HYUNDAI TAKES ON LAMBORGHINI?

Hyundai Takes on Lamborghini!

Steve Goodman

It’s mid- January, and that means that most of our New Year’s resolutions have already fallen by the wayside. Not so for Hyundai, who resolved last year to create a supercar to rival the likes of Lamborghini and the rest of the world’s top supercars.

At the recent Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Vegas, Luc Donkerwolke, head designer for Hyundai N, the Korean car maker’s newly formed performance division, announced that it was full speed ahead on the project. Speaking to Australian publication, Drive at CES, Donkerwolke confirmed that, “Hyundai N is definitely working on a supercar.”

While the headline of this article would probably have been considered a joke by car enthusiasts about a decade ago, since Hyundai launched their performance division, the industry has stood up and taken notice.

Details About the Hyundai Supercar

Donkerwolke was still hesitant to provide very many details about the proposed Hyundai supercar, other than to say it will be a two-door coupe, designed to go head-to-head with the Porsche 911 Turbo S and Lamborghini Huracan, and should achieve about “550 horsepower.”

He went on to indicate that although the Hyundai super-sport will use a hybrid powertrain, it probably will not be a “fully integrated system,” such as the kind used in Formula One. It’s more likely that Hyundai, much like Acura did with the NSX, will use an independent electric motor to add more power to the front wheels.

“There are some areas we can overcome instead of using big [internal combustion] engines as we would like to minimize as much as possible the use of IC engines and use as much as possible the electric motors,” Donkerwolke told Drive. “Then, in many ways — not just for efficiency, but for performance — it can very much be optimized using both powertrains.”

Although the vehicle is being developed by engineers from the N division, the automaker isn’t yet sure whether it will brand the car strictly as an N model or as a regular Hyundai.

Keep reading Flax Magazine for updates on the N, or any supercar, and be sure to check in with us regularly, for the latest reviews and auto industry info, to search for New, Used and Exotic cars, Wheels, Tires, Audio and Accessories, or to find the hottest car shows and auto related events and video highlights from across the entire state of Florida!...We Are FLAX Magazine!