Hyundai brought the whole dog and pony show to Pikes Peak this June: four cars, a World Rally star, last-minute fill-in Randy Pobst, a full crew and a giant, diesel-powered, portable charger setup.
All for less than 10 minutes of racing.
“First of all, it’s very renowned,” Till Wartenberg, head of the N Brand and Motorsport, says about the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb and why Hyundai remains involved. “People talk about it. We wanted to do something for the American market as well.”
And then, he adds, you have to look at all the factors in the brand’s favor: “Can you showcase your technology? Can you do something new? Have you been there, do we have a history? What can we take from it?”
In Hyundai’s case, this year’s race–officially called the Broadmoor Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, brought to you by Gran Turismo–was a place to show off the brand’s new Ioniq 5 N in a rather severe-duty setting: a 12.42-mile course that ends 14,115 feet above sea level, all surrounded by fresh–and thin–Colorado air.
[Live Thread: 2024 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb]
Hyundai first ran Pikes Peak back in 1992, with Rod Millen winning the 2-Wheel Drive Showroom Stock division in a Scoupe. Since then, the brand has regularly fielded entries: rally cars, time attack cars, single-seater prototypes. Hyundai has finished first overall, too.
As Wartenberg explains, though, this year’s Ioniq 5 N program came together rather quickly–in less than 12 months. “The Koreans are very fast,” he notes. Also helping the accelerated pace: a very good relationship with Bryan Herta Autosport, the brand’s partner in IMSA and other motorsports endeavors.
Four cars were entered: two very stock aside from minor upgrades centered around safety and two other modified, TA Spec examples. The latter two add upgraded dampers, motorsports-spec brakes, big aero and Yokohama slicks. Hyundai says software tuning upped the output of the rear motor by 37 horsepower, raising the total to 678.
[Ioniq 5 N TA Spec: The electric Hyundai built to conquer Pikes Peak]
“We are very proud that it is a production-level EV car,” Wartenberg notes. “So whatever you see racing on Sunday and in our testing, the next day you can go to the dealer showroom and buy that car and drive it yourself.”
The street car, like the race car, is fun, he stresses. And despite the latest Hyundai performance EVs, he…
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