NEW GENERATION i20 R5 SET FOR PUBLIC DEBUT AT YPRES RALLY
ERC A FULL 2016
New Generation i20 R5 set for public debut at Ypres Rally.
The New Generation i20 R5 will run as a course car during the Ypres Rally, the fifth round of the European Rally Championship, next month
Hyundai Motorsport’s Customer Racing department will attend the rally in the final stages of development for the New Generation i20 R5
The car that will be seen on the stages and in the Service Park will be very close to the final specification that will be delivered to customers.
30 May, 2016
Alzenau, Germany
May 30, 2016 – The New Generation i20 R5 will make its first public appearance at a rally next month at the 2016 Ypres Rally (June 23-25). Hyundai Motorsport’s first entry into the competitive R5 class will run as a course car during the event, as the Customer Racing department continues with their testing schedule.
The team will take advantage of the famous Belgian event, the fifth round of the European Rally Championship (ERC), to add to their mileage on tarmac. The New Generation i20 R5 has already completed tests on the sealed surface elsewhere in Europe. However, the high speed stages of West Flanders will be a new setting for the car.
The car itself will also be new, with the mechanics at the team’s Alzenau headquarters having prepared a new chassis for the event. The Customer Racing department’s engineers and designers have used the knowledge that they have gained from the previous tests in the building of the car to go to Ypres. As a result, the chassis that will run the stages in front of the fans will be very close in specification to that they will see in the hands of customers when deliveries begin before the end of the year.
The New Generation i20 R5 will carry a fresh livery for the event. The car will swap the camouflage scheme seen on previous tests for a design by a Hyundai Motorsport fan from New Zealand, which was chosen from the entries submitted for the competition earlier in May.
Hyundai Motorsport’s main test and development driver Kevin Abbring will continue to work with the team at Ypres, returning to an event that he has competed in four times, twice behind the wheel of an R5 car.
Fans will be able to see Abbring, and co-driver Seb Marshall, on the stages throughout the event. There will also be the opportunity to get a closer look at the car in the Service Park in the centre of Ypres.
Customer Racing department manager Andrea Adamo said: “The Ypres Rally is a pivotal weekend in the New Generation i20 R5 project. The rally is the perfect place for the car to make its public debut. The ERC is a key championship for R5 teams, where we obviously hope our customers will be competing in future. It’s a big event in the championship, it’s a famous one with some great history in an area where people are very knowledgeable about rally. Our time in Ypres, though, remains as much about continuing with our test schedule as it is showing the car at an event. The flat, high speed roads of the rally are quite different from the tarmac tests we have done in recent months. This continues our work to have run the car on various types of stage in order to thoroughly prepare the car. However, we cannot ignore how important this event will be as we will be proudly running in front of fans, the media and our future customers for the first time.”
Further testing is planned following the appearance at the Ypres Rally, as the Customer Racing department seek to hand over the best possible car to customers once the car is homologated in the summer.
-Ends-
About Hyundai Motorsport GmbH
Established on 19 December 2012, Hyundai Motorsport GmbH is responsible for Hyundai’s global motorsport activities and primarily for its World Rally Championship programme. Based in Alzenau on the outskirts of Frankfurt in Germany, the company embarked on its debut season in the FIA World Rally Championship in 2014 with a bespoke team of skilled staff and a brand new car, the Hyundai i20 WRC. The team made a strong impression in its first year claiming podium results in Mexico and Poland, as well as a memorable 1-2 in Germany. In its second season, the team was involved in a closely fought battle for second place in the Manufacturers’ Championship, adding more podiums and stage wins to its tally. For its third season in WRC, Hyundai Motorsport has developed a brand new car, the New Generation i20 WRC, which made its rally debut with a podium finish in Rallye Monte-Carlo in January 2016. The team registered its first win with the new car in Rally Argentina, the fourth round of the season.
Further information about Hyundai Motorsport is available at: http://motorsport.hyundai.com
About Hyundai Motor
Established in 1967, Hyundai Motor Company is committed to becoming a lifetime partner in automobiles and beyond. The company, which leads the Hyundai Motor Group, an innovative business structure capable of circulating resources from molten iron to finished cars, offers top-quality best-sellers such as Elantra, Sonata and Genesis. Hyundai Motor has eight manufacturing bases and seven design & technical centers worldwide and in 2015, sold 4.96 million vehicles globally. With more than 100,000 employees worldwide, Hyundai Motor continues to enhance its product line-up with localized models and strives to strengthen its leadership in clean technology, starting with the world’s first mass-produced hydrogen-powered vehicle, ix35 Fuel Cell.
More information about Hyundai Motor and its products can be found at: http://worldwide.hyundai.com or http://globalpr.hyundai.com/
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