Hyundai has been caught testing a heavily camouflaged Veloster Turbo and i40 Wagon at the Nürburgring in Germany. Watch the video.
LAST YEAR (2013) Hyundai opened its European Test Centre at the Nürburgring in Germany following in the footsteps of other car makers (like Jaguar) determined to have a presence at the track to hone the ride and handling of their vehicles. In a statement issued last September, Hyundai said it would conduct accelerated durability tests at the circuit, which involves each vehicle being tested lapping the Nürburgring 480 times in both wet and dry conditions, simulating around 160,000km of driving in less than six weeks.
Allan Rushforth, Senior Vice President and COO of Hyundai Motor Europe said at the time: “The Nürburgring is a unique challenge for any vehicle, so it is the perfect location for our new facility. The new European Test Centre is a natural extension of our Technical Centre in Rüsselsheim, and enables Hyundai Motor to more quickly and more accurately test the reliability and drivability of our vehicles. The emotional appeal of being ‘tested at Nürburgring’ will also help to further build the brand’s reputation across Europe.”
Well, website World Car Fans has caught Hyundai conducting its accelerated durability testing on a heavily camouflaged (mid-life update) Hyundai Veloster Turbo and i40 Wagon. Details are very thin on the ground and both vehicles are heavily camouflaged but you can see the front bumpers and headlights look they’ll come in for some surgery.
It’s not known whether Hyundai will simply carry over the engines from the current variants (most likely) with some minor tweaking of the exhaust and ECU to squeeze out a little more grunt for both the Veloster Turbo and i40 Wagon. It’s most likely though that Hyundai is working on suspension and possibly steering tune of its electric power assist system.
The face-lifted 2015 Veloster Turbo is expected sometime in the first half of the new year (2015). It’s likely the non-turbo Veloster will see similar improvements.
