World Championship Rally
SEOUL, March 10 (Yonhap) – Hyundai Motor Co., South Korea’s largest automaker, said Monday that its specially-tuned i20 supermini driven by Thierry Neuville finished 3rd in the Mexican leg of this year’s World Championship Rally (WRC).
The company said that the Mexican competition around the town of Leon is known for its tough, dirt-road driving conditions that test the limits of cars and drivers alike.
The third-place finish by the Belgian driver is the highest reached by a car operated by the Hyundai Shell World Rally Team established last year. The team is sponsored by multinational gas giant Royal Dutch Shell.
Besides the car driven by Neuville, another i20 operated by Chris Atkinson came in seventh in the race that ran from Thursday through Sunday.
Both cars had an N logo painted prominently on the hood, which Hyundai may place on a line of future high-performance cars similar to the “M badge” found on BMWs. The N stands for Namyang R&D Center, which is Hyundai’s technology and engineering nerve center located outside of Seoul.
The two cars secured a combined 22 points for the team, placing it second among the seven teams that competed in the WRC. The top place finish went to Volkswagen Motorsport, which operates Polo models made by the German carmaker. Third place went to M-Sport World Rally Team, which competed in a Ford Fiesta.
Reflecting the harsh conditions, Hyundai said of the 29 cars that competed, two dropped out due to accidents and one suffered mechanical trouble.
“The solid results come as the cars were specially tuned for the high altitude and difficult off-road environment,” an official said. He said Hyundai engineers learned lessons in tuning vehicles during the first and second legs of this year’s WRC that took place in Monaco and Sweden, respectively.
The i20s have a turbo-charged 1.6-liter engine that can produce a maximum of 400 Newton-meters of torque at 5,000 revolutions per minute.
The WRC will run through November, with all points accumulated in the 13 separate races tallied to pick the winning team and best driver.
Carmakers have traditionally poured time and money into fielding motor race teams to show off their technical prowess. Finishing at the top of such a prestigious racing circuit almost invariably generates positive publicity and boosts sales.