Hyundai was not involved in rallying for many years, but in 1991 Australian Wayne Bell modified a Hyundai Elantra for competitions. Part of the Australian championship was the Australian rally included in the world championship, so it was also the premiere in the world championship. For 1994, Bell moved into the more important APRC championship and took the single-axle drive title in Australia. Thanks to the Australian's initiative, the second generation of the Elantra model has already been homologated for Group A races. Bell won the 1995 Rally Indonesia among two-wheelers with it.
A new type of Hyundai Coupé Kit Car was homologated for the 1997 season. Instead of the original cooperation with Bell, the automaker decided to cooperate with the British company MSD . It is behind Opel 's participation in rallying in the 1980s ( Ascona and Manta types) and prepared Honda Accord and Peugeot 406 cars for the BTCC championship. Kenneth Eriksson and Alister McRae became the team drivers for 1998. The team worked hard to eliminate all the shortcomings and soon the second evolution of the racing car was born. But the Coupé Kit Car was never enough for competing cars on asphalt. Improvements to the engine, transmission did not help. At the end of the millennium, main competitors Seat , Skoda and Peugeot moved into the WRC category, but even then the Hyundai team failed to win the title.
At that time, the development of a car for the WRC class was already in full swing. The new Accent model was chosen as the basis. The two-liter newly turbocharged Garett was first tested in the American championship, where Paul Choiniere became the champion with the Hyundai Tiburon . However, the Accent WRC project was delayed, the three-door version was presented later and the MSD team had to also ensure the starts of cars in the Kit Car class. The first start was the Swedish Rally in 2000. However, the cars were initially troubled by a number of technical problems. Still, the team took fourth place in New Zealand. The team won the same position a year later at the British rally. Hyundai scored points as did Skoda Motorsport , but neither team's car got a podium finish, which decided in Skoda's favor. A second evolution with modified aerodynamics and increased engine power was presented in Portugal. At the 2002 Corsica Rally, the third and final evolution was presented, which was lighter and more powerful. Armin Schwarz , Freddy Loix and Juha Kankkunen appeared behind the wheel of the cars. The maximum was fifth position in New Zealand, but the team took fourth place overall, beating Skoda and Mitsubishi by a single point. However, for 2003 the team had much less money from the parent car company and lost sponsorship from Castrol , for example car testing was significantly reduced. Schwarz's best result was seventh place in Cyprus. The team didn't even finish the season and the Australian Rally was for a long time the last competition for Hyundai cars in the World Championship.
The return took place only this year, when Hyundai introduced a new type of i20 N WRC for competitions. This time the team is fully under the control of the car company and is based in Alzenau , Germany. For the first season, the team hired the Belgian Thierry Neuville , who finished in second place last year, as the number one. He repaid the team by winning the German rally . The other riders are Dani Sordo (second multiple champion in 2008 and 2009), Juho Hänninen (2011 SWRC World Champion, 2010 IRC Champion, 2012 European Champion), Chris Atkinson (2012 APRC Champion) and Hayden Paddon (2011 PWRC World Champion). A great result in Germany was underlined by Sordo's second place, Neuville also has two bronze medals from Mexico and Poland. We will see how the team will do, but the results so far mean much more promise for the future than the previous performance.
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