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It's the spiritual home of the modern performance car, one that attracts car enthusiasts not just for the inherent challenge, but the adventure of getting to there, setting a lap, and then being able to get home. In our latest video, we sent evo Contributing Editor Steve Sutcliffe to the iconic Nürburgring to lap the Nordschleife in Hyundai's i30 Fastback N, and remind us why it deserves its place as the ultimate pilgrimage for the performance car enthusiast. Visit www.evo.co.uk for more performance car reviews and news Read our Hyundai i30 Fastback N review here https://www.evo.co.uk/reviews/22145/hyundai-i30-fastback-n-review-is-it-as-good-as-the-i30-n-hatch
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0:00
Welcome to the Nürburgring, to the Nordschleife, or as Jackie Stewart once called it, the Green
0:18
Hell. Arguably the greatest 12.9 miles of racetrack on earth. And if you're going to get your rocks
0:25
off properly at a Nürburgring track day, of which there are quite a few to choose from nowadays
0:30
you need the right car to do it in. One that's quite a lot like the Hyundai i30n fastback you see here
0:42
So let's set the nav to Stefan Bellofstrasse, Nürburgring, Germany, 433 miles away and it's
0:51
going to take nine hours and one minute so I better get going. The i30n felt quiet, comfortable
1:00
and just utterly civilized on the 400 mile journey towards the ring itself and as the Eiffel Mountains
1:06
eventually came into view at the end of a long day on the road the excitement properly began to
1:13
build and as you get nearer to the circuit the roads just get better and more beautiful. And the
1:20
engineers actually use these roads an awful lot to test these cars. I know there's a lot of cred
1:26
about being developed on the Nurburgring but be under no illusion all the manufacturers come to
1:31
these roads to develop their cars on them because they're just so good and I have to say the i30m
1:36
fastback is feeling a bit tasty amongst the Eiffel mountains. The EDIF just worked beautifully on
1:44
this car especially on the road i'm still in normal mode because that's how you drive this
1:50
car on the road i'm going to save the end button for the track tomorrow but look if you ever come
1:56
to the Nürburgring make sure you come to the Eiffel mountain roads as well as the ring itself
2:02
you will not regret it i promise you but there was one last thing i needed to do and that was to see
2:09
how quick the i30n could go down an autobahn the number one autobahn is absolutely the perfect
2:18
piece of road behind i themselves come and test here it's all right let's see what it will do
2:23
146 148 151 oh my word it's still going 163 165 168..
2:41
168 miles an hour. I tell you what, it feels solid as a rock at this speed
2:48
I mean, you go past objects pretty swiftly, but the stability is awesome
3:04
So as the sun rose and all the other cars from our RSR organised track day began to arrive
3:11
the sense of anticipation became more and more palpable. Even though I've done quite a few laps of this track, you learn stuff from that guy
3:25
and all these people who pay their money, it's just invaluable advice
3:30
Anyway, I'd better go and catch them up. If you do something wrong, if you're not in sync with what the car wants to do
3:37
and you come off that kerb, and imagine the right-hand side of the car is in the air
3:42
absolutely in the air, and you want to steer to the left, what happens? It's a bit rough, eh
3:55
Here we go then, lap the Nürburgring in the i30, fastback N on this RSR track day
4:13
It's just the first few corners, the first few corners. You can feel the E-diff just really doing its thing
4:22
I love the front end on this car I really do it just gives you so much faith
4:30
and that's how Hyundai have set this car up by their own admission
4:36
they have not set this i30N up to be absolutely on the limit fast
4:43
because they know it is going to be driven by not regular punters
4:49
but regular enthusiasts guests, so therefore not people who are necessarily super talented racing drivers, but people
4:58
who don't want to scare themselves stupid, but do want to have some fun
5:05
So the way they've set the aero up, for example, there's a little bit more downforce at the
5:14
back than there is at the front. And that's just that it's got a nice friendly balance
5:25
through the quick corners like this one here, the flip-flats. And it just gives you faith
5:34
The car feels completely on your side. And we're just coming up to the defining corner
5:41
I guess for the i30 N full stop, it is called Schweidenkreutz
5:48
And Albert Biermann insisted that the N cars felt predictable and not terrifying specifically through Schweidenkreutz and that is exactly how it feels you can totally commit to the throttle and to your turning speed and it i mean it feels mega it feels pinned
6:16
but it doesn't feel terrifying it's a really great combination and then you can ride curbs
6:26
like that in it as well. Oh, I have to say, this car feels a bit tasty around here. It
6:34
just feels at home on the ring. Metzgefell, commit, commit. Brakes too. The ring is not
6:53
massively heavy circuit on brakes there are there are areas where you really need them to be on your
6:58
side but you're not murdering the brakes the whole way around the lap but when you do murder them
7:05
the pedal is there bang and the stopping power is pretty tidy as well oh this thing is just
7:14
brilliant on this track obviously i'm in n mode because we are on the nurberg ring
7:23
and actually it feels quite lively over some of those bumps because the ring is bumpy in places
7:35
The quickest cars are set up to ride the kerbs in quite a few places
7:42
and if you're too stiff, you're too bumpy, you're in trouble. But inevitably they've got the balance just about right, I'd say
7:53
I really like the steering on this car as well. You've only got two turns lock to lock so it's pretty lively on the gearing
8:07
See what I mean by the way you can muller those kerbs
8:14
Some of our hatches would just be all over the shop over those kerbs
8:22
towards Brunchen. Very easy to get very wrong with this bit of the track because it's not
8:31
that quick. You've got to be quite precise through here. Very easy to overdo it on the
8:37
way in and then run out of road on the way out. The ice curve, I reckon the most technical
8:48
corner on the circuit, have to do that. And now we're coming up to the Flansgarten, the jump
8:57
A little bit of air quite nice Beautifully damped on the way down when it hit that bump
9:10
You know what this car feels like it would be? Just really lovely to do a 24-hour racing
9:17
Because it's not stressing you out too much. It's still carrying loads of speed, but because of the way they've set it up
9:25
to be this kind of friendly, fast, not edgy, but still involving driver's car
9:38
You just don't feel like you're teetering around on the edge anywhere or at any speed
9:48
Take it easy through here, Sutters, because this is where you can have a big off
9:53
by running out of room too soon at the exit. And now on to the main straight
9:59
Well, we know what it does. It does 168 miles an hour, but it ain't going to do that down this straight
10:11
That is two laps of the ring. And I have to admit, I think this thing feels flipping marvellous
10:18
It's really good. It feels absolutely at home on this track. And there are plenty of very good road cars, fast road cars, that don't
10:31
However many gillions they've spent developing this car on this track, they were worth it
10:36
It is glinding. When we first came 16 years ago it was a lot quieter than it is now on a tourist day
10:48
We learnt by taking the map, the passenger had the map and we were turning the map around
10:53
It's a very different place now and I wouldn't like to try and start again
10:56
I feel out here the guy who has the maximum respect is not the guy in the biggest car
11:01
but the guy who's got the most amount of skill. Have fun. Don't let your ego decide how you drive
11:08
There's nothing like Nordschleife here. It's the most dangerous, the scariest of them all
11:12
It gives you the most reward if you finish a good lap. There's just nothing like it
11:17
The people that are here, it's just great. The whole atmosphere here can't be beaten
11:23
Be in no doubt, this is an extremely special place if you're a car nut
11:31
And if you do go to this magical place just once in your life, you will want to come back
11:38
Because when this place gets into your veins, there's no turning back
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