The New Generation i20 R5 will make its first public appearance at a rally next month at the 2016 Ypres Rally (June 23-25). Hyundai Motorsport’s first entry into the competitive R5 class will run as a course car during the event, as the Customer Racing department continues with their testing schedule.
The team will take advantage of the famous Belgian event, the fifth round of the European Rally Championship (ERC), to add to their mileage on tarmac. The New Generation i20 R5 has already completed tests on the sealed surface elsewhere in Europe. However, the high speed stages of West Flanders will be a new setting for the car.
The car itself will also be new, with the mechanics at the team’s Alzenau headquarters having prepared a new chassis for the event. The Customer Racing department’s engineers and designers have used the knowledge that they have gained from the previous tests in the building of the car to go to Ypres. As a result, the chassis that will run the stages in front of the fans will be very close in specification to that they will see in the hands of customers when deliveries begin before the end of the year.
Hyundai Motorsport’s main test and development driver Kevin Abbring will continue to work with the team at Ypres, returning to an event that he has competed in four times, twice behind the wheel of an R5 car.
Further testing is planned following the appearance at the Ypres Rally, as the Customer Racing department seek to hand over the best possible car to customers once the car is homologated in the summer.
