's just one example of what
i'm on about right this is the bmw ix
bmw's idea of a modern handsome suv
sorry if you're eating and yeah this is
the hyundai tucson this is hyundai's
idea of a modern handsome suv which
looks like a concept car which escaped
from the design studio and went on the
school run it's a bit cyberpunk it's
cool and it's confident and it feels
like well after a long time coming
korean design is now making the european
old guard
look a bit silly
so does that mean that korean cars can
now do whatever the hell they like a
proper sports car retro looks motorsport
potential a powertrain from the future
well how about all of those things in
one car
the hyundai n vision 74.
if you're seeing some genjaro 1970s
influences you're quite right this is
inspired by a 1974 concept car hence the
name maybe you're seeing some delorean
influences sharp creases that shuttered
rear window the narrow snout it's all in
there isn't it but
unlike most concept cars what's under
the skin is just as interesting here you
see this is a hydrogen hybrid part fuel
cell part electric let me explain
at the back you'll find two electric
motors they generate a combined
670 brake horsepower which is why this
car is apparently a bit of a drift
monster they draw their power from a 62
kilowatt hour battery like a normal
electric car and when it runs low you
can plug it into the wall and charge it
up so far so 21st century but the bit
that's from the future is the on-board
electricity power station you see
hyundai's also plumbed in a hydrogen
fuel cell which has been quietly working
away on for the past few years trying to
make it as small and light as possible
the hydrogen fuel tanks weigh just 4.2
kilos and can be fully refueled in five
minutes to give you another 370 miles of
all-electric range
because the 74 is rear-wheel drive only
as the sports car gods intended honda's
had some fun with it because you've got
individual motors for each rear wheel it
can do things like torque vectoring so
carve a title line if you're going for
the best possible lap or just throw all
of the power at the inside rear wheel
and kick it out into a big smoky drift
they're saying it's got
664 pounds feet and could top out at 155
miles an hour if marty mcfly had one of
these back to the future would have been
a much shorter film
so i'm afraid we've now arrived at that
point of the video where i say
unfortunately the end vision 74 is
incredibly fragile and furiously
expensive so wasn't it jolly nice of
hindi to let us take a look at it but
like and subscribe and goodbye
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except because the koreans are living
their best car life right now this is
not just a model it drives it's really
fast and they say i can take it out on
track so um i'm gonna go and put a
really ugly helmet on
right welcome to bilsterberg probably
the scariest racetrack you've never
heard of
built on an old british army cold war
munitions base that so mad baron decided
to turn into a race resort designed by
hermann tilker
brought you a lot of boring f1 circuits
didn't he but he really really got his
act together for this place it's like
all the scary bits of the nurburgring
knitted together and it only takes two
minutes to get round rather than 10.
so a good place
to drive a priceless concept car
which they've only got one of drivable
in the world
i'm at an old army base and i'm in a
hydrogen-powered weapon
okay what can i tell you about it well
basically
it feels like a racing car it feels
stiff it feels unyielding i've been told
to stay off the curves because this
thing is fragile but even though it's
got power steering lovely sense of
connection coming back through this we
go flat shut down straight that's 110
miles an hour
feels fast brakes are fantastic there's
no sense of any regen nonsense
spoiling your confidence in fact this
i30n that's being driven by a race
driver in front of me
is holding me up come on man get out of
the way
inside a hydrogen car just feels like an
electric car there's no sense of weird
science going on behind me
just feels like i've got loads of torque
electric motors there's a lot of hissing
and fans
happening in the background but i'm not
really aware of that i'm just aware of
having to catch the slides because this
thing's got serious amounts of torque
and because of those rear electric
motors
it can simulate a limited slip
differential but it can react so much
faster so it's like the best limited
slip diff
you could imagine when manufacturers
really get on top of these things
i think we're really really gonna have
some fun with them
yeah a priceless concept car so what if
you set it up to drift i'm gonna try and
drift it
oh there's so much elevation change down
here that bits blind
slight lock up there but just turn it in
on the nose
there you go that's a confidence
inspiring car for you one and a half
laps around an absolutely pant wetting
circuit
got a bit of tire temperature and you
can just lob it around
okay so now
going into the track mode i'm gonna let
the pace car get away from me on the
straight here because i really want to
feel what this thing can do when it's
let off its electronic leash so
let's just drop back hopefully the pace
cars not noticed like dawdly
and off we go
wow that's so fast
try not to upgrade myself into turn one
oh that was a bit late on the brakes got
it back
it's so progressive on the throttle
the only problem is that with no engine
noise you can't really hear like when
your revs are spiking the first thing
you know about
overwhelming the rear tires is when you
sort of start banging your head on the
roll cage and looking out of the side
window
oh yes this is a fun chassis
oh yes hyundai where is this come from
they've conquered hot hatches i'm not
having to go at rear drive i mean no one
is safe are they
bmw m amg even porsche
need to take some notice guys because
this thing
gonna come for you
and all too soon it's over back into the
pits at bilsterberg
me and their nvision 74 have survived
i'm gonna give it back to hyundai now i
hope they don't put it in a museum i
hope they take this gorgeous body stick
it
in a garage
work out
how to put it into production and give
it back to me in a few years with some
number plates on it
well done to the hyundai technicians
this thing if it's a glimpse of the
future it's one that i'm here for
well i enjoyed that but i'm afraid
you're gonna have to take my word for it
because the 74
isn't the car that hyundai selling to
the public anytime soon it's a rolling
laboratory experimenting with what they
can do with hydrogen with the packaging
with the cooling for if they need it in
the future but i hear you you want to
know what the immediate future of
hyundai's go fast end division is well
that's to go electric
so let me show you this
feast your eyes on the rn 22 e
rubbish name but an interesting car
because it's kind of a cross between the
ioniq 6 streamlined saloon and an
electric touring car now we know that
the first hot n car from pie and dice
souped up division will be a new ioniq 5
with more power but
i think a
577 horsepower dual motor super saloon
could be a fun place to go next so um
let's take it for a drive
okay leaving the pit lane again in
bilsterberg
already this car makes a heck of a lot
more noise
than the 74 did this is a very different
kind of car this is hyundai's answer to
a porsche tycoon i guess dual motor
electric super saloon
577 horsepower
they've asked me to leave the traction
control on
because this is potentially even more
valuable
so what have we got spec wise well we've
got
beefier brakes because of course heavy
electric cars get brake fade on track
we've got this variable torque split
so we can play with the power across the
axles that's already good fun to me
obviously got
lots and lots of aero too
carfield is very neutral very responsive
it's much less tail happy than the 74
was of course we've got drive going to
the front wheels just feels like you can
mash it but hyundai is adamant they're
not doing evs that are just fast in a
straight line that are about winning
drag races
to annoy people on youtube who've got
muscle cars this is supposed to be just
as good in the corners
and even though i'm not supposed to
slide it around the car wants to
it's hilarious isn't it yet again korea
has tried to build an elegant design
study and they've accidentally built a
bloody racing car
now more about this simulated shift yes
it's fake yes it's just software behind
i say hey hey it's fun to listen to
something and also it's kind of helpful
for my caveman brain you see normally
when you're driving an ev you've got no
audio reference of what the powertrain's
doing but in this
because i can hear the revs
well hear what the revs would sound like
if it had a big petrol engine and
because i'm getting engine braking and
then these little surges on the up shift
now i'm downshifting like engine braking
there and there it's like grabbing third
then second gear
just gives you something to kind of
lean against it's weird it's so
difficult to explain but it does just
feel whoa that was really lively through
there it just feels like you're driving
a car with a responsive paddle shift
gearbox
okay it's just the software it's just
the zeros and ones making that happen
but
i'm already finding this very intuitive
and very
easy to use
which is kind of funny given it's a
priceless semi-race car concept one off
and there you go i hit the rev limiter
there i'm making mistakes evs evs do
everything for you and i find that
boring this car
well i've already cocked up in it you
just saw me hit the rev limiter i was a
bit slow downshifting just there
it's letting me kind of make mistakes i
got some understeer there
this might be the most interactive eevee
i've driven them actually i might have
to shut up now and concentrate
oh it feels lively it feels like
i kind of really
glued down hot hatch but
with the new rs3's drift mode in it but
massively better throttle response it's
a really really impressive bit of
kitness
i just hope the lessons from this do go
into that ionic 5n
that we know is coming this is going to
go on to become
an electric touring car and then maybe
maybe we will get an ionic 6n
[Music]
maybe we'll start to get excited about
electric performance cars after all
i didn't expect to be that impressed
today but as you can probably tell from
my giddy laps i enjoyed myself but what
really blows my mind is the sheer scope
of everything that hyundai is trying
right now
bit of retro flavor or a modern design
bit of hydrogen fuel cell awesome
electric and their petrol cars are
bloody good fun as well so while
everyone else worries about how to do a
driverless car high guys going to
concentrate on making the fleshy human
behind the wheel have some fun so that
chapter then on the koreans taking over
the car world should be a really
enjoyable one as long as stuff like this
gets built