This year’s Performance Shootout isn’t the i30N’s first rodeo. The manual transmission model accompanied us on our 2020 Performance Shootout and gave a good account of itself despite the formidable company it kept. In 2023, the Hyundai i30N made a return to claim its rightful position on the throne.
While we were taken with the manual’s pleasing mechanical shift action, not to mention the rev-matching module’s ability to effortlessly align gearbox and engine, the recently introduced eight-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission is an even better fit. As much as every good petrolhead will appreciate the interaction between driver and well-sorted manual gearbox, the profusion of traffic crawling and stop-and-go roadworks that lined our route this year meant any break from manually modulating a clutch was more than welcome.
Although the new automatic certainly acquitted itself smoothly at low speeds, its performance in attacking driving scenarios was nothing short of remarkable. At the N’s heart beats an uprated version of Hyundai’s G4KH Theta II 2,0-litre, direct-injection turbo-petrol four-pot. It’s an incredibly tractable unit, thanks to the wet clutch’s well-considered ratios and crisp response to paddle-actuated downshifts, it never succumbs to an excess of revs or ponderous lugging. Power delivery is wonderfully linear and with the exhaust flaps open a smile-inducing barrage of thumps and cracks will accompany each upshift. Setting the five-mode (Eco, Normal, Sport, N and N Custom) drivetrain management system to N using the bodywork-matching Performance Blue steering-wheel button, places parameters such as throttle and gearshift mapping, steering assistance and the firmness of the adaptive dampers in their most aggressive attitudes.
Without a gear stick to stir, your focus is drawn to the N’s wonderfully balanced chassis. The only thing preoccupying your hands is a steering wheel that is brilliantly weighted and responsive. When tackling twisting roads, which would send the most powerful FWDs washing wide, the electronic differential tucks the Hyundai i30N’s nose into the apex. It all but banishes understeer, while the P Zero footwear serves up impressive levels of front-end grip.
What really appeals is the way it engages the driver, it wants to communicate at every stage mechanically, its underpinnings with those adaptive dampers fend off lateral squirm, and the uprated brakes (345/314 mm fore and aft) and structural bracing telegraph the car’s attitude at each turn. Electronically, the r/min indicator lights in the instrument binnacle spark to life as speeds climb and downshift are fired off. The Hyundai i30N Grin Shift overboost flashes a 20-second countdown before shifting the gearbox into its most appropriate ratio, bumping up the outputs from 202 kW and 353 N.m to 206 kW and 392 N.m. Moreover, there is just so much character at play here. It simultaneously rewards the spirited driver and gently goads them into exploring the limits of what the N has to offer.
