Think your Hyundai compact hatch is bland? Well, here’s Hyundai showing that its car can look good sporty and packs a lot of punch. Not that you should be doing this to your Hyundai i30, but it is nice to look at.
What you see before you is the Hyundai RM19 Racing Midship Sports Car officially revealed late last year. A car which Hyundai described as “signals future high-performance potential for Hyundai N brand.”
The ’N’ stands for Namyang, home of the automaker’s global R&D Center in Korea established since 1995. It also stands for Nürburgring where the brand’s European Test Center is located.
‘RM’ is simply Racing Midship and the mid-engine, rear-wheel drive RM19 is the latest iteration that will use in extensive road testing to validate newly-developed technologies which will eventually see implementations on future N models.
Meanwhile, the Hyundai RM19 Racing Midship Sports Car is powered by a touring car racing-based 2L direct-injection turbocharged engine with 390 horses on the tap.
Mated to a 6-speed sequential gearbox (identical to that of the touring car race gearbox with optimized gear ratios, however), the RM19 will do 0-60 in “under four seconds” and has a top speed of over 250 kph (155 mph).
The gasoline-powered Hyundai RM19 Racing Midship Sports Car is just the start. There’s plan for electrified variants.
So, will you be able to buy one? I am afraid not. However, expect the future N line to look just as good and possibly, performs as good.
All images courtesy of Hyundai Motor Group.