a mystery car was spotted in korea with a very conspicuous marking of mr23t it looks very much
like hyundai veloster but featured huge front and rear fenders with the wheels pushed to all
four corners it's also very aggressively lowered and the enormous air intake as part of the rear
fender is a dead ringer for the renault 5 turbo and other groupie cars of the rally heydays
however it's strange enough that a test car would brandish its name all over the car
but exposing the bodywork completely as if they have nothing to hide is very unusual
there was no surprise involved anyway as the test car resembled the rm19 test car that has
been revealed to the public a couple of years ago save for some minor details like the rear diffuser
and the placement of the air intake stands for racing midship hyundai's ongoing experimental rm
cars are midship rear wheel drive sports cars that uses veloster bodywork to hide their true nature
which is to test the hyundai's technical prowess in combining what they learn from
motorsports to the use in production cars this mr23t example seems to be a representation of
the latest version in the mid-engine sports car project that started back in 2014 as rm14
versions of the rm cars competed very actively in racing circuits such as nurburgring 24
hours throughout the development stage and finally in 2019 rm19 was actually revealed
to the public to show that hyundai was actually very close to producing the midship sports car
although the car looks like a souped up veloster when it was revealed the rm19 was nothing like
driver-friendly front-wheel drive sports compact car or even the veloster tcr race car the
sportiest hyundai in the lineup the velosteran was nothing compared to the wolf in sheep's clothing
rm19 with its aggressive looks it seemed it was ready to run up the hill at pike's peak
with a body five inches wider than the veloster in and two inches wider than the veloster tcr car
it's longer than the veloster tcr-2 with a massive rear wing and extended front splitter
the bodywork shrouds front tires 10 millimeters wider than a ferrari 4 to 58 and rear tires the
same size you'd get on the c8 corvette 30530 zr20 the rm19 featured a 2.0 liter gas direct injected
four-cylinder straight out of the tcr race car which makes 360 horsepower and 400 pounds to foot
the engine closely resembles what you get in the stock velosterone but with bumped up compression
a bigger turbocharger freer flowing exhaust a more powerful intercooler and improved durability via
better head gaskets and studs any familiarity with the street tuned production veloster and
pretty much went out the window as the rm19 featured x-track six-speed sequential gearbox
this however won't make it into the production of course but what will make it to the final
production is an engine that's more than 360 horsepower 375 horsepower to be exact
kyung hyung business news of korea on its december 11th edition confirmed that hyundai is actually
working on a new hot racing inspired engine and a brand new midship sports car that will utilize it
this new engine will be based on the 2.0 liter engine from the current n cars such as veloster
but is tuned by the team that was responsible for hyundai's world championship winning wrc rally car
hyundai motorsports team with all the championship winning experience increased the displacement to
2.3 liter and tuned it specifically for use in future and cars this brand new engine with a
maximum output of 375 horsepower which is very close to that of hyundai motorsports i-20 wrc's
output of 380 horsepower has an incredible red line of 7000 revolutions per minute
an interesting and significant note as suggested by the engine's conspicuous 2.3 liter displacement
which is not common for a hyundai engine might be that the engine is inspired by none other
than mr ford rs tyrone johnson himself hired by mr biermann as a replacement for himself as
he was being moved up to a president's position of global head of research and development mr johnson
is the new head of vehicle test and development at the hyundai motor europe test and development
facility in germany tyrone johnson was the chief of ford's rs motorsports division that oversaw
the company's successful wrc program as well as the outstanding ford focus rs production car
2.3 liter of course is the house displacement for ford's ecoboost line of engines that powered
everything from ford focus rs to ford mustang it's probably not a coincidence that the new
high-performance engine that mr johnson is undertaking would have the same displacement
and similar power if focus rs is any indication of what the new hyundai and high performance engine
would be like we would be totally stoked so as the name suggests mr23t is the car that would
utilize the new 2.3 liter engine developed by tyrone johnson it is to be the end brand's first
dedicated sports car model as well not too much about the production mr23t is known but one thing
that has been made clear is that the design will look nothing like the fake veloster body
that the test car is wearing besides by 2023 the current veloster will undergo a full change anyway
although we are in the dark in regards to the actual design of the mr23t we are really hoping
that it will resemble the end roadster rendering that was released as an april fool's joke a couple
of years ago even though the rendering appears to be of the front engine roadster it would be a
perfect design for hyundai's first sports car in our opinion when the rendering was released the
media immediately called it the porsche 718 killer and cried for the car to be produced
despite selfishly acknowledging the fact that no one really buys sports cars anymore
but hyundai is known for going the road less traveled when it started the n sub brand and a
championship winning motorsport division when every automaker was ditching motorsports and
focused their attention on cutting costs and also going green the eager korean company also
have gone against every conventional wisdom and steadfastly produced the complete lineup
of the rear-wheel drive sedans that no one was buying in the suv and crossover crazed market
and we are certain that mr biermann noticed the phenomenal response from the design of the
fake roadster when he introduced rm19 as what he called a brand shaper for the company that would
be produced to show what the brand is capable of and not motivated by an economic decision
he specifically said that quote as you'll see in the near future there are no specific financial
limits to what kind of cars we will make if i think it's the right time to make a mid-engined
end car that can rival a porsche and when we think it's the right time to make that car we
will make it it's that simple unquote this is one cool company a company that's not afraid to spend
money to impress car enthusiasts and expand their technical capabilities to the fullest
sounds like it could only happen in a fairy tale by today's penny-pinching economy
getting back to the reality even if financials does not matter if hyundai and mr biermann can
pull off its magic like they have with their veloster and and produce a sports car that's
capable as proven by their efforts in tcr and wrc and affordable at the same time
especially when the price of porsche 718 has now become not accessible by most of the population
we are certain that they would sell as many roadsters that they can produce and now with the
evidence of the actual car that would be produced the long wait for the much-anticipated hyundai
sports car will finally pay dividends we don't know if 23 in mr23t stands for the displacement
or the release year of 2023 but whatever the case we can't wait until it comes out
of course auto vision will be the first to report on any development thank you for watching auto
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