2022 Hyundai i30 N Track Test

STAFF at GoAuto took the opportunity recently to compete in Australia’s biggest amateur motorsport event, the Victorian 12-Hour Regularity Relay, held over two days at Winton Raceway, Benalla, where up to 200 cars ‘race’ at high speed over the demanding, three-kilometre rural Victorian racetrack.

We convinced Hyundai to loan us a car (an i30 N hatch) for the event which entails each of four team members (usually in different cars) setting a lap time they think they can replicate in back to back sessions comprising 36 cars for about 30 minutes.

Points are awarded or deducted depending on how close to the nominated time the driver can lap.

Adding to the competitive nature of the event was a point score structure that deducted additional points for going faster than a nominated time (breaking) effectively forcing teams to set fast times to avoid that happening.

Though not traditional “door banging” racing, regularity relay is fast and demanding of its participants and the cars. 

The GoAuto car was seconded from Hyundai’s press fleet and was well run in with 12,000km no-doubt-hard kilometres on the clock.

We opted for a six-speed manual car because it affords more control to the driver and less electronic “intervention” by the car.

The i30 N also has plenty of power for overtaking slower vehicles and making up lost time. With 206kW and 392Nm of torque on tap, few cars were faster over the two days.

It was properly set up by Hyundai technicians with an aggressive wheel alignment, semi-slick 60 tread wear Pirelli Trofeo R 19-inch tyres, competition Circo brake pads, a four-point harness, fire extinguisher and 600-degree brake fluid… along with being fully serviced before the event.

Apart from that it was stock.

Racing numbers were stuck on, a ‘Custom’ drive mode selected to suit the event and the drivers then the tyres were heat cycled for five laps before the event starting at 36psi cold to ensure optimum wear and grip and then took the car out for a preliminary test drive to make sure everything was OK.

We found the front brake discs were warped causing a shudder and replaced them along with changing the damper setting to slightly softer, let the hot tyres down to 36psi from 43psi and everything else was maxxed out on the ‘N’ mode menu.

When the flag dropped on a fine, cool Saturday morning, we knew the i30 was a good choice as it was relatively easy to duplicate our fast lap times even after being held up by slower traffic.