First drive review: Hyundai i20 N

Friday, 29 April 2022

• HYUNDAI I20 N

• Price range: $53,990

• Powertrains: 1.6-litre petrol turbocharged inline-four with 150kW/275Nm, 7.7L/100km, six-speed manual, FWD.

• Body style: Hatchback

• On sale: Now

Hyundai is keeping its foot on the gas with its N performance arm, introducing the Kona N last year to supplement the i30 N hatchback and fastback. Now, the baby of the bunch is here, and it could be the most fun of the lot.

Make me an instant expert: what do I need to know?

The i20 N is based around the i20 small hatchback (obviously) but gets a spicy 1.6-litre turbocharged four-cylinder making 150kW/275Nm (up to 304Nm on overboost), a six-speed manual transmission, a rally-inspired exhaust system and a mechanical limited-slip differential on the front axle to create a properly fiery little car.

**READ MORE:

* Hyundai's i20 N baby hot hatch is here

* Hyundai has given the i30 N more power and a dual-clutch transmission

* Hyundai Elantra N debuts as i20 N, Kona N priced in Australia

**

It makes the 100km/h sprint in a smidge over six seconds but is still relatively responsible on the gas, sucking a claimed 7.7L/100km and farting out 175g/km of CO2, which means it doesn’t cop a fee under the new Clean Car Programme.

Hyundai’s baby hot hatch also gets a “thoroughly honed” suspension set-up, with a coupled torsion beam axle, which increases roll stiffness and feedback, and a more rigid chassis. Pair that with 320mm front brakes, a strengthened clutch for launch control and track day savagery, and ‘Virtual Turbospeed Control’, which uses computers to perform black magic and control the turbocharger’s wastegate pressure on the fly to reduce lag.

Inside is a 10.25-inch touchscreen with performance driving data, including information on the track you’re driving on. Five New Zealand tracks are set to be included – Hampton Downs (already mapped), Pukekohe Park, Bruce McLaren Motorsport Park, Highlands Motorsport Park and Ruapuna Raceway.

Every option box is ticked by default, which includes a bunch of safety stuff like automatic emergency braking, and lane keep (but no adaptive cruise control), automatic headlights and wipers, wireless phone charging, and an electrochromatic rearview mirror.

It’s actually the only i20 we get here, and that might be a good thing, considering it’s $54k price tag and the fact that rivals like the Volkswagen Polo GTI cost more than ten thousand less…

Where did you drive it?

At Hampton Downs, for a handful of track laps. First impressions of the self-described “corner rascal” were good, the seats being comfortable and easy to set up and the reinforced clutch having a light operation. Pulling out of the pits and onto the track itself, the i20 N’s tricky turbo was working hard, pulling instantly without any detectable spool-up time in second, third and fourth.

While you’d definitely be entering and exiting corners faster in the bigger, gruntier i30 N, the lighter i20 N is much more playful, the limited slip differential working hard to maintain grip as the engine funnels power through the front wheels. It’s not so much power that you encounter understeer though, the car able to continuously feed energy into the rubber when you dial the traction control back into its sport mode.

You can be quite overzealous with your corner entry speed, as I was shown by rally star Hayden Paddon, tipping the car in and feeling the back end come around with a wheel off the ground, but get back on the power and it all comes right again without any real drama. It’s definitely more of a corner rascal than the slightly more grown-up i30 N.

The big red button on the steering wheel isn’t a nitrous button (sadly), instead it toggles the rev matching functionality of the transmission. You can turn it off and heel-and-toe if you’d like – the pedal box is well-spaced for it – but keeping it on is probably best for track use. It’s bloody good too, matching hard and fast downshifts perfectly but also not letting you over-rev the engine by downshifting too enthusiastically.

It also sounds fantastic. Hyundai described the active variable exhaust system as “erupting with a fierce WRC-style crackle and roar” and it kind of does. It’s nowhere near as loud, obviously, but it bangs and pops with enough volume to give people on the sidewalks a fright.

The only remaining question mark is how the little hatch performs in the real world.

As an aside, I also drove the dual-clutch-equipped i30 N Series II, which is a decent step above the i20 N but felt a little less sure of itself during cornering (which may have been due to four other groups of people thrashing the tyres before I got a chance to jump in). The DCT is also brilliant, snapping through the gears and sending shunts of power through the car on the upshifts. In N Grin Shift mode (exclusively for DCT models), it’ll even bounce off the rev limiter if you don’t change up, so all your mates can hear if you fluff a shift.

What’s the pick of the range?

Well, considering you can only buy one i20 with one transmission and in one specification… I’d have to say the manual i20 N with the blue paint and red trim.

But seriously, it might be the youngest and least powerful child of the bunch, but it’s not lacking in personality. In fact, it seems like Hyundai realised that people aren’t wanting the i20 N for a combination of functionality and fun – it’s simply too small for that – so they went hard on making it as silly as possible. And I mean that in a good way.

Why would I buy it?

You like raucous manual hot hatches that punch above their weight, don’t mind it being a bit small, and aren’t afraid of spending a little extra to having something a bit more special.

Why wouldn’t I buy it?

That price tag is about $13k more than the Volkswagen Polo GTI, which makes basically the same power and has similar specifications but uses a dual-clutch auto instead of a manual, or you want to wait and see what the refreshed Ford Fiesta ST is like.