Sports car under $50,000

Hyundai i30 N

The old adage ‘race on Sunday, sell on Monday’ has just as much resonance today with car companies and consumers as it did in the ’70s and ’80s.

Motorsport success can bring credibility and floor traffic into the showroom, and buyers today are faced with a mouth-watering array of affordable hot hatches, coupes and sedans.

Launched here just a few months ago, the Hyundai i30 N has undergone several years of development, much of it in Europe – the spiritual home of performance hatches and where Hyundai’s N performance arm resides.

Hyundai Australia also knows that our unique road conditions throw up many challenges in developing the best ride and handling settings for our tastes. Shocks and damper calibrations are unique to the Aussie-spec i30 N, providing a more compliant ride than the hard-edged European version and this decision bears fruit with a best-in-class score for ride.

The same goes for handling, arguably the most critical line, where the combination of a unique rack mounted electric power steering unit, multi adjustable electronically controlled suspension, electronically controlled limited slip differential and low profile 19-inch tyres work perfectly together.

The i30 N remains glued to the road like a barnacle to a boat hull, and it’s just as difficult to dislodge or upset through a series of sweeping corners or tight switchbacks. At the heart of the i30 N is a 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine pumping out 202kW and 353Nm with an extra 25Nm available with overboost.

Maximum torque is available from just 1450rpm, and the way the power is delivered provides a slight point of distinction to some of its peers. Rather than neck-snapping surges of power when the turbo gets on boost, the engine in the i30 N delivers a strong, seamless surge up to almost 5000rpm. That driver-friendly power delivery underscores the i30 N’s overall user-friendly attributes.

Ergonomically, all the major and minor controls intuitively fall to hand and front-seat support is comfortable without the need to resort to a hard race-type seat.

Visually, the i30N remains on the understated side, but alter the drive setting to rev-matching mode and it’ll produce just the sort of mechanical cacophony from the exhausts that’s music to the ears for enthusiasts.

With a starting price of $39,990 there are few in the category that can match the i30 N price-wise and the value-for-money equation is enhanced with a good level of standard features and high build quality.

Impressive as it is, you don’t win a sports category with those attributes alone and it’s the i30 N’s on-road scores that really matter and where it excels.