Hyundai revealed its most recent high performance concept car, the RM16 N, over last weekend at the Busan Motor Show in Korea. It’s the latest in Hyundai’s mid-engine turbocharged racing-inspired vehicles.
The name RM stands for Racing Mid-ship to denote it’s mid-engine layout. It’s an evolution of the RM14 that was shown at the Seoul Motor Show, followed by the RM15 the following year that acted as a showcase vehicle for Hyundai’s N performance division.
Elements of those previous cars have been carried over to the RM16. That includes an exterior design that’s very close to their Veloster. In fact, it looks better this year, even without the racy elements to it – it has an equal number of doors on each side, for one thing.
Perhaps this is Hyundai’s slow road to a second-generation sports coupe/hatch. In either case, the mid-mounted 2.0-litre 220kW turbocharged four-cylinder engine probably won’t make it to any production model, but it is promising to see them experiment with the layout. Who knows, maybe Hyundai N will be known the Renault Sport of Asia with their own interpretations of the 5 Turbo and Clio V6 – or, even crazier, the Rover Metro 6R4.
The RM16 N uses an aluminium space frame that’s used in tandem with carbon-fibre reinforced plastics (CFRP) panels. There’s some new tech here too, such as an electric supercharger to boost power and responsiveness, an electronic limited slip differential, and an active rear spoiler.
Albert Biermann, Head of Hyundai Motor’s Vehicle Test & High-Performance Development said, “RM models will continue to play an important role as the ‘rolling lab’ in the development of our future high-performance ‘N’ cars.”
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