Hyundai Motorsport Facility opens in Germany

Hyundai’s new Motorsport facility in Germany

No one can accuse Hyundai of not taking their return to the FIA World Rally Championship in 2014 seriously.

They’re busy preparing an i20 to take on the WRC, starting in Monte Carlo in January 2014, and have now started testing their swift WRC i20 in preparation.

They’ve already recruited some impressive names to join their new Hyundai Motorsport GmbH team including Michel Nandan to head up their WRC efforts who has been joined by Frenchmen Bertrand Vallat and Stephane Girad, Alain Penasse, Ernst Kopp and Stefan Henrich. That’s the ‘backroom’ boys sorted, although Hyundai still hasn’t announced who’s driving for them.

But when they do decide, at least they’ll all have a nice new Motorsport home to work from as Hyundai has opened its new Motorsport Facility in Alzenau, Germany, an 8,200 square metre home for all things Hyundai Motorsport.

It’s a serious statement of intent from Hyundai. Located just 50km away from Hyundai’s Design Centre at Russelsheim and just up the road from Hyundai’s new Nurburgring facility, which fully opens later in the year, it gives Hyundai a strong base to develop performance cars.

Hyundai rolled out a few big-wigs for the opening, stating their intention to use their Motorsport activities to capture the DNA of Motorsport for their road cars and to act as a platform for Hyundai branding.

Hyundai VP and COO, Tak Uk Im. said:

This is a historic day for Hyundai Motor Company. Not only are we celebrating the opening of the new home of Hyundai Motorsport, but also demonstrating our commitment to improving the performance of all of our cars.

So, lots of bold promises for sporty Hyundais to come off the back of Hyundai’s Motorsport odyssey (and its Nurburgring test centre).

Let’s hope it’s for real.

By Cars UK