HYUNDAI 2017 i20 WRC
Here’s the English translation (via Google Translate) of the L’Équipe story that accompanied the exclusive first photos of the Hyundai Motorsport 2017 i20 WRC being tested in Southern France.
The WRC i20 2017 Hyundai rolled this morning
16/06/2016
The team has obtained the first pictures of the i20 WRC “laboratory” that Hyundai is developing for 2017. It was test Thursday morning in southern France.
To each his own style. While Volkswagen connects the practice sessions since the summer of 2015, with Polo “laboratory”, Citroën communicates regularly on the progress of its C3 , the Toyota Yaris is designed in the workshops of Tommi Mäkinen Finland shooter is everywhere it happens when the brand adopts an amazing radio silence offers its preparations, Hyundai has in turn chosen discretion. parallel to the development of the 2016 version that allowed Hayden Paddon and Thierry Neuville to impose respectively in Argentina and Sardinia , the Korean team has indeed started since April to work in secret on her replacement, designed by the design office based in Alzenau, near Frankfurt.
Several development sessions with a “hybrid” model
Reportedly, Hyundai has already conducted several sessions of development with a “hybrid” model of the WRC, photographed Thursday morning in action in the South of France with Kevin Abbring driving. If this i20WRC, who returns to the three-door version after the interlude 2016 five-door, does not have all the aerodynamic changes permitted by the new regulation, it can test now in 2017 the engine configuration and the different options in the area of the ground or the cooling connections. this development car has allowed the team of Michel Nandan start preparing approval of its 2017 car, the first definitive prototype due out workshops in early July. The development of the current i20 WRC is however not stopped since Hyundai leads the forehead two programs, like last year when it came to carry out the second season of the first generation Hyundai and the establishment point of the model 2016. With the success we now know it.
Story by Jerome Bourret (@jeromebourret)
