Although we have seen many powerful electric cars, such as Rimac's supercars and powerful sedans and crossovers from Tesla, we have not seen a lot of custom electric cars. Or at least electric cars adjusted for more performance in the traditional sense of the word for more speed and dexterity. Engineers at Hyundai finally give us a peak in the future of tuning and hot roding with their upgraded Hyundai Ioniq Electric 2017, which this year participates in the Optima Ultimate Street Car series.
It is visually much more striking than the average Ioniq, thanks to a daring color scheme, but also screwed mudguards and Volk TE37SL wheels wrapped in thick 275 mm wide tires. More importantly, there are major changes under the skin. The standard 118 hp engine of the Ioniq Electric, a 218-pound-foot engine has been swapped for the new Kona Electric's engine, which delivers 201 hp and 291 pound-foot torque. Although that is less than the Veloster N that races this year, it is more torque than the same hot part.
Power still goes to the front wheels, but now there is a limited slip differential at the front to prevent the inner wheel from letting its band roost in corners. Interestingly, the only mentioned suspension modification is firmer lowering springs, so presumably the torsion beam rear suspension of the regular Ioniq Electric is still used. Beef-like six-piston Wilwood brakes front and four-piston units in the rear help the car to come to a halt much faster. The cooling systems for the electronics and the battery pack have also been upgraded. It all sounds like a stunner to drive.
The company uses this for research and development purposes as to why Hyundai has built this. Perhaps this helps to develop an electric N model. It is also looking to build on its 2017 season when Hyundai was the only brand with a car in the Ultimate Street Car series GTE electric vehicle class. The changes will certainly come in handy this season, because a competitor has had a number of events with a Tesla Model X P100D. The overall rankings show that the picked-up Hyundai is the second in total points, which will probably narrow after the Hyundai heads-up to its third event at Autoclub Speedway this weekend.
The two cars have not been on the same events this year, but both seem to qualify for the last night of invitations that takes place in Las Vegas after the SEMA show. Both cars should have a reasonable chance of winning the whole class and invitational, as each event in the series consists of five parts, including timed sections on a road course, in an autocross and a combined test of acceleration, braking. and slalom. The other two segments are an on-road section and an evaluation of design and engineering, taking into account modifications, and how well the car still works as a street car (so things like, does the air conditioning still work?).
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