Hyundai’s US division has unwrapped the turbocharged Elantra Sport – a car that will be sold here in Australia (with some tweaks) later this year as the Elantra SR.
The Elantra Sport is visually differentiated from its more cooking brethren thanks to side skirts, a deeper front valance with more gaping openings plus LEDs running across the top and side attached to chrome blades. The front grille is a sporty black and connects with the projector-beam headlights. Around the back, it cops a new rear valance and dual chrome exhaust tips.
Inside, the Sport gets red stitching as well as red highlights on the steering wheel, plus carbon-fibre-appearance highlights on the seatbacks and dash.
As expected, the Elantra Sport is propelled by the Veloster SR Turbo’s 1.6-litre turbo engine, producing 150kW and 265Nm. This is connected to a six-speed manual or seven-speed dual-clutch auto with paddle shifters as per the Veloster.
The Australian version could feature some visual tweaks and will no doubt feature heavy input from Hyundai Australia’s local chassis tuners who have made a profound impact on the way Australian-delivered models are calibrated and drive.
This is the first in a spate of new performance Hyundais, but the real fun starts with the N-series cars coming soon – the first of which will be based on the next-gen i30 which debuts in September at the Paris Motor Show.
