Hot hatch concept reminds us that fast Hyundais are coming

Hyundai wants you to remember its ‘N’ performance arm exists, so at this month’s Busan International Motor Show in South Korea, it revealed this: the RM16.

RM stands for ‘Racing Midship’ after Project RM, which kicked off in 2012 with the aim of testing and refining “high-performance technologies” for use in future Hyundai road cars. The ‘N’ sub-brand followed in September 2015.

The 16 comes after the RM14, RM15 and insane N 2025 Vision Gran Turismo Concept from the Frankfurt Motor Show. It has a mid-mounted 2.0-litre four, which drives the rear wheels through a six-speed manual gearbox and electronic limited-slip diff’. An electric supercharger and special variable exhaust mean it makes around 300bhp, which is plenty. The body is carbon-fibre reinforced plastic draped over an aluminium space frame.

Hyundai says RM cars act as kind-of rolling test-beds for its forthcoming N cars. Does this mean it’s giving us mid-engined hot-hatches a la Renault Clio V6? Unlikely, but we can dream.

{gallery}HyundaiRM16Concept{/gallery}