Hyundai i30 wins category in Targa rally

By Matt Brogan | August 28th, 2009

A little over a week ago we brought you news of Hyundai’s i30 CRDi competing in the ‘Modern Challenge’ category of the 2009 QUIT Targa West tarmac rally.

Well, after completing all 30 stages the i30 SX CRDi Green Diesel production car cruised to win its class running consistently through them all and winning the SS4 Kalamunda stage.

In the end the i30 SX CRDi Green Diesel finished 3 minutes 49 seconds ahead of the Holden Cruze CD Ti to clinch the class trophy.

The ‘Modern Challenge’ category saw a total of 10 competitors which included performance cars such as the Nissan GTR 35, Audi S4, Volkswagen Golf R32, Ferrari 575M GTC and the i30′s class competitor Holden Cruze CD Ti.

The i30 SX CRDi Green Diesel finished a very respectable 3rd overall.

“It was a great rally – we had our first stage win, the SS4 Kalamunda stage on Friday, we won our class and finished 3rd overall in the ‘Modern Challenge’ category – the first time a Diesel car has adorned the podium,” said driver Razvan Vlad. “The i30 did not miss a beat all weekend and handled very well, even on the slippery roads of Saturday. Hyundai gave us an excellent car, the Hyundai W.A. dealers a very professional service crew and this all added up to a fantastic result!”

The only modifications to the car were the addition of semi-slick tyres, upgraded front brake pads, a modified exhaust, a tuned engine, roll cage and other safety equipment to meet competition requirements.

Howie-R31

congratulations!
Just out of interest was the Holden cruz the only other vehicle in it class?
Robin Graves

Not sure, but it beat the Ferrari and the Golf R32 tho. The ones that beat it outright were the GT-R and Audi S4, which both obviously have about 3 times the power output and 4WD.
http://Caradvice.com.au Baddass

Just shows how competent Hyundai are going to become.
Tyson

It finsihed 3rd outright 8:36 behind the leader a 35 GTR, considering the cars are limmited to 140kph, this is hardly an achievment.

The only other car in its class was a holden cruze driven by a few jurnos, and everytime I saw it, it spent more time off the road spraying up gravel than on it.

This class is a joke its just there so people can do a Targa event and have some fun. It is certainly no indication of how competent Hyundai or any other car are going to be.
Robin Graves

I’d like to see you have a go Tyson, another loungechair critic. Being speed limited wouldnt have so much affect as 4WD (as it was bucketing down most of the time) and more power, as there isnt much opportunity to hit the speed limit on these courses anyway. I actually thought the Cruze was having a good go at it, thats why you probably seen him on the gravel a bit. The Audi wasnt playing weekend fun either.
TenSE

LOL.

I’m pretty sure the GTR and S4 both got stung with 5 minute penalties.

The Cruze was stock and an automatic.

It’s a great effort by the i30 but a cage, tyres, tune, (I’m guessing coilovers), brake pads… why wasn’t he running in the competition category? Why would you go to all of that effort and then compete in challenge? Not really in the spirit of the competition. If you’re going to run a fully prepared car then run with other fully prepared cars.

I also don’t consider myself an armchair critic, I raced in Targa West in 2006 and compete actively in club motorsport in WA.

Trust me that you hit 130 no problems at all on pretty much every stage. You spend a lot of time feathering the throttle to keep it down.
Tyson

Robin Graves,

I was there, I know the roads, and hitting the speed limiter is actualy very easy in an event like Targa West, It has one of the highest average speeds for a Targa event in the country. Wich is why there are so many shicanes to bring down the average speed.

4wd has a little to do with how fast these car get around the event but you have to remember if your the most consistent driver youll get the best result.

You can have all the power in the world but its useless once you hit a top speed. Look at the Ferarri and quicker cars behind.

Oh and as for Loungechair Critic you couldnt be further from the truth! If anything your lack of knowledge on what the event is about and its runnings or what makes you competitive prove you are the latter.

And congrats to Steve Jones and Kevin Weeks the Outright winners of the Competition classes. (classic and modern)
Robin Graves

Tense, the 5 minute penalties for the gt-r and audi were withdrawn later in the day, and the suspension upgrades were just stiffer springs and swaybars, and replacement dampers. The tune hardly makes any difference on a diesel (about 12kW), the turbo is tiny. Are you sure the Cruze was an automatic? I didnt take a look inside but it seemed to take off like a manual I thought, but I could be wrong. The point I was trying to make about the speeds was due to the standing water on the roads and poor visibility.

There is not many family hatches in the competition category, and the same could be said for the GT-R and Audi in the Challenge, and the FTP, and the Jag – they could all enter the competition category as they have had substantial prep and/or performance based cars out of the factory.

Tyson, my lack of knowledge on what the event is about? WTF? I was purely making an observation on what I thought judging by the conditions. I was at 3 stages both weekend days, saturated, and I live less than 500m from one of the stages – and havent missed a year since it begun? OK – maybe I need to enter it to find out. And I bet my lack of experience driving would see a lot slower cars post quicker times than me.

I agree – consistency makes the world of difference, and from the two years I’ve seen the i30 compete Razvan is very consistent, part of the reason why he did so well against other ‘quicker’ cars.

The results speak for themselves, we can argue all day on this but its all that matters. Unless its a two horse race like the touring cars, which I gave up watching after Nissan got booed and ‘banned’ – there is going to be disparities between cars and drivers. Thats what I like about the tarmac rallies, from i30′s and Cruze’s to GT-R’s and Porches. Great to watch.
Sleepless

one wouldn’t expect i30 to win (base on all the skeptics) but it did, and that the point of this article.

sometimes people just need to open their minds, and give credit when due. i30 is really a humble car, and even if it doesn’t win, it’s a great achievement by itself.
Tommi

I would love to see more, well I was going to write ‘Hot Hatches’ but I’m not sure the Hyundai i30 falls into the group? But nevertheless it won and that is a respectful achievement for any Targa stage in itself.
It’s not always about the car, but more so the driver and navigator and their abilities. I remember watching a particular popular English car show where a Ferrari raced a small hatch around a very tight circuit, the Ferrari lost, why? Because it wasn’t the best car for the job. Now take both cars to say the Ferrari test track and re-run the race, who do you think will win?
It’s not all about horse power, all wheel drive, rear wheel drive, front wheel drive; it’s finding out what ‘package’ is the best for what the driver & navigator need to archive a win.
Congratulations on a fantastic finish, I wish I was out there competing too rather than sitting around on the arm chair watching.