Hyundai N Sport packs for i30, Kona, Veloster and Tucson coming
Hyundai will follow Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz’s lead in creating sport model packs that can be optioned on standard variants to give a more focused appearance and feel.
The Hyundai N Sport packages, as they will be most likely known, will offer an AMG-Line, S-line or M Sport-style enhancements that will see equipped vehicles upgraded with sportier suspension, retuned steering and visual enhancements.
The head of the Hyundai’s N division and former head of BMW’s M division, Albert Biermann, confirmed the arrival of the N Sport options before the end of this year at the Detroit motor show this week.
“We will also offer N Sport packages to base cars, but not only trim, the suspension and so on, we will start at the end of this year with the first cars to get this out [year],” Biermann said.
According to Biermann, the internal name for the sports packages is ‘N Sport’, though he admitted that it may still change before launch.
The N Sport packs will ultimately change most aspects of the car except the high performance and N-specific powertrain, which Biermann says will be kept exclusively for the actual N cars.
“The powertrain side we will pretty much stick to the normal line up, but everything else [will change],” he said - except the brakes, however, which Biermann claims is not necessary.
“If you don’t add the power we don’t need the brakes… but [we will change] also the driving experience, tuning, steering suspension, transmission, you know, this is where we want to give more response and precision in the driving experience, not on the N level but something in between.”
Hyundai Australia says that it’s very keen to take the N Sport packs, with the company’s general manager of public relations, Bill Thomas, confirming Australia’s interest.
“We will definitely be doing it,” Thomas said.
“But we don’t have the details at this date. It likely to start with i30, Veloster, Kona and Tucson, but beyond that we don’t have any information.”
Biermann also told CarAdvice there are track-specific items such as lightweight rims, rear sway bars, upgraded tyres and brakes as well as track-ready data logging systems for the i30 N available in Europe (Germany, in particular) that are factory approved and set to encourage owners to track their N vehicles.
Thomas, meanwhile, said to CarAdvice the Australian side of the business would be keen to offer the track-focused items if they meet our strict Australian Design Rules.
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