Hyundai have been doing an excellent job of pushing the performance aspect of their cars together with some very helping hands from the lethal father and son combo of the Millens, Rod and Rhys.<b></b><b></b><b></b><b></b><b></b><b></b><b></b><b></b><b></b><b></b><b></b><b></b><b></b><b></b><b></b><b></b><b></b><b></b><b></b><b></b>
After the Hyundai Genesis Coupe that was done up for some ultra- competitive drifting in the Formula Drift series, Rhys Millen has picked out his latest Hyundai hammer for duty on gravel, the all-new Veloster hatch.
The process of transforming the Veloster into a rally racer begun by stripping it down to nothing but the bare shell which was then soaked in alkalai for five days before the welding was reinforced and additional spot welding added.
All the body panels were then replaced by carbon/Kevlar pieces that dropped the shell’s weight down to 1,205kg. The interior was then fitted with a custom eight-point welded roll-cage with extra bracings, a firewall and Sparco bucket seat for the driver.
The suspension compromises of Proflex jumbo coilovers that will enable this Veloster more than generous suspension travel on the gravels urfaces of the US Rallycross Championship that Millen will contest in this car. Fitted at all four corners are 18-inch HRE wheels that hide 14-inch Alcon rotors at the front and 12-inch rotors at the aft clamped by six-piston calipers all around.
Power is the real gen in this package, with 500hp and 813Nm of torque on tap from the 2-liter, four-banger Hyundai engine with a HKS ball-bearing turbo bolted on. All that power reaches all four wheels through the X-Trac permanent all-wheel drive system and is controlled by the X-Trac six-speed sequential transmission.
Rhys will be piloting this machine in the 2011 US Rallycross Championship and will be sharing it Robbie Maddison at the Summer X-Games. There is already a second car in the works that will be driven by Maddison and rally driver Marcus Dodd in the US Rallycross Championship. Hyundai will also be getting some celebrity drivers to have some time behind the wheel of the Veloster and for that, a third front-drive car will be constructed.
<iframe title="YouTube video player" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/zdPK9sncPwo" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="390" width="640"></iframe>
Source: Autoblog and YouTube
