Page 50 - Motor Trend (February 2020)

COULD SOMETHING LIKE THIS MAKE
PRODUCTION? WITH A WINK, ALBERT
BIERMANN DOESN’T RULE IT OUT.
unique blue of Hyundai’s N cars. But the
closer we get, the meaner the car looks—
like seeing fangs and claws sprouting on
your neighbor’s dog. I expected some-
thing more like a Lamborghini in profile;
could this be our promised supercar?
Have I been bait-and-switched?
A massive diffuser juts out of the rear,
mirroring the shadowing wing above.
Flares auger out from the sides, blending
into a similarly sprawling splitter ’round
the front. Huge tires fill the wheelwells,
but wait ... what the heck? Aren’t the rears
wider? By a lot? And are those intakes
in the rear window areas? Could it be?
Peering into the back seat, I wonder,
“What hath Albert Biermann wrought?”
Why, there’s an engine back there.
Holy R5 Turbo! They’ve transplanted
the drivetrain 4 feet aft. Questions fill my
head. What transmission? What suspen-
sion? What power? Most of all ... why?
Although Hyundai VIPs and execs
from all over are present, there are only
two journalists: myself and a chap from
the U.K. Biermann is beaming like a
proud papa with a newborn baby, which
50 MOTORTREND.COM FEBRUARY 2020
is pretty much what he is right now. This
is the RM19, and, yes, there were RMs
numbered 1 through 18, but this is the
first I’ve seen. And there will be more ...
We ferry over to a makeshift pit lane,
where the Nordschleife cuts off from the
modern Grand Prix circuit and dives into
its sinuous beginning. This Frankenstein-
swapped Veloster is looking very racy, and
I’m going to get to do some laps. There
are also a couple very streety looking
mid-engine, rear-drive competitors lined
up for us: a Porsche 718 Cayman GTS and
a Renault Alpine A110.
I’m in the Cayman first, working hard
to revive memories of the track’s 73 turns.
The Porsche is the joy we know it to
be: impressive power from the coarse-
sounding turbo-four, absorbing the rough
surface with a trustworthy balance and
precise responses, PDK in Sport Plus,
always in the proper gear.
Next is the Alpine, light and quick and
very lightly damped. It has surprising
brake dive and a scary tendency toward
snap oversteer when entering a turn
aggressively. It’s a bit of a wild pony, threat-
ening to justify that Green Hell nickname.
On to the star of this show, the Veloster
N of Angry Purpose, accompanied by
a brave young engineer who says he’s
honored to meet me. Hope he feels that
way when—if—we get back. No rules, just
go for it and see what you think. The track
is all ours, no tourist traffic, a rare plea-
sure, and there’s beautiful, sunny weather
all the way around, just as rare.
As we leave the pits, the car demands
a lot of clutch slip. The engine is lazy at
low revs, quite unlike the street N car.
The ratio in first is quite tall, and there’s
loud gear whine. It has a racing sequential
transmission, with paddle shifters needing
no further declutching.
The car is so wide that I worry I’ll clip
those fat fenders off each side as I slip
through the narrow opening onto the
Mother of All Circuits, feeling very much
like I’m leaving the grid for a competition.
After considerable wait for the boost,
the Veloster takes off hungrily, and I’m
paddling gears: bang, bang, bang.
Going for the brakes into the first of
many corners, the pedal is too long and
there’s not enough bite. But, oh, the
steering. The low polar moment of the