More sporty Hyundais

Hyundai will embark on a Mazda-style strategy of producing warmed-over models of its family fare.
The Korean car maker released its first performance-enhanced car wearing an SR badge this week, with the Veloster SR Turbo expected to be the first of a series of Mazda SP-like models arriving on the Australian market.
While he wouldn’t be pressed on which model would be next to sit alongside the Veloster SR Turbo in the showroom, Hyundai senior manager of product planning Scott Williams says a likely candidate is the i30 hatchback, which wore an SR badge in the previous generation.
‘‘While it was just basically a body kit, it [the now-superseded i30 SR] didn’t achieve a very good mix of product sales,’’ Williams says.

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‘‘But coming from Mazda I know full well the impact an SP range has for your model line like a Mazda3, and it can generate significant incremental volume, profitability and a halo effect.
‘‘I can see the potential, as I see it, of having a sausage with some sizzle, where we can take the SR sub-brand to a new level with incremental performance.’’
He says Hyundai is ‘‘studying very hard’’ the possibility of a unique sub-brand in the mould of Mazda, featuring powertrain and handling enhancements to justify establishing the SR line.
‘‘Now, I’m not saying it’s all cut and dry - there’s still a lot of work to do, but the turbo SR is on the way.’’
As with the Veloster SR Turbo, Hyundai could fettle the i30 with forced induction and a retuned suspension and steering system to add driver enjoyment.
However, while efforts should produce a better-handling Hyundai, the car maker is still very conscious about keeping its connection with budget-conscious buyers.
The Veloster SR Turbo comes without several performance-enhancing technologies, such as a clever stability control system that that can send torque to the wheel with the most grip during acceleration. The maker says the technology wouldn’t allow the car achieve its sharp price point.
As a stop gap, the company has used the car’s anti-lock brakes system to stop the front wheels from spinning, and also to reduce the amount of torque steer (where the steering pulls to one side under hard acceleration).
There was also no push to replace the locally tuned suspension system with a selectable system that allowed the driver to decide how hard the turbocharged Veloster would ride.
‘‘The key goal for this vehicle is affordable performance and accessibility,’’ product planning manager Andrew Tuitahi, who also helped retune the Veloster for Australian roads, says.
‘‘I think that kind of system would add quite a level of cost that would place the Veloster ... outside of its target market.’’
One thing the extra driver-enhanced models won’t feature, despite it already being available, is a dual-clutch automatic gearbox.
According to Hyundai’s senior manager of product planning, Scott Williams, the six-speed dual-clutch unit featured in the bog-standard Veloster isn’t able to handle the extra torque that the patched-on turbocharger generates, pushing the Korean car maker to choose a traditional torque converter auto instead.
‘‘It was a question of handling the torque the best way,’’ Williams says. ‘‘It was seen that a normal six-speed automatic transmission gets the power down (to the front wheels) in a more fluid manner, and gets better performance overall.’’
However, while the automatic does have performance benefits, it makes the Veloster SR Turbo a lot more thirsty than its normally aspirated sibling.
While the dual-clutch auto in the base model car achieves an official average fuel use rating of 6.4 litres per 100 kilometres, the traditional auto in the SR Turbo version carries a big 7.6L/100km fuel-use rating.