Hyundai Previews Its 2017 I20 WRC Competitor

At the 2016 Paris Motor Show, Hyundai is previewing its new i20 race car.

Set to compete in the 2017 FIA World Rally Championship (WRC), the new race car is based on a three-door Hyundai i20 WRC and has been developed in line with new WRC regulations. The team is currently in second place in the WRC manufacturers’ classification with 201 points and has actually been testing its brand new i20 WRC prototype since April across various locations in Europe.

Next year’s WRC regulations have given team designers greater aerodynamic freedom and Hyundai Motorsports has an extensive testing program lined up for the final part of 2016 to further evolve the new i20 WRC race car ahead of its debut at Rallye Monte-Carlo in January.

2016 Paris Motor Show Coverage

In addition to more aerodynamic freedom, 2017 WRC regulations will also allow teams to have more power with an increase to 380 horsepower. The Korean automaker did say the livery being shown at the 2016 Paris Motor Show is temporary, with the final specification and look of the car to be revealed this December.

“The 2017 WRC regulations have allowed all teams to start from a blank page, which has offered us an exciting engineering challenge. The changes will raise the level of entertainment in WRC on stages around the world with wider and more powerful cars,” said team principal, Michael Nandan. “We have been putting our experience from two full seasons of WRC into practice, as we aim to build on our successful 2016 campaign. The 2017 car started testing in April with initial work centred on engine and powertrain testing. More recently, we have looked at suspension, differential and aero. There will be some small evolutions on both chassis and engine later this year. We look forward to revealing the final version of our 2017 car later this year.”

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