SPY PICS: Hyundai Kona N running rings

Our spy photographers in Germany have captured images of the upcoming Hyundai Kona N lapping the Nurburgring, piloted by a helmet and glove-wearing driver.

And they weren’t mucking around, as you can see by the cocked rear wheel, tyre-tuck on the outside wheels and even a front wheel that’s almost off the tarmac at one point.

Cloaked heavily in camouflage, the Hyundai Kona prototype clearly wears a number of upgrades from the Korean brand’s N performance division, including red brake callipers, low-slung suspension, plenty of air-flow cut-outs in the camo and what appears to be a large rear spoiler hidden beneath cladding.

There are also two large exhaust outlets at the rear, in the same configuration and maybe even same size as seen on the Hyundai i30 N hot hatch.

As we’ve previously reported, the Hyundai Kona N will almost certainly be powered by the same 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine as the i30 N and i30 Fastback N, both of which produce 202kW of power, 353Nm of torque and can hit 100km/h in 6.4 seconds.

The only question is whether the small performance SUV will carry over the same front-wheel drive configuration and the same electronic front differential as those hot hatches, or if it will come with the all-wheel drive layout available in other Kona models.

Oh, and whether the Kona N will be available with six-speed manual gearbox or only a seven-speed (or new eight-speed) dual-clutch automatic transmission.

Either way, when it arrives, Hyundai’s next N model will bring to 11 the number of Kona variants available in Australia, including Go, Active, Elite and Highlander variants in both 2WD, AWD and EV guises, spanning $24,300 to $64,640.