Hyundai Motor announced its customized i30 Fastback N will be the Official Safety Car of the 32nd season of the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship (WorldSBK). Unveiled today, the i30 Fastback N safety car stands out with a livery derived from Hyundai’s i20 World Rally Championship (WRC) car. This activity is part of Hyundai’s new partnership with WorldSBK, announced in September of last year.
The i30 Fastback N Safety Car will make its public debut in Australia at the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit from February 22 to 24. The full fleet of official cars will be released at Spain’s Motorland Aragón, which will take place on April 5 to 7. Hyundai’s fleet, ranging from the i30 N to the Kona and Tucson SUV models, will be used in various capacities such as providing race direction or transporting medical personnel.
Since the announcement of N brand at the Frankfurt Motorshow in 2015, Hyundai has taken part in numerous motorsport events, including the World Rally Championships, Nürburgring 24 Hours and WTCR. Not only has the N brand performed well in the highest intensity competitions, but it has also proved a success among adrenaline-seeking customers, with its production of the i30 N, Veloster N, and most recently, the i30 Fastback N. The Hyundai N brand delivers high-performance vehicles that are fun to drive, with everyday usability and track capability.
The i30 Fastback N, Hyundai’s third high-performance N vehicle, debuted at the Paris Motor Show in October 2018. It is the first five-door coupe in the C segment and unique in its class. With a combination of sophisticated, elegant design, exhilarating performance and fun-to-drive features, the i30 Fastback N is an everyday sports car that’s as thrilling on the road as it is on the racetrack. Equipped with signature N Corner Carving Differential for maximum feeling, the i30 Fastback N is the perfect vehicle to be driven both on and off the racetrack.
“Building the WorldSBK Safety Car has been a very interesting project for us. It is not a race car but will spend most of its life on the race track. Since the i30 Fastback N is born capable, we didn’t need to make many modifications for it to do its job. The i30 Fastback N Safety Car is the most elegant safety car yet it will safeguard the world’s fastest production-based motorbikes. It is a true display of its duality character,” said Thomas Schemera, Executive Vice President and Head of the Product Planning & Strategy Division at Hyundai Motor.
The design of i30 Fastback N Safety Car is inspired by Hyundai Motorsport. The livery designs of Hyundai Motorsport feature a color scheme that includes Performance Blue, Active Red, darker Hyundai Blue, and new this season, black. The graphic depicts the landscape of a mountainous WRC race territory, represented in digital imagery, distorted by the high speed of the vehicle as it passes. Decreased resolution and pixelation create a feeling of rapid movement, which tears the landscape apart. The WRC version features a slightly more aggressive graphic with stones flying, emphasizing the range of race surfaces in the series, including gravel and tarmac, snow and ice. The WTCR version emphasizes its fast road based nature, with two separate color schemes for each team. For WorldSBK, the Hyundai Blue has been replaced with white to clearly distinguish the i30 Fastback N from race cars.
The modification of the i30 Fastback N Safety Car was mainly led by Hyundai Motorsport Customer Racing and limited to only the essential parts of its duty. For example, the rear light bar is sleek and positioned far back to help improve the Safety Car’s aerodynamics and provide better visibility to the riders who follow it. Sabelt bucket seats deliver better hold for the driver and the doctor. In the WorldSBK, the doctor is always seated next to the Safety Driver for first aid purposes and safety reasons. Active Red and Hyundai Blue colored 19-inch forged Braid wheels boast Hyundai WRC car’s heritage. The tailor-made Pirelli P Zero tires and Pagid brake pads ensure it delivers track performance and stopping power.
At the A-pillar of the i30 Fastback N Safety Car, the URL address of the newly launched Hyundai N independent website is placed. The history, models, motorsport information and more can be found at the new Hyundai N website, Hyundai-N.com. Placing the URL address at the A-pillar is another long heritage of Hyundai Motorsport vehicles.
