Hyundai i20 N | Test Drive | Auto Class Magazine

Hyundai i20 N | Test Drive

4 December 2023 Redazione News, Tested

Words Matteo Lavazza / Photos Alessio Becker

We waited it for a long time – too much to be honest – but every single day spent gritting my teeth imagining the pleasure I would have felt once behind the wheel has been amply repaid. Now that it’s here I wish it would never leave, but it should be stressed that the most delicious pieces of cake should be savored and not swallowed as if we were at the end of an extremely serious diet. Let’s take it easy, this moment must last as long as possible. The fact is that the current panorama, including those of hot hatches, is increasingly thinning and therefore it will be very difficult not to take advantage of an old-school sports car like the one made by the Korean brand. Few frills, traction only on the front axle, exclusively manual gearbox and a chassis that makes up for a power that will not make your eyes go out of their orbits in terms of pure speed, but rather for the impressive grip and the communicativeness you get between the curves.

The i20 N is a sports car that translates the concept introduced years ago with the exceptional i30 N onto a smaller and lighter car body, but which manages to maintain interior roominess perfectly capable of accommodating at least two adults behind and a load compartment not at all sacrificed in the name of urban practicality. Yes, because the i20 was born after all on the basis of a compact five-door mainly devoted to city use. It is the N treatment that distorts its essence, still remaining capable of daily coexistence, but desires nothing more than space and lots of bends. Impossible to confuse it with any other i20, not even N-Line, given that the authentic i20 N is a discovery of edges, aerodynamic profiles and spoilers.

Lower at the front, more nervous on the side profiles – where the sideskirts with integrated N stand out proud – at the rear there is no room for doubts about the bellicose nature of the Korean pocket rocket. There is an eye-catching spoiler on top of the rear window and a large diffuser that integrates a real exhaust pipe, the protagonist of a soundtrack that accompanies any driving mode, but which is inexorably raised to the max in Sport or N. Completing the gritty look we have the new 18-inch wheels and the ever-present Performance Blue color with contrasting black roof. The passenger compartment, on the other hand, differs for the sports seats, very containing but comfortable enough for a longer journey than usual, and in the dedicated steering wheel, which integrates the two N shortcuts which allow you to select between the 3 sportiest modes (of which 2 fully customizable) and the red “Rev” button, which activates or deactivates the automatic rev matching, not available in N Custom mode.

Enough talking. I give life to the engine, a 1.6-litre turbocharged in-line 4-cylinder that delivers power perfectly in line with its reference segment: 204 horses and 304 Nm of torque. If you count on the stopwatch you will never understand the true essence of the i20 N, because this is not a sports car for traffic lights runs or overtaking in the third lane. This is one of those cars that teaches you how to drive, to push your limits beyond what you thought was the end of the world and realize that the work done by the Korean engineers on this chassis is something otherworldly. The front end is extremely precise and makes use of a limited slip differential, which improves the grip of the inside wheel as you soon understand that the i20 N likes to be revved up with the throttle down to the floor.

The 6-speed manual gearbox completes what every true driving enthusiast needs. The manual control, the mechanical nature of the responses and the need to communicate with the engine in order to get the best out of those 204 hp. Moving frantically from corner to corner in N mode (but without rev matching engaged), the exhaust crackles like a machine gun mounted at the base of the tailgate. I always stay in a rev curve that doesn’t drop below 2,500 and I pull out all the torque possible, letting the dimensions and low weight (just 1,265 kg) make me leap from one point of the road to another. Once up to temperature – which at 36° takes very little time – the Pirelli bite the asphalt like crazy and so I find myself trampling the same kilometers where a few months ago we took its most direct rival: the Ford Fiesta ST.

A comparison heard several times which ends up being a mere subjective question, mainly due to the fact that the 3-cylinder of the Fiesta ST is more reactive on one hand, but partly less engaging on the other. De gustibus, I would take both. I take advantage of the opportunity to test a chassis that under a car that comes home with you for a cost of less than thirty thousand Euros is truly the deal of the decade. And then you hear those pops, the feel of the gearbox engaging the gear and the revs suddenly rising, while the front wheels do their best to bite the asphalt and launch me towards the next apex. I try pushing it to the limit and it straightens up nervously, nothing is missing and if they tell you that a few extra horses would have been useful, tell them that the problem is they don’t know how to make proper use of those available.

The i20 N does not forget that it is a hatchback and therefore, once the fun of a winding road is left behind, it has to deal with a diametrically opposite context. I set it to Comfort mode and it’s like having deactivated the boost engines, with the 4-cylinder advancing silently in traffic, betrayed only by a look that will never, ever go unnoticed. Fuel consumption, as long as you don’t constantly attack a mountain road, is also quite interesting, without reducing you to relate on bread and water in the name of 100 octane. Coexistence is possible, but as I can no longer tolerate the tourist slowness that pervades the seaside during the summer months, I decide to go back to where I came from, where the i20 N shows its wildest side, that of one of the few hot hatches that despite being perfectly equipped with latest generation infotainment, presents an aspect that is indispensable for us enthusiasts: the ability to make you want to drive without a specific destination, even just to squeeze that steering wheel and hear the 1.6 grumble in release. In an increasingly boring (car) world, the i20 N is yet another breath of fresh air courtesy of Hyundai.