[Music]
you probably recognize this it's the new
Hyundai i30 n hot hatch we are at very
exclusively and excitingly high-end eyes
Development Center at the Nurburgring
and the reason we have all these boxes
here is that we're not allowed to show
you what's on the other side of them the
i30 n comes in two versions both powered
by a 2-liter turbo and driving the front
wheels through a six-speed manual
gearbox the standard car has 247
horsepower for just under 25 grand this
car is the end performance version which
for three grand more has 271 horsepower
bigger 19-inch wheels stronger brakes
different steering and final drive
ratios a removable brace bar in the boot
and a proper electronically controlled
mechanical death out there is the
Nurburgring I think that'll be our first
stop
not sixty to 6.1 seconds top speed 155
miles an hour I should be out there
right now but I'm not because it's an
industry pull lap session and I can't go
on until the tourists laps start in
about an hour's time but this test is
not just about driving the i30 n on the
Nurburgring because hot hatches don't
live on the Nurburgring they live in the
real world so after this we are going to
go and drive it on motorways on country
roads and we're going to finish up in
the mountains
[Music]
so two things are strike me about this
car early on one of which is how stiff
the chassis is which is lovely is really
feels very taut and precise and the
other thing is how it actually feels bit
form to do that solo stuff
[Applause]
so that was really interesting I've
thoroughly enjoyed taking this on to the
Nurburgring because it was developed
here and it's always interesting to see
where people have developed cars and
drive them where they've been developed
but they haven't just developed it on
the circuit here they've developed it on
all the roads around here they've
developed it in different countries
they've developed it on the gross lot
and the mountain part where we're going
to go tomorrow
[Music]
we're on the Autobahn we're not in a bit
of delimited Autobahn at the moment
there have been bits but it's busy
because it's just tail end of rush hour
now we've been on the road about five
hours already we are approaching Munich
and we've still got 200 miles or so to
go down to the grass Glockner the cars
doing really well it's very comfortable
seats are really good the driving
position is excellent what I
particularly like is they made a real
point of making sure that the driving
position whether you had the electric
seats or the manual seats is exactly the
same so the seats not any higher in the
electric seat version which is great the
throttles very steady the cars very
stable it doesn't do anything
frightening at all the ride is quite
firm as I think I mentioned on the
Nurburgring yesterday it is quite firmly
sprung it's all a bit of a surprise but
I think that is exactly what Honda is
going for even when you're on the
motorway you can feel it being detective
Lee a little bit firm a little bit
different and I think that's quite
encouraging actually I quite like that I
like the fact that high end I has
decided right now we're not just going
to copy a Golf GTI we're going to try
and be our own thing and so it is it's
quite it's got that inherent sportiness
to it if I just press this button here
and go into sport mode
you can probably hear the noise change
and also if I left off pops and banks
[Applause]
[Music]
we've encountered a bit of a setback
that's the gross Glockner Tollbooth to
get onto the mountain road just driven
500 miles across Germany and all the red
X's tell their own story they've closed
the pass because it's raining here it's
snowing not much higher up we're gonna
need a plan B it's that van hour and a
half later we've managed to go and get
some snow chains the lady at the desk is
a little bit funny go credit card
I've got snow chains please she's gonna
let us go on a and the i30 n is a proper
hot hatch the steering has real neat
inaccuracy
turning it strong the front axle
midnight the brakes are great underfoot
the gear changes captain
differential is tenacious three tight
corners there's barely any body roll
there's even a pseudo anti-lag system to
keep a turbo spinning an improved
throttle response criticisms just
listening ride in a sense that the car
could easily handled more than 270
horsepower but it's genuinely impressive
it's got an edge and a sharpness that
puts it in the same camp as the Civic
type-r a new Renault Sport Magan
[Music]
so the thing about the grouse Klockner
is it's a mega driving road it's not
just a load of switchbacks it goes on
for miles and miles there's very little
traffic there's a beautiful selection of
corners and that thing did really really
well it's a very interesting cart it's
much sporty than you expect and it's
much better than you expect that
surprised me a bit actually it's got its
very sharp it's got sharp brakes sharp
steering okay a lot of it is all under
electronic control but you get a good
feel from the car it feels tight and
tied down and it gives you a lot of
confidence so yesterday evening when we
were driving up and down in when those
conditions were only wet it felt very
planted and very secure and stable this
morning on the ice we're not really
playing with it much yet it's a bit too
slippery to be fair