Hyundai i20 WRC

[Kielder]

Hyundai has released the first rendering of their Nürburgring Vehicle Test Center that is scheduled to be completed in August. The facility will cost €5,5 million.




More information

[tobbe3]

"Maybe it's old news & I maybe wrong but just heard that Juho Hanninen was the mystery man behind the wheel of the Hyundai at the recent test.

Also heard, that there could be up to a 8 driver shoot out to see who gets to drive for Hyundai next season!"

-Julian Porter

[RS]

No offence but why would they use a driver like Paddon for a development test when he has no real experience? Hanninen has at least driven two recent world rally cars for works/semi works teams.

[Mirek]

Juho has very very good feeling for the car, setup changes, tyres, surface etc. He is very good one for development of new car. On the other hand I can't see Nandan and Vallat letting drivers speak a lot in car development. Maybe I'm totally wrong but the "PSA" guys usually trust the engineers more than drivers.

[GigiGalliNo1]

They trust engineers more than drivers? Where are these engineers from? Ex Peugeot circa 2006? Ex Skoda? Hope Hyundai have engineers who know about the current WRC cars eh?

[navtheace]

Will be interesting to see if they get into an R5 car, as the FIA will phase out the current WRC/RRC cars in 2 years from now and put R5 as the top class?

[tommeke_B]

They trust engineers more than drivers? Where are these engineers from? Ex Peugeot circa 2006? Ex Skoda? Hope Hyundai have engineers who know about the current WRC cars eh?

Engineers who developed the 207 S2000 also, as far as I know. Don't underestimate the value of the experience from developing a WRC car back then. In 2002-2006, the WRC cars were more complex and there was much more "high-end" technology than we see now...

[Mirek]

They trust engineers more than drivers? Where are these engineers from? Ex Peugeot circa 2006?

Michel Nandan, boss of Hyundai Motorsport, was technical director of Peugeot Sport in 1999-2005. Bertrand Vallat was working in Peugeot Sport as test engineer and later as technical director (I think) in 2000-2012. Both now joined again in Hyundai. But I don't want to be too harsh, they also created the miracle called 206 WRC.

Ex Skoda?

It was a little bit different way. The strong player was Armin Schwarz, not engineers.

Hope Hyundai have engineers who know about the current WRC cars eh?

As Tom said, current cars are much simpler than those around 2005. Also at least Vallat was responsible for development of 207 S2000 and 208 R5 till the end of 2012 so he has pretty recent experience.

[GigiGalliNo1]

Ahhhhhhhh.....

[Kielder]

Hyundai Motorsport has today inaugurated its new headquarters in Alzenau:




It's spacious to say the least.