Australian-tuned suspension

Australia is the world’s biggest market for the Hyundai i30 and that’s due in part because the local outfit has been allowed to tune the suspension to suit our mixed variety roads. During five months of testing in Australia and Korea, Hyundai’s local chassis development team worked through 208 different damper setting for the front and rear, seven different anti-roll bar combinations and 13 sprint set combinations. According to Hyundai, the work it had already done tuning the Elantra SR Turbo (Practical Motoring rode shotgun on one of the test runs, read about it here) helped prepare it for the i30.

More than just tuned suspension, the i30 also copped tweaks to its steering with the local team turning down the electric assistance. A faster rack offering 2.57 turns lock-to-lock makes it a sportier drive.

Hyundai Australia’s Senior Product Planning Manager, Andrew Tuitahi said: “The biggest thing we always push for during this process is to deliver a car that is fun to drive, a car the driver can balance nicely, whether that’s through the steering wheel or through the pedals. So a lot of the parts choices we make in terms of springs rates, stabiliser bar rates and the rest are all designed around giving the driver engagement and connection with the car.

“From my point of view the new i30’s chassis addresses many of the weaknesses that we identified in tuning the previous generation Elantra and i30,” Andrew Tuitahi said. “And the multi-link rear suspension gives us a whole new level of control which helps us take our development work on the car a step further.