Hyundai’s hot Ioniq 5 N is set to race in South Korea later this month.
Over the weekend, Hyundai revealed a more extreme racing version of its most extreme N car to date. The Ioniq 5 N eN1 Cup aims to tackle a new racing series at Inje Speedium circuit on April 27. This upcoming season adds an EV series to the existing N1 class at Hyundai’s N Festival. Drivers taking part in the series will be under open regulations, allowing teams to bring their chosen tire to the mix, while the format of the competition itself will vary. The event will start off with practice during the opening round of the Hyundai N Festival, followed by 10 races in the fifth round. The actual racing will include one-on-one knockout races mixed with traditional sprint races, allowing the automaker to test different EV racing methods.
To create an even hotter version of their Ioniq 5 N electric crossover, Hyundai took the standard car, gave it a comprehensive makeover and put it on a crash diet. The front fascia is entirely different from the normal car, with a large front lip and dive planes to aid in creating downforce. The eN1 also gets enormous fender flares, air-guiding side skirts and a huge rear wing out back.
In terms of raw power, the racer actually doesn’t get any more power. The dual motors still produce 641 combined horsepower, while the car also gets an 84.0-kWh battery pack. What has changed is the curb weight: By stripping the interior down to a single bucket race seat, swapping the glass windows for polycarbonate and swapping the hood for fiberglass-reinforced plastic (FRP), as well as fitting smaller 18-inch wheels instead of the heavy 21-inch units, the Cup car weighs in around 4,350 pounds. That’s about 600 pounds less than the standard car, so the eN1 should be even more brisk than the Ioniq 5 N’s already-quick 3.1 second 0-60 suggests. The eN1 also gets two-way adaptive dampers and a high-voltage shutoff device (which you’d want in a racing application).
Interestingly, the race car actually keeps the N e-shift feature, simulating an 8-speed dual-clutch transmission. It also gets N Grin Boost for extra additional power in short bursts.
Stay tuned in the next few weeks to catch the results from the racing-spec Ioniq 5 N’s first outing.
