Paris 2016: Hyundai Motorsport previews the i20 WRC

Hyundai Motorsport has unveiled its 2017 World Rally Championship (WRC) challenger that is set to make its debut at the next season of the FIA World Rally Championship.

The brand new 2017 i20 WRC has gone under extensive testing across Europe and under a variety of conditions since April 2016 with a goal of getting the team on the podium next season.

Based on its three-door sibling, the 2017 i20 WRC was developed with the WRC’s 2017 technical regulations in mind. This has allowed designers to give it greater aerodynamic freedom.

Hyundai Motorsports plans to finish the year off with continued testing of the car to prepare it for its debut at the Rallye Monte-Carlo in January.

The new WRC regulations for 2017 offers teams more power with an increase to 385 PS, more downforce, Electronic Active central differential plus an increase in width and length of the cars.

Final exterior specifications of the vehicle will be revealed in December as the unit on display with sport temporary livery that is exclusive to the Paris Motor Show.

“The 2017 WRC regulations have allowed all teams to start from a blank page, which has offered us an exciting engineering challenge. The changes will raise the level of entertainment in WRC on stages around the world with wider and more powerful cars. We have been putting our experience from two full seasons of WRC into practice, as we aim to build on our successful 2016 campaign. The 2017 car started testing in April with initial work centred on engine and powertrain testing. More recently, we have looked at suspension, differential and aero. There will be some small evolutions on both chassis and engine later this year. We look forward to revealing the final version of our 2017 car later this year,” said Team Principal Michel Nandan.