Hyundai’s mid-engine hot hatch concept, the RM15, debuts at Seoul

How can you tell an enthusiast from a hot hatch fan? Don’t worry they’ll definitely tell you, just like I’m about to. There is something about a power coming in a compact avatar that just hits the right spot. The sheer compatibility, the everyday usability, and the capability to thrill, all these are what hot hatches stand for. Traditionally, as we can see in international market, hot hatches are front-engined, front-wheel driven (the Renaultsport Megane 275 Trophy R, SEAT Leon Cupra 280), or come with a four-wheel drive set-up (VW Golf R, Ford Focus RS).

Every enthusiast will tell you the merits of a mid-engined car, they’ll talk about weight distribution, the higher feasibility of having rear wheel drive without increasing weight, the lower centre of gravity, and in general, how much all of this will aid in the car’s handling. The only manufacturers to actually try a mid-engine hot hatch are Renault with the Renaultsport Clio V6 and Volkswagen’s Golf GTI W12–650 concept. Hyundai’s Veloster is already quite a capable hatch, rivaling the likes of the VW Golf hot hatch and Ford’s Focus ST. The Korean manufacturer recently showcased the RM15 concept in South Korea at the Seoul Motor Show, the RM15 badge translating to Racing Midship 2015, which follows its nomenclature to the letter. This concept is based on last year’s Veloster RM concept and features plenty of nifty technology and is made around an aluminium spaceframe which gets carbon fibre bodywork.

Dressed in livery that is similar to Hyundai’s current i20 World Rally Championship car, to promote Hyundai’s creatively named ’N’ performance division, the car is much lighter (195kg) than the steel made standard Velsoter. The 1260kg kerb weight is biased towards the rear with a 43:57 split ratio, while the RM15’s centre of gravity is just 491mm (less than half a metre) above the ground. As I had mentioned above, this is in part thanks to the mid-engined layout. Further aiding its cornering ability is the new aero on the car that provides about 24kg of downforce at 200kmph.

At the heart of this hot hatch concept is the Theta four-pot, direct-injection, 2.0-litre T-GDI turbocharged petrol engine that makes 296bhp at 6000rpm and 383Nm at 2000rpm, and delivers power to the rear wheels via a six-speed manual. The light weight combined with the 296bhp motor (a power-to-weight ratio of 234.9bhp/ton), make for a claimed 0–100kmph run in just 4.7 seconds.

Hyundai has confirmed that this track-ready mid-engine hot hatch is just a showcar, which means that a production model won’t be rolling out of the Korean manufacturer’s assembly line any time soon. They have promised ‘other exciting prototype projects in the near future’, though how I wish they would just make a production-spec model, even if the probability of it coming to India is less than zero.

Specification

BodystyleTwo-door, two-seater, mid-engined high-performance sportscarLength4220mmWidth 1865mmHeight1340mmWheelbase 2650mmEngineTheta 2.0 T-GDI turbocharged petrol direct injectionTransmissionSix-speed manualPower296bhp @ 6000rpmTorque383Nm @ 2000rpm0–100kmph4.7secWeight1260kg