SPY PICS: Hyundai's hot-house i30 exposed

Hyundai will launch the first series-production model from its N performance arm next year, and it's expected to make its world debut in the form of a Volkswagen Golf R-rivalling i30 hot hatch concept at the Frankfurt motor show in September.

UK mag Autocar has reported remarks from Hyundai's World Rally Championship chief, Michel Nandan, who last week anointed the i30 as the standard bearer for the 'N' brand. Days later, spy photographers caught this subtly disguised i30 not far from Hyundai's European test facility at the Nurburgring in Germany.

This car, featuring red brake callipers and large-diameter disc rotors, appears to be a mule based on the current i30 body shape. For the production i30 N, Autocar reports that the platform will be all new, for a multitude of reasons. One of those reasons would presumably be the need to accommodate all-wheel drive underpinnings.

According to the British publication, the i30 N will be aimed fair and square at all-wheel drive hot hatches like the Golf R and the upcoming Ford Focus RS, which is rated at 257kW and 440Nm.

Indeed, Hyundai has already revealed a high-performance 221kW/380Nm version of its Theta 2.0-litre T-GDI turbo-petrol engine in the wild mid-engined Veloster-based RM15 concept unveiled at this year's Seoul motor show and also pictured here.

Wrapped in a space-frame chassis with a total weight of just 1260kg and riding on 19-inch alloys attached to double-wishbone suspension all round, the racy mid-engined rear-drive coupe was claimed to hit 100km/h in just 4.7 seconds.

Like the RM15, we presume the i30 N hot hatch's engine will be a 2.0-litre turbo four rather than the 1.6-litre direct-injected and turbocharged unit currently powering the Veloster SR Turbo and Kia pro_cee'd GT, as has been suggested in other quarters.

But we understand the N-brand i30 will be offered in two levels of performance, a little like the Evo and Ralliart versions of Mitsubishi's Lancer. At the lower level, the i30 N may be powered by a tweaked version of the 1.6 turbo engine offering up to 180kW. On the grapevine, this model is expected to be front-wheel drive.

In Europe the i30 Turbo is already available with the 150kW 1.6-litre turbo engine under the bonnet, and there are three-door variants in the range as well, so the 130N 'warm hatch' will be more potent than them. What we'll see in Australia – in a new-generation i30 from Korea furthermore – is anyone's guess.

The most powerful version of Australia's current i30 -- which was the nation's top-selling car last month for the first time, following the release of a facelifted model in April, just over three years after the current generation arrived Down Under -- is the 129kW 2.0-litre i30 SR

Nandan told Autocar that the N brand vehicles will bridge the gap between Hyundai's rally cars and its road cars. The road cars are widely perceived to need a bit of associated pizzazz. Nandan also admitted that the i30 N's suspension would be beefed up for better dynamic ability and the engine would be a turbocharged belter benefiting from Hyundai's WRC technology.

Head of Hyundai in Europe, Thomas A Schmid, was quoted by Autocar as saying that the N brand has to be "credible in the marketplace straight away."

That is what appears to be driving Hyundai's operational structure for the development of the N-branded vehicles – with the WRC team providing plenty of input.

"We are quite well connected because we exchange information and data," Schmid said. "From our [WRC] side, we get help with calculations, and engineers from R&D look at what we are doing and which way we do it. It's more technical co-operation."

After the i30 N, Hyundai is expected to produce a hard-charging i20 N, but since Hyundai Australia sources our i20 from India, it's not by any means certain that the European-built i20 N will reach us... but nor can the possibility be completely discounted.