Hyundai’s mid-engined supercar dreams are dead

It’s official – the firm will no longer build a mid-engined supercar to spearhead the N division, writes Nile Bijoux.

Hyundai’s will-they-won’t they supercar has finally had its fate decided – and those holding out hope will be disappointed.

According to Top Gear, Hyundai was planning to launch the N division with a full-on, mid-engined supercar to rival Honda’s NSX.

The British magazine spoke to N’s former boss, Albert Biermann, who confirmed the car was in development under the name ‘‘The Chairman’s Car’’.

He even went into detail about what the car would have used – a carbon-fibre tub with a ‘‘petrol [engine] with or without hybrid, or [it could’ve had accepted] a hydrogen fuel cell’’.

Unfortunately for us, the car remained on the drawing board.

‘‘The problem was the car would have cost over US$150,000, and at that time it was thought a Hyundai could not have this price,’’ Biermann said. Probably the right decision, too, considering the abrasion Hyundai sometimes receives for its pricing these days.

Even so, it’s hard not to imagine what a Hyundai supercar would have been like. The N division’s current products are brilliant, so a proper no-holds-barred offering would surely be incredible.

We’ve already seen glimpses of such a car in the RM series of concepts, not to mention the recent and gorgeous N Vision 74.

Would you pay the equivalent of about NZ$250,000 for it, though, considering that’s into Porsche 911 money?