Some time or another soon, we anticipate that a Hyundai item will top its class without exchanging on “awesome esteem” as its essential trait. We’re nearer than any time in recent memory to that day. Touting a multilink raise suspension instead of its ancestor’s torsion-pillar pivot, a more pleasant inside, and a more strong appearance that misrepresents a hidden get-healthy plan, the second-age 2019 Hyundai Veloster Turbo R-Spec performs well, yet despite everything it substitutes a lower cost for the better charms that put the Honda Civic Si and the Volkswagen Golf GTI on our 2018 10Best Cars list.
Its uneven three-entryway design and hyena-like position declare the Veloster’s part as a sportier car like variation of the customary Elantra GT hatchback, undifferentiated from the way the late VW Scirocco remained in connection to the Golf. For the model’s sophomore trip, Hyundai has upgraded the outline with a more toothsome face and strong backside while additionally making it somewhat more useful by growing payload volume from 16 cubic feet to 20, eight more than you’ll discover in a Civic Si car. It’s a slick piece of bundling, considering the wheelbase hasn’t changed and the auto is really a shade shorter than the first, while its rooftop looks all the more steeply raked, giving the feeling that the Veloster is continually going tough.
Upward is additionally where the inside architects were engaged, utilizing better evaluations of plastic and texture in the pleasantly completed lodge. Shaded inflections on the dash, controlling wheel, and seat sewing make things impressively more fascinating to take a gander at than in the Elantra GT.
The Veloster Turbo shares its new back suspension and extend 201-hp turbocharged 1.6-liter inline-four with the Elantra GT Sport. This suspension enhances the first with more refined taking care of and a smoother ride, even with the Turbo’s stiffer hostile to move bars and dampers. Aluminum suspension parts decrease unsprung mass and add to this auto measuring 39 pounds not as much as the lightest first-gen Veloster we tried, a 2016 Rally Edition, and 212 pounds not as much as the Elantra GT Sport. The setup makes great utilization of the Michelin Pilot Sport 4 tires, genuine execution elastic that is standard on this driver-centered R-Spec trim (and on the manual-transmission Turbo Ultimate). Like the Si, the R-Spec comes just with a six-speed manual gearbox, additionally imparted to the Elantra, and it’s upgraded with a standard B&M short-toss shifter (a choice on different Hyundais utilizing this gearbox).
Weight-paring and sticky elastic help this R-Spec hurry to 60 mph in 6.2 seconds, while the ’16 required 6.7 with the same powertrain. Much obliged in vast part to the Michelins, skidpad grasp hops to 0.95 g from 0.85, and preventing from 70 mph takes just 151 feet versus 173. The Veloster R-Spec plays in an association with the 205-hp Civic Si roadster (6.3 seconds to 60 mph, 0.97 g, and 159 feet) and the 220-hp GTI (5.7 seconds, 0.95 g, 161 feet). The 268-hp Subaru WRX is the class speedster with a zippy 5.5-second run to 60 mph (we’ve even observed 5.0 in before illustrations), however the all-wheel-drive Subie is amidst the pack in roadholding and braking.
The Veloster’s bundling makes it somewhat littler than those three in the traveler compartment, a reasonable exchange off for being lighter. The Hyundai is greater than the Ford Fiesta ST, which has an all the more specifically tantamount 197-hp turbocharged 1.6-liter four however is vanishing from the U.S. showcase after 2018. For the record, the latest ST we tried took 6.9 seconds to hit 60 mph, created 0.93 g, and halted in 166 feet.
Track numbers won’t disclose to you that the Veloster’s directing needs on-focus accuracy even in its heftier Sport driving mode, which should be the single setting, regardless it needs for feel through the electrically helped framework that mounts its engine on the segment. Designers have given their lighter auto a stiffer skeleton, which everything except eradicates the body flex that tormented the first when squeezing hard on curving streets. Once unbalanced, the guiding is more unsurprising and predictable than previously—however being better doesn’t equivalent “best.”
Indeed, even in R-Spec trim, the Veloster isn’t particularly anxious to turn in or to pivot, in spite of the help of brake-incited torque vectoring. Our tester refered to the auto’s great at-the-limits adjust on the skidpad, however that applies simply after rates get scarily quick out and about; at saner speeds, the auto’s tail remains fearlessly stuck, and you can’t generally modify your cornering line with lift-throttle or braking traps. This puppy won’t sway its tail and simply isn’t as fun loving as its toylike appearance recommends, a drawback of the present uber grippy tires.
The Sport mode catch on the reassure simply ahead and to one side of the shifter additionally modifies the fumes note and, in Veloster Turbos outfitted with the seven-speed double grip programmed, the move programming. That last doesn’t matter to the manual-just R-Spec, however, so having a mode catch at all truly appears to be unnecessary. The fumes note is sufficiently forceful for most in the standard setting, especially since this motor isn’t especially characterful, and even the sound framework’s opened up rendition appears to include commotion without musicality. The motor is bounty adaptable, with plentiful low-run torque so you needn’t change gears regularly, even in overwhelming rush hour gridlock, however neither does it remunerate twisting it out to the 6750-rpm redline. The short-toss shifter feels sportier than the Elantra’s (which helps us to remember Grandma’s Plymouths), yet it slips into each entryway with a marginally muddier sensation than the fresh commitment you get in the Honda.
The R-Spec comes one route, loaded down with standard gear for $23,785. The Honda opens at $24,995, the VW at $27,265, and the Subaru at $27,885. The value holes can develop when you prepare focused autos as completely as the Hyundai. (Indeed, even the little Fiesta ST, which begins at $22,160, cost $25,775 in its latest as-tried frame.)
The nuts and bolts here are so near being on point that we’re anticipating the up and coming 275-hp Veloster N, which will have amenities, for example, versatile damping and different driving modes. Hopefully the new N execution division looks past the number behind the dollar sign to get the majority of its wholes right.
