Hyundai is doing it right, aims to bring WRC to road cars

The more I learn about Hyundai’s WRC programme and the decisions that were behind it the more I believe this team will do well in the championship. They may lack the immense experience of the Volkswagen and its Škoda IRC programme, but they are aware of it and they will not allow it to steer them away from the big goal.

In Frankfurt Hyundai unveiled brand new i10 and despite this car’s zero connection to WRC, it does put some things into perspective. For example, Hyundai plans to increase the market share significantly and i10 is going to responsible for big part of that assignment. “Europe”, “European design” and “European needs” were all over Hyundai’s comments, statements and press releases and that’s great news for WRC as well.

Even more so because Hyundai is determined to make the best of its WRC project not only on stages but in sales as well. New generation of i20 is going to debut next year in Paris so for 2015 we can expect the new design of WRC car as well. Best thing about it – Hyundai plans to build sporty performance variants of its road cars based on the WRC project. According to Auto Express’ sources, new generation i20 could be the first WRC inspired car in Hyundai’s lineup.

And, to save the best thing for last, here’s what Hyundai said about the decision to join WRC: “We chose WRC instead of F1 because of the greater crossover with our road cars. We will have sporty derivatives as a spin-off of the WRC programme.”