Under the hood is a turbocharged 2.0-litre four-cylinder engine paired with an eight-speed dual-clutch transmission. A new colour, Sonic Blue, is intended to be a little more subtle than the periwinkle used on other N products. Front-wheel-drive only, the N is immediately recognizable by its wide, body-coloured arches, 19-inch wheels and extra grilles. That podium-winning success translates to the street with the Veloster N, and should for the Kona N as well. This is a company at the cutting edge of motorsport. They currently even field an all-electric Veloster ETCR in electric touring car racing. The company won the World Rally Championships twice, while also competing successfully in touring-car racing.
#Hyundai crossover movie#
Seeing what Hyundai has learned over the past five years is like watching a 1980s sports movie montage in fast-forward. The ordinary Kona previously impressed with its fun-to-drive nature and had the same practicality as any compact hatch. The Kona N takes the Veloster N’s recipe and applies it to a small crossover that sits between the budget-minded Venue and the slightly more practical Tucson.
It’s not really that different than the question posed in the mid-1980s: Sure, a Ferrari Testarossa is the car you want to be seen in, but couldn’t you have 90 per cent of the fun in a humble GTI? Obviously, the purists were miffed, but the verdict was solid. During Road & Track’s annual performance car shootout in 2019, this oddball little shoe-shaped hatchback outgunned the likes of the Porsche 911, Lotus Evora and Nissan GT-R in terms of charm, quickness and delight. Hyundai might have hired a few executives, but you can’t just show up and start building great cars.Ĭonsider the Veloster N. However, BMW is a brand with a long motorsport heritage. If you’re a BMW fan, your ears just perked up, because that period was an age when nearly everything with a blue-and-white roundel on the nose was great to drive. In fact, both Hyundai and its N division seem to have siphoned off some of Germany’s best talent, with head of R&D Albert Biermann and global chief marketing engineer Thomas Schemera both formerly with BMW right from the late 1980s through Munich’s golden era. Never mind the price, the Kona N promises to be more fun than all that high-thrust Germanic horsepower (remember, the Lamborghini Urus is based on an Audi). If you want a dash of performance in your crossover, BMW, Mercedes, Porsche or even Lamborghini will sell you one, with pricing to match. People are buying crossovers in droves, and sedans and conventional small hatchbacks are disappearing. That market has already voted with its wallets. Today, Hyundai unveiled the Kona N, a pint-sized performance crossover that might shake up the market in much the same way the original Volkswagen GTI did. Twenty years ago, it offered good bang-for-your-buck but not much excitement.
Thirty years ago, the company was building economical but slightly dreary fare. If you are interested in the future of affordable performance, you should be interested in what Hyundai is currently doing.
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