Hyundai N Performance Division Announced, i20 WRC Car Launched

First, lets talk about Hyundai's virgin WRC team. It's named Hyundai Shell World Rally Team, Shell being the title partner. As part of the multi year partnership, Hyundai's WRC race cars will wear the Shell Helix-Ultra livery.

For its maiden WRC effort, Hyundai will enter the championship with the new i20 WRC race car. The car is born in India as a regular 120 and then shipped to its new motorsports facility in Alzenau, Germany, where it is transformed into a WRC spec racing machine.

The team's tryst with WRC will begin with the first race of the 2014 FIA World Rally Championship that will take place in Monte Carlo.

The team's race efforts will be taken care of by lead driver Dani Sordo, with Thierry Neuville as his partner, while Juho Hänninen and partner Chris Atkinson will also drive a second car on selected rallies.

"We have worked tremendously hard to get where we are today and to be able to launch our new WRC team to the world," explains Team Principal of Hyundai Motorsport GmbH, Michel Nandan. "In less than one year, we have built and tested a brand new WRC-specification car, the Hyundai i20 WRC, and established a professional team and modern motorsport facility. It's a huge accomplishment but we know that we have a lot to learn in our first season. Our aims for 2014 are realistic: we want to finish each rally with both cars and build up a database of information and experience so we can develop ourselves into prospective rally winners in the future. If all goes well, we will hope to be competing for occasional podiums as the year progresses."

Now lets talk about the other exciting bit. Hyundai has given a name to the division that develops its i20 WRC race cars. Henceforth, it will be known simply as ‘N'.

‘N' stands for Namyang. That's the name of Hyundai's R&D center in South Korea. More importantly, N will not just be tasked with developing race cars, but also high performance road cars.

"Hyundai "N" will be used to symbolise Hyundai's high performance technology on both the i20 WRC car and future mass-produced high performance cars.", explains the automaker. "N" brings together Hyundai Motor's technology and innovation with the learning from motorsport to provide a new experience for customers."

Commenting on its transformation the automaker states in its official statement. "The Hyundai WRC team has come a long way since the first iteration of the i20 WRC car made an appearance at the Paris Motor Show in September 2012. Hyundai Motorsport has developed from scratch into a fully functioning motorsport team, defying the odds to build, test and prepare two rally cars ready to compete in 2014. With more than 90 staff from 18 nationalities, made up of motorsport specialists and experienced Hyundai personnel, the team represents the perfect mix of Hyundai and motorsport ideals."