This is Hyundai’s new harder, faster WRC car

By topgear ,

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Hyundai has taken full advantage of next year’s new World Rally Championship regulations with this, the new harder, faster and wider i20 rally car. And, as you can see, it’s wearing odd socks.

The Koreans are the first WRC team to show their hand as to what they’ll be hitting the stages around the globe within the newly-rebooted championship next year.

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Yep, in case you’ve forgotten, there’s a completely new rallying rulebook for 2017 to try and inject some excitement back into the stale series.

The new regs offer teams greater aero freedom: the front bumper overhang can be increased by up to 60mm, while cars can be 55mm wider with more aero ahead of the front wheels than before while the rear can be increased by 30mm. The door sills can also be bigger. And the whole car 25kg lighter. But the best bit? The rear wing can be dramatically increased in size over 2016’s crop of WRC cars.

As you can see from the new i20, this produces a more purposeful and wingier rally car. The sheer surface area of the front and rear aero means it’ll play a more pivotal role than ever at getting the cars down the stage as quickly as possible. For instance, the 2017 i20 should see its stage times cut by a whole second per kilometre compared to last year’s car.

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The new rules aren’t just limited to aero changes either. As engines have been allowed to breathe a bit more, we get more power. All racers will use the same 1.6-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engines as per 2016 regulations, but, thanks to an increase in the turbo restrictor width from 33mm to 36mm, power in the i20 jumps from 330bhp to 376bhp.

All this power is fed to all four wheels through a six-speed paddle-shift sequential ‘box. For 2017, drivers can now adjust the percentage of torque sent to the front and rear using a new active central differential which will make set up more interesting and should see corner speeds increase.

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The people with the job of piloting them hasn’t changed. Next year three i20s will enter the WRC with Thierry Neuville, Hayden Paddon and Dani Sordo behind the wheel and Nicolas Gilsoul, John Kennard and Marc Martí in the right-hand seat barking orders at them.

Now we just have to see what Toyota will bring to the party for their reintroduction into the championship. And now we’ve seen a proper 2017 car, what do you think of the look?