Hyundai Rumored To Release A Street Version Of The i20 WRC Rally Car

Hyundai is planning to release the second-generation i20 hatchback early next year.

The good news for car enthusiasts and Hyundai fans is that the 2015 i20 has passed the initial development phase and has already taken to the road for testing.

The second-generation i20 prototype models have already been seen being put through their paces on the European roads.

A set of Hyundai i20 spy shots that we had published here a while ago, created a whole lot of buzz about the next generation i20 model.

Hyundai i20 WRC Road Car In Work?

It has also been rumored that Hyundai will be delivering an impressive hot hatchback version of the new i20 with some input from the WRC.

Hyundai Motor made it clear that they wanted to return to the WRC in 2014, using a rally car variant based on the all-new i20 hatchback.

The Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at Hyundai Motor Europe, Allan Rushforth said that the decision was made to go with the WRC over F1 so that the company could cross over their vehicles for the track with those for the road.

Some are viewing this as Hyundai trying to keep up with the sportier image of sister company Kia, but the reality is that Hyundai have their more firmly fixed on the upscale market.

Hyundai is in a great position to manufacture the road-version of the i20 WRC rally car now that the 5.5 million Euro test center in Nurburgring is built and operational.

The facility will be mostly used to put each of the cars in their lineup through an accelerated testing process that crams 180,000 kilometers of testing into a relatively short period of time.