What's the news?
Hyundai's push continues, its salvo at the IAA in Frankfurt showing not just a new sub-brand dubbed N - we're not sure either, perhaps they just found S, R, RS done to death - focusing on performance, but the new i20 and Santa Fe also.
The most dramatic representation of that was the N 2025 Vision Gran Turismo, which as its name suggests will only ever exist in virtual form, on a PlayStation 4 in your kid's bedroom.
Still, Hyundai promises its N cars will derive tech and materials from its WRC (World Rally Championship) participation, the i20 WRC Rally car showcasing its 2016 entry. There's a bobsleigh here in N guise too - for the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics - as well as the RM15, RM for Racing Midship 2015. It's an aluminium spaceframed, carbonfibre shod, 2.0-litre mid-engined turbocharged six-speed manual signal of intent. We rather like it. Will they build it? Not likely, but crazier things have happened, it just not usually Hyundai doing them.
The i20 and Santa Fe are here, too, but you've got this far you don't really care about them, do you? Suffice to say, if you buy enough of them, then things like that RM15 will be more easily bankrolled. Oh, and that N does mean something - we just hadn't read far enough down the press release. Apparently it's something to do with Namyang, home of Hyundai's Global R&D network, and also a nod to, yes, you've guessed it, the Nurburgring.
As if all that wasn't enough, Hyundai rolled out another concept, the Vision G, showing the firm's drive to the more luxurious end of the market. Bold styling and 420hp from a 5.0-litre V8 push our buttons, only don't expect to find any inside, as the firm's done away with them all. Kinda cool, in a big Infiniti-lookalikey way.